You Do Believe Me, Right?

"I know how it sounds. I know it sounds crazy. But you have to understand..."

Sandy paused, floundering, staring at the sterile-looking wall. How to express to these sensible people with their dull, kind faces, in the light of day... Just how frightening it had been? The sense of being watched, being pursued, never knowing what might happen next, or how gruesome it might be... Wondering what the next prank would be. The fear that next time, it would actually hurt the children... How logical it had seemed, at the time, to destroy the elf.

"Elf?"

Sandy explained how it had been sent anonymously from a fan.

"The things you're describing sound threatening. Did you call the police?"

"No, I... Wait! Karl did. After it cut off... after Malcolm got hurt. Our cat."

"Hmm. There are no records of this, though. Are you sure he called them?"

"Yes! I heard him... I mean, I heard the start of the call, but he was in the next room. He closed the door."

Their faces were so neutral it was sickening.

"We hadn't told the children. It was too upsetting. He didn't want them to hear the details..."

Their face stayed blank. Unreadable.

"You believe me, don't you?"

Silence wrapped around them all, and stretched on a beat too long. Sandy felt she might choke on it.

"This elf..."

"Jingles."

"... Right... Jingles... You thought it was the elf doing those things?"

"Well..." Sandy squirmed. "...Yes. I know it sounds mad, but at the time it made a kind of sense, you see? I was... confused. I think. Panicked. So, yes, at the time that's what I thought."

"And that's why you were trying to burn it?"

"Yes!"

"Is that why you used accelerant?"

"Accel... What? I didn't... What do you mean?"

"The fire started in the living room, near the fireplace. Accelerants were found there. And on your clothes, actually."

They don't believe me. They think I did it all.

Underneath her own skin, Sandy was screaming with frustration and panic. The surface layer was as bland as the stodgy faces and empty eyes staring back at her, disbelief carefully filed away into invisible pockets of them.

Somehow, Sandy had to convince them all that she was sane, so that she could go and save her children.