AllFreeNovel
Share Us
With the cat in one hand and her knife in the other, Kristi walked through the two bathrooms, throwing back the shower curtain in the main bath, and then climbed the stairs to her office, where nothing looked out of place.
So why was the door shut?
Who had bothered? A neighbor? Someone passing by?
The slider was in the back of the house, unseen from the street, and if her father or one of her friends had stopped by, wouldn’t they have waited? Or called? Or texted?
She scrolled through the menu on her phone.
Nothing but a couple more requests from reporters.
“Forget it,” she said, and took heart in the new security system. If someone had really been inside, she’d have evidence. He or she would be caught on the camera mounted over the back door.
After ensuring that all the doors and windows were latched and locked, she checked her phone app, which was linked to the security system, but it didn’t seem to be working.
Every nerve in her body tightened. She double-checked the app, but no images appeared. “What the—?” And then she realized how quiet it was in the house, how dark. Why wasn’t the refrigerator humming? She glanced around as she walked into the bedroom. Hadn’t she left on a single lamp? Why wasn’t the digital display on the clock on Jay’s night table glowing with the time of day?
She hit the light switch.
Nothing happened.
“What?” A burned-out bulb? But the clock. She checked. Not unplugged. Just dead.
She left the kitten on the bed, walked to the bathroom, and tried the separate switch for the shower light.
But the shower stall remained dark.
Her feeling of disquiet increased.
She hit the bedroom switch. The overhead light didn’t snap on. Nor did the TV come to life as she tried with the remote to switch it on.
Nothing electrical was working.
“Well, crap.”
What the hell happened while she was gone? And who was behind it?
Back in the bathroom, she pressed the GFI switch located over the counter and again, nothing happened.
Not good.
Locating a second GFI switch in the kitchen, she attempted to reset it, but once more pressing the red button did nothing. The whole damned house seemed to be without electricity, so she went into the garage, dog on her heels, found the electrical panel on the far wall, and discovered the main circuit breaker switch for the entire house had been turned to the off position.
Her stomach knotted.
Obviously someone had thrown the switch intentionally.
Why?
To freak her out?
Well, if that was the case, mission accomplished.
But who was behind it?
She flipped the switch and heard a series of clicks in the house as appliances turned on, humming to life, and as she walked into the kitchen she noticed a tiny light on the coffeemaker glowing, the digital clocks in the stove and microwave blinking, a lamp in the living room burning again.
Once more she did a quick search and, at first glance, nothing seemed out of place, nothing stolen. Her purse was on the couch, where she’d flung it the night before. Credit cards and cash accounted for. Her computers were as she’d left them, TVs on their stands, jewelry, such as it was, untouched, her keys all hanging where they should be. She checked and saw that nothing seemed to be missing, nothing stolen, everything appeared to be in its place.
