Gone

         I threw on a gray earth t-shirt and some jeans along with my black cowboy boots, and jumped down the stairs for breakfast.  I burst into the kitchen, fully expecting the smell of bacon and eggs to hit me full on, but it didn’t.  Instead the scene around me sent chills down my spine.   The kitchen was in use… well, was in use, before someone decided to randomly get up and leave.  I glanced around the mahogany kitchen, it would seem like a cozy place without all the pots and pans scattered about, the eggs now turning black under the intense heat of the stove and the bacon sizzling beyond believe.  And that wasn’t the worst of it either…

            There on the counter, just randomly sitting there was a blood red rose, but i wasn't worried about that, more like what lay beside it. A note, a little white note.  I walked over to it numbly, picked it up, and opened it.  Nothing.  It was blank.  Not a single word printed, written, or even erased.  I shivered at the familiarity of this message.

            Two years ago I stumbled on almost the exact same scene.  Dad liked to work in the stable with the horses, so every morning me and mom would go outside and bring him his breakfast.  Mom was carrying the slender wooden tray overloaded with toast, coffee, eggs, and, of course, bacon.  While I was opening doors and pasture gates as usual.  When I got to Orion’s stall I stopped dead in my tracks.  The door was opened and Orion’s halter and lead were tied to the door as if he was still there, Dad’s currycomb, a horse's body brush, was lying a few feet away from the abandoned halter, and in the center of the stall was a blank white note and a blood red rose.  There weren’t even signs of a struggle!  However, we did find Orion down the road nibbling on Mrs. Thompson’s garden… sadly, she wasn’t as amused as we were.  Sure, it took us awhile to grow accustom to taking care of the horses like Dad did, but it took us longer to be comfortable in the light of Dad’s absence. 

            Blinking myself out of the daydream I put the note back in its place beside the ominous rose and ran up into my bedroom, grabbing my phone, and my overnight bag I always kept ready, in case my friend, Holly, wanted a last minute sleepover.  I made a U-turn and dashed out the back door, calling 9-1-1 while I approached the stable.  I finished my conversation with the 9-1-1 operator and headed into the large red building.

            I neared Orion’s new stall, passing our two cows and the empty stable that now serves as a memorial for Dad.  The white and black Drum stallion shook his mane and nickered happily as he saw me approach.  I didn’t have time to smile before I felt an eerie shadow loom over the barn, at first I thought I was the only one to feel this, but soon enough Doli and Deni, our two cows, started acting suspicious. They mooed frantically and started butting their heads against their pen lightly.   I watched Orion lift his head and freeze, looking around the stall slightly, his ears and muscles tensed, a horse’s classic ‘fear’ position....