Karma

The grass waved as a gentle breeze ran through it filling the air with the fragrance of dandelions and the mossy smell of the oak trees in the distance. There was a tall young man standing in the middle of the small, empty field behind the small house dressed in dark yoga pants and an oversized black tee shirt. He was practicing his own form of meditation yoga. A girl had appeared behind him dressed almost exactly like him except for a gigantic grey sun hat. “Tommy!” she yelled after tackling him to the ground with a hug. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

“Michelle, I left a note on my desk saying I was going to be in the field behind the house for a bit.” He said and got up from the ground. He took the sun hat off Michelle’s head and her dark hair fell in a single braid long enough to touch her butt. “Why won’t you just let me cut it if you’re always going to wear that hat? You never wear it down… There are so many possibilities with your type of hair.” he said to her and reached out to touch her hair. She jerked her head away from him and his fingers slipped only catching a few stray strands of hair that fell out of his grasp quickly.

“I don’t know why you feel the need to cut it. It’s perfectly fine.” She said and quickly returned the hat to its position complete with her hair wrapped up inside it. “The only reason I have it like this is because of the weather. I want it long for winter.”

“You know it will grow back, right?” he said and rolled his eyes.

Michelle nodded her head slowly. “Mom wants you home.” she said. Tommy went to open his mouth, but she shook her head. “I didn’t ask why. I just jumped to finding you because that meant I could go outside for a bit.”

“Obviously, you never even looked inside my room.” he said to her. His mood was mocked when Michelle joined his side and they walked together to their Mom’s house in utter depression.

“I wanted to exhaust all opportunities to go outside, you know. I feel so captive in that house. I just get this bad feeling there. I’m always seeing things and feeling watched.” Michelle whispered. They walked slowly together whispering to each other about the stuff they had seen.

“Have you seen that lady in the hallway?” Tommy said with his voice full of worry.

“The lady with the knitting needles in the rocking chair? She gives me the creeps. I don’t even know why. Mom says that’s her grandmother, but I feel weird about it.” Michelle said and was overtaken by a sudden chill. A raven suddenly flew over Michelle nearly landing on her head and turned around its head to reveal glowing red eyes. “Did you see that?” Michelle screamed.

“Why are you screaming? I don’t think it’s good to identify with spirits. Give them names or personalities like pets.” Tommy said oblivious to the raven. “What do you think we’ll have to do this weekend? Do you need help with your Math homework?” Tommy asked Michelle.

There was a share of glares between the two and a moment of silence which was cut short when they arrived at their mom’s. “I don’t think so. I think I got it this time. I’m going to try to sleep the entire weekend though.” she said. She laid back in a patio chair on their mom’s porch yawning.

“Here you go.” Tommy said and tossed the blanket from the couch at her face, but she caught it before it hit her face. He had thrown that blanket at her thousands of times. “Why do you even want to stay here? You know you’re probably going to end up doing everything for Mom again.” he said and gave her a quick hug. “I’m going sleep at Granny’s house.” He said as Michelle’s eyes closed almost immediately after she buried herself in the blanket. She saw him enter their Mom's house and heard him leave after a few minutes.

It’s generally not a good idea to sleep outside, but that didn’t matter. Their Grandmother’s house was next door. The porch felt secure in that tiny neighborhood. Nothing could happen or at least she thought so. Michelle woke at the sound of the wood creaking on the patio. “Who’s there?” she said. Her voice echoed as she reached for the flashlight on the table beside her, but couldn’t get to it in time.

Hands crept onto her eyes before she could move. Her arms were immobilized by someone, and someone tied her hands together. “Don’t open your eyes.” The mysterious voice instructed as it lifted their hands from Michelle’s bound hands. It sounded like the person was handed something made of cloth. She was blindfolded! Michelle listened carefully as the two chattered amongst themselves in a foreign language. She only picked up a few words thanks to Tommy’s interest in languages. “I wouldn’t do that.” She said after hearing a word she recognized as 'murder'.

The two ignored her and continued their conversation. Michelle was on the ground before she knew it and one of the two began kicking her in the stomach. “Don’t you dare talk to us.” The other pulled him back, but not before he smashed his foot into Michelle’s head knocking her out.

