Discombobulate

Chapter Thirty-Three

Denise, swamped with fear, stayed on the floor. Who was the figure? It hadn't been her mom or Jennifer. They would have shown themselves like last time. 

Bang!

Denise sat up to face the sliding door. She held her breath and waited for it to happen again. Seconds ticked by slowly, but it never did. She must have imagined it. 

Bang!

This time it came from the front door. She snapped her head over to look at it. Dupe stood beside her. His tail curled between his legs. His ears were sticking straight up. A loud hiss rumbled from somewhere deep inside of him. 

Denise leaned over and grabbed him. She wanted to protect him, but she also wanted comfort. She wished she was imagining this. This was sleep deprivation psychosis, an auditory hallucination. 

But it wasn't. 

Dupe wouldn't be acting like this. He wouldn't be freaking out. The banging got louder and looped. 

Side sliding door.

Front door.

Side door.

Front door.

Side door.

Front door.

Back and forth, back and forth. One door, then the other, and back again. Never at the same time; one and then the other. 

She tucked Dupe underneath one arm and headed for the kitchen. Her knees threatened to give out again. Her hands hadn't stopped shaking. If she didn't get help soon, one of the doors would break. 

She'd be cornered like an animal and that was the last thing she needed. 

_ _ _ _ 

Sheriff Winston shoved a spoonful of soy sauce soaked rice into his mouth. He brought in a frozen Chinese meal for dinner. He tried to ignore the sodium levels. His doctor would have a fit. Winston's family had a fair share of heart problems. 

His doctor advised him to drink plenty of water, exercise, and keep eating fruits and vegetables. He was to avoid processed food like it was the plague. Yet here he was, eating a frozen container of beef, broccoli, and rice. 

Eight hundred milligrams of sodium and he had added a splash of soy sauce into the mix. Dr. Randy would be fuming. He could see the old man now. His hands balled into fists, his thin lips pressed together, and almost nonexistent.

The thought made him chuckle. 

His cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He put the carton of half-eaten food down and shimmed his cell phone out of his pants. "Hello?" 

"It's Denise, I-I need you to come to my cabin." 

Winston stood up from his chair. A loud bang filled the other end of the line. He jerked the phone away from his ear. He grabbed his car keys from his desk. He'd have to eat his food another time. 

"What's going on?" He asked. "What's that loud banging noise?" 

Denise had to raise her voice for him to hear her. "I don't know! Someone's outside pounding on the doors! You have to hurry!" 

"I'm coming right now. Is there somewhere you can hide?" 

He had a faint idea of what the inside of her cabin looked like. There was the front door and a sliding door off to the side of her living room. The back side of the cabin was a mystery.

"I think the safest place is my bedroom closet. They know I'm in here, I was outside a few minutes ago." 

"Get into the closet and stay on the phone. Don't hang up. I'm turning on my sirens, I'll be there in a few minutes." He jumped into the sheriff's car and lit it up.