Chapter 21: A Case of Murder

Chapter 21: Homicide

Federal State of Calida. Inside a two-story villa.

A five- or six-year-old girl, clutching a teddy bear, curled tightly beneath the bed, gazing nervously at the closed door not far away. She was in her bedroom. The decor was predominantly pink; several cloth dolls sat on the pink bed, and a large dollhouse stood on a circular table in the center. It was unmistakably a little girl’s room.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Footsteps suddenly echoed from downstairs, followed by the mistress’s shrill scream.

"You bastard, you killed my wife!" The master’s angry voice followed. "Get out here! I don't care who you are, I'm going to kill you!"

Thump! Thump! Thump!

More footsteps followed, moving at a rapid pace.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunshots rang out. The master chased the footsteps upstairs, running past the little girl’s door: "Come out! I’m going to kill you!"

Suddenly, a loud crash. The sound traveled from the second floor down to the first. The master seemed to have fallen, letting out a wail of agony.

Hearing this, the little girl was too terrified to make a sound, let alone crawl out from under the bed. She simply hugged her teddy bear tighter, as if that alone could grant her a shred of safety.

"It hurts..."

"Who exactly are you?"

The master seemed to have seen something horrific; his voice shifted from angry and forceful to trembling with terror. "No, don't come any closer, no... AHHH!!!"

After the scream, silence returned. For a long while, there was no sound from outside. Still, the little girl dared not move, even as her body grew stiff, uncomfortable, hungry, and thirsty. Eventually, she fell asleep.

She did not know how much time had passed when she woke up, driven by hunger. There was no sound outside. Whatever had terrified her seemed to have left. The girl rubbed her stomach and was just considering crawling out from under the bed when footsteps sounded outside once more.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The sound stopped at the door. By now, the fuzzy teddy bear had been squeezed flat by the girl. Her eyes were fixed intently on the door, her breathing nearly suspended.

Click!

The locked door was opened and pushed slowly inward. The little girl used one hand to clamp over her own mouth. Looking out through the gap, she saw no one, yet the door continued to move.

The next moment, footsteps echoed inside the room, though there was no one to be seen. The sounds paced back and forth, as if searching for something. At their closest, they were right by the bedside. Finally, the owner of the footsteps seemed not to find what it was looking for; it left the room, pulling the door shut behind it.

The footsteps faded into the distance. Soon, the heavy sound of the front door closing echoed from downstairs.

"Is it gone?" the girl thought. Just as she was about to exhale in relief, she heard a strange noise behind her—like a glass marble dropping onto the floor and rolling.