Horrifying screams were what woke her up. Michelle got up clumsily to find that her hands were no longer bound, and the blindfold was gone. ‘Did I dream everything?’ she wondered to herself as she examined the porch and the front door that was still shut. Debating on whether to go back to sleep or not she finally settled on going to her room and getting in her own bed to go back to sleep.

When she reached for the front door, there was a dull ache in her body and a strong metallic smell. “She’s coming-” an eerie voice said, “I don’t know why you insisted on untying her.”

The kitchen was the first room down the hallway to the right. Michelle turned the light on half expecting to see two people at the kitchen table, but there was no one. A stronger smell of metal hit her nose. The walls and counter were covered in blood! The voices continued to talk to one another as Michelle tried to locate the source of the sound. There was laughter from the voices as her temper rose. “Show yourself” she flung a chair to the floor and grabbed a knife from the counter for protection.

“Oh, you won’t need that.” the first voice said.

“She’s so adorable.” the second voice said.

The sirens stopped Michelle from looking for the voices. She dropped the knife as she looked around the room truly for the first time, really noticing the blood that was everywhere and the sick smell that filled the air. “Who did this?!” she yelled, and her first reaction was tied with another question that came pouring in after her first. “What is this stuff?”

“It’s blood, silly girl.” the first voice said.

“Human blood or what?” she stared at the walls and counter that were splattered with it.

“Human.”

“Who does it belong to?” she shouted. Her mind tried to keep focus on the current events and everything leading up to this point.

“It doesn’t matter.” the mysterious voices said in unison.

“Yes, it does. Who does this blood belong to?!” she yelled. She walked towards the door to leave. “I’m done playing this game with you.” She opened the door.

“Put your hands where I can see them.” Another voice ordered as a spotlight turned on her. She turned around and tried to raise her arms but there were cuts everywhere on her arms! She dropped the knife again. She thought it was strange because she could swear she had already dropped the knife a few minutes earlier.

“I’m only going to ask you one more time. Put your hands where I can see them.” The voice ordered again only this time sounding more impatient. She picked up her arms and there was a gasp from the voice. “Alright, my partner is going to approach you and we’ll handcuff you for now until we get a clear understanding of what’s happened here.”

“What do you mean what’s happened here?” she asked the officer who handcuffed her. “How did I get this on me? What happened?”

“Silly, silly girl.” The mysterious voice repeated a few times.

“Shut up!” she yelled, and the officer just stared at her before sitting down next to her. The other officer got out the car flashlight in hand and walked into the house.

“Do you want to tell me what happened here? Are you mad at someone? Is there abuse going on here?” the officer sitting next to Michelle asked her. He was trying to carefully word his questions.

“What do you mean? I just woke up from that chair,” she gestured to the chair on the porch, the blanket still on the chair. “I heard some screams.” she said quietly and looked down.

“Keep telling them your story…” the mysterious voice said.

“Blood. There’s blood everywhere in there. What happened?” Michelle said in panic and started crying.

“Put her in the car.” The other officer said as he walked back outside from the house. “We have a homicide.” he stated blankly.

“A what?” Michelle asked and jumped up. “Is my Mom okay?”

“Don’t act so surprised” the mysterious voice said to Michelle. “You held the knife.”

“There were these voices.” Michelle stammered over her words. “Did you check the house completely? I was blindfolded and there were these ties around my wrists.” The officer placed Michelle in the car.

The officer closed the car door. She caught him saying "Get the psychiatric unit ready." into the radio when he opened the front passenger door and got inside the car.

"I'm not crazy. I swear. There were voices. Is my Mom okay?" Michelle said repeatedly.

The other officer entered the car in the driver's seat. “There’s a blindfold covering the woman’s eyes in there and her wrists are tied. Her throat is slit and there is blood painted all over the kitchen and a bedroom.” he said to his partner. "Some people are so sick. Isn't this the victim's daughter?"

Michelle fought back her anger. "What are you talking about? I didn't do anything!" she shouted at the officers.