Anabelle

Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump was the only sound she could hear as she sat straight up in bed. "Breathe slow" she told herself, trying to remember what woke her up. As the deafening sound of her heart beat faded she realized a pounding on her front door replaced the sound of her heart beat.

"Kelsey, open up. I know you're in there." Jason said as he stood on Kelseys front porch pounding on the door. He stood covered in sweat, drenched as if he had gone swimming.

"What could you possibly need at this ungodly hour, Jase. Its four in the morning. Nobody should be awake right now." Kelsey retorted as she opened the door with nothing but disdain written on her face.

"I need help. I really need help. I don't know what to do. " Jason said rapidly as he shoved his way inside the front door looking over his shoulder in both directions. He shut the door quickly then locked all locks on the door, returning to the first lock to double check them all before following Kelsey to the kitchen. Kelsey turned towards Jason, still entering the kitchen door, then leaned against the counter with her arms crossed. She stood there taking in Jason's appearance. His armpit sweat was all the way down below his rib cage, t-shirt that once was light blue is now dark blue with dirt, and god-knows-what on his work pants.

"Alright, out with it." Kelsey said.

"Well I was out at the cemetery. I was reading that alphabet princess book to Anabelle, the one she really liked. I was at the letter G when I heard a noise. I looked around and didnt see anyone else around so I kept going. I got to letter L and I realized I was hearing Anabelles crying. It got louder. And louder. So I followed it. I found a path through the woods in the back of the cemetery. And I swear Ana was back there, Kelse. I swear. It was the exact sound I woke up to for 2 years. It was the sound I heard every time she fell when learning to walk. I know her cry. It was hers. I swear." Jason paused for a minute, staring into the unknown as he relived the prior evenings events. Kelsey grabbed a glass from the cabinet and filled it with water, hoping to help calm him enough to hear the rest of the story. After a few sips he began again.

"So I started down this path. I kept checking my surroundings. There was no signs of my little girl being back there, but I was hearing her. No little foot prints on the path. Just her cry. It was so loud. I called out to her and she got louder. So I started running. I stopped paying as much attention as I should've been. I should've seen it. There was this- this cave with a camouflaged leaf covering. I ran right into the middle of it. But I suppose since I was running it saved me. I... I caught myself on the edge of this caves side. I didn't just fall down to the bottom. Which is definitely what that was designed for. It was like out of a movie. Wooden spikes at the bottom. I would've died. But I was running. And I caught myself. So I didnt. I had to pull myself up. Climb this thing like a mountain climber, except I had no safety harness- or whatever their equipment is. I climbed like 4 feet out of this cave tunnel. I got to the top and saw that the covering was tied to something. Im assuming it was some notification thing to the people who set the trap. I started hearing footsteps when I reached the top, so I climbed out and scrambled to this bush. I climbed in it as fast as I could so I wouldn't be seen. Then I realized I left muddy boot prints all the way to it, so I took my boots off and I ran again. This time I climbed into a tree and hoped I wasn't leaving a trail this time. I got settled in the tree and, I swear, it was 5 seconds later that I saw 3 men run through the brush straight to the cave. I couldn't really hear them talking. They were looking and pointing and... and they followed my boot prints. When they found my boots I was holding my breath. They talked for a second more and took off in different directing. They definitely were looking for me. One guy stood a second longer than the other and pressed some button thing. Kelsey... there was a speaker in the tree on the other side of the cave. He turned back on Anabelles cry."

Kelsey stood there speechless, processing this story. Jason looked as if he was going to collapse any second. Kelsey grabbed Jason and slowly walked him to a barstool by the island in her kitchen. That's when she noticed all the blood and scrapes on his hands and arms. She grabbed a rag from the drawer and soaked it in warm soapy water.

"How did you get here? What happened after that?" Kelsey said gently as she started washing his wounds.

"When the last guy, the one with the button, took off looking for me I climbed down and went the directing none of them went. I went so slow I swear I was crawling at some points. If I heard anything I stopped and hid until I hadn't heard anything for several minutes. But... instead of leaving on foot I went back to my truck. When I got in my truck I started it to leave and one of them made their way out of the trail entrance I had gone into. He saw me in my truck and pulled a pistol out of the back of his pants. I hit the gas trying to leave as fast as possible. My truck got shot so many times. One shattered my windshield. I just kept going. I drove to my house, dropped the truck off and ran here. "

"You ran 6 miles?" Kelsey said in disbelief, looking at Jason's bootless feet.

"Yeah, but there's something else Kelse." Jason said trying to get Kelsey to look at him.

"The one with the remote.. it was Conrad."

Jason said with tenderness.

Kelsey stood up straight, staring at her brother's in disbelief. Conrad is her beloved husband. He disappeared 3 months prior. He never made it home from work and they had spent months searching waterways and under bridges to find him. They had declared him dead two days prior, when they found his motorcycle in a river that had flooded over the bridge. The police said he must've gone over the rails and into the water. There's no way that was him.

"Kelse, are you ok?" Jason asked, standing up and reaching for her.

Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump was the only sound Kelsey could hear as she sat straight up in bed. Conrad was next to her still sound asleep. Unaware of the future that was just shown to her in dream form.