A man was thinking of knives, blood, and little girls. He looked in a particur direction and smiled. He found an old friend and he was going to go visit her, soon. Very soon. The smile took a very sinister bent.

  Once Seulgi stopped dry heaving, she turned the shower on to wash not only the stall but herself as well. She had to clean her hair again, if not from the vomit just now, but from all the sweat from st night.

  She knew that she would have to take more photos once dried so she could see just how badly she was hurt. The fkes of dried blood flowed off her snow white skin in the water, exposing the horrors and travesty beneath them.

  Once she was done with the shower, she dried off and got dressed quickly. She was feeling horrible. She was terrified, alone, lonely, exposed and vulnerable. At least her clothes were an armor against her nakedness. The photos could wait.

  And then she had an idea. What if they were still there? She grabbed a nearly two meter long clothes pole from her wardrobe, dumping all of her clothes onto the floor. Holding the improvised weapon as if she were a professional baseball pyer, she went through her home. She checked every nook, every cranny, every window every door.

  Nothing was out of pce. Nothing was missing. Everything was as it was when she went to sleep st night.

  When she finally verified that she was totally alone, she broke. And she broke down hard. Suki had been following her around the entire time in case she was needed. Now she was. While in the hallway between bedrooms, Seulgi sank to the floor, grabbed up Suki, and cried. She sobbed, cried, wailed, and vented all of the anger and frustration from the night’s dream that she didn’t remember nor understand.

  Suki sang a deep and healing purr that was nearly a crooning, deep and melodious into her human's bones. She gave the promise that her human was not alone.

  Seulgi fell over onto her side, still holding the unresisting cat. Her twisted insides slowly released.

  After a while, she was interrupted by a sound just outside her range of hearing, but it was getting louder and progressively louder. It took two minutes to get through the panic-driven mind that it was her bedside arm clock.

  She let the cat go, stood up, and went back to the bedroom. She found the arm by following the power cord from the wall to the device. She quieted it.

  Looking at herself in the mirror, she reassessed the damage. Yes, long sleeves and long pants were in order today. Looking directly at her throat, she knew that today was a turtle neck day. Those bruises were too obvious. She changed out of what she had hurriedly grabbed earlier and got into something closer to business appropriate.

  She knew that she would be talking to someone about what happened st night and what was done to her, but she didn’t know with whom or when, so she would try to power through her day at work until she could figure it out.

  She knew that this was probably one of the stupidest things that she could have done, but she didn’t know who else to call. Then she did.

  She got dressed and checked to make sure what of Suki’s that was supposed to be filled was full and the other that was to be emptied was clean. She took her time, knowing that she would only hurt herself more if she moved quickly. She got the things that she needed for work together, removing some things because she was not sure if she would be strong enough to carry her normal limit.

  She also grabbed her spare house key that the Parents had returned. She checked for her phone, her keys, her work badge, and lunch. She gave Suki a caress of love and thanks. She made sure to kiss that furry head between the ears where she liked it best. She turned on her door camera before opening the door, not wanting any more surprises. She was not sure what she would do if there was anything, but she was positive that it would not be pretty.

  She stalked down the hallway and took the elevator down to the main floor. She went over to the security desk and asked for the manager. She smiled at the guards present and terrified them with the rictus that she showed them.

  She asked if anyone new had been up on her floor st night. No one said that they had noticed anything or anyone new. Disappointed, she thanked them and waited for the manager after shuffling off to the side to be small and out of the way. She was the only one who did not notice that she flinched at every sound.

  Once he showed up, the manager approached her as he would a small and frightened animal, then he was handed the spare house key and told whom to expect. Trained by decades of observation, it was obvious that something was off, but he was not sure of the whats and whys. There was a miasma of blood coming off her that was more felt than sensed.

  There was no way that she would trust herself out in the open, so she decided to drive to work. She made the excuse that she was running a bit te, so asked the manager to accompany her to the car. Even in the best of times, which this wasn’t, no one would say no to escorting Seulgi anywhere.

  This time her mental state was further exposed because she held on to his arm the entire time. She had never done that to anyone, ever, that he was aware of. He made sure to talk low and slow about inconsequential things to try and calm her down. He didn’t know what had terrified her, but he felt a slow va burn of fury at whomever his soon-to-be target was. He was not a violent man by nature, but he was very, very well trained. He was looking forward to using some of that training.

  Once safe in her car, she started it. Once the Bluetooth was connected, she made a call. It was answered as she pulled out of the garage.

  A strong male voice answered. “Hello?”

  “Daddy? Do you remember saying that you would stay with me if I needed you? I need you.”