A sudden screech as if of a dying cat. Anna´s heart jumps to her throat and holds its breath. The doorbell, relax! Breathe, it was only the doorbell.
Well... Exactly, the freaking doorbell! What could be worse?
Anna isn´t moving. Obviously, she cannot open, considering that she shouldn´t be here at all! From where she is standing, she peeks outside, hidden between the curtains and rigid, like an ancient monument of stone.
Two pairs of legs, both of them, in uniform, and one of them nervously treading on the spot.
Keep breathing, silently though! Hush, and they will go away.
Seconds pass and they are still there. A second screech, this time longer, like a last and desperate gasp of life. Is it over now? Bang, bang, firmly and confidently, with urgency. Again and again, bang, bang, bang, bang. Then all of a sudden, a voice.
"Everything okay in there?" A pause during which Anna hears herself gasping, and then louder: "Open the door, this is the police."
She turns around in a shot, hands shaking, and her thoughts are running a marathon.
Did they spot her?
Should she open?
What is she going to say?
On shaking legs and with a racing heart, she stumbles to the door. The fancy metal handle with the flower-decor feels like a dead man´s stone-cold bone in her hand. One more, half deep, tumbling breathe and she slowly opens. She feels sweat on her forehead and forces her eyes to the ground as she pushes the door outwards. Her mouth is open and her shaking lips are about to stutter to explain the unexplainable.
Why is she here?
Who is she?
Who is she to the Murphys, and where are the Murphys gone?
If they were taken, while she was in the house, why did she not hear them fighting?
Why does she not know where they are, even though she knows each and everyone of them better than they know each other?
Anna takes her eyes off the ground. As jumpy as timid robins, her glances meet those of the police woman in front of her, face to face with her, so close that Anna can feel the air exhaled from her oversized nostrils.
Seconds pass in which Anna is only staring at her, the eyes blank and sighing soundlessly, because for some reason she always knew that she would end up here, facing the police, and eventually, lifelong jail time. She has done things to deserve it, no doubt - twisted, messed up, hideous things, even worse than Mr. Murphy´s terrifying secret. But she didn´t have anything to do with the vanishing of the Murphys.
Well, not knowingly. Did she unknowingly, though?
Could her presence in their basement somehow have caused a ripple effect that has erased them from this time and place?
Anna´s thoughts are wild horses that are rearing up and kicking and galopping away towards the sunset on the far horizon, until she can only see their outlines, unable to differ them from each other. Still faced with her soon to be ending future, she swallows once more.
The moment of truth.
She has to say something, the eyes of the police woman in front of her are telling her so.
"I am..."
Unlucky, she thinks and really she hasn´t been lucky much in her life.
But every once in a while, everyone is, so they say. Could today be Anna´s lucky day?