Jane
had always been the “black sheep” of her family. She came from a rural and very
conservative Middle Georgia clan, and had fought constantly with her parents
since she was a child. Jane wanted no part of the settled and routine life her
parents had lead – she was an impulsive free-spirit who would travel to the far
corners of the earth at a moment’s notice, sometimes not even knowing where she
was headed, or why.
So it came as no surprise
when, a few weeks shy of her 30th birthday, Jane announced that she was leaving
her high-paying job at a major corporation to fulfill her life’s dream – to
become a professional sculptor. She sold her expensive suburban apartment and
moved into an abandoned mill in one of the rougher areas of Atlanta. She
planned on converting part of the space into a full-time studio and living
area.
Her parents were
horrified, especially when they learned that her studio was just a few miles
down the road from the county jail. And Jane didn’t see the need to rig her
studio with an expensive alarm system, for her neighbors seemed nice enough.
But like every other discussion Jane had with her father, his words of warning
went in one ear and out the other.
So on her 30th birthday,
her father took matters into his own hands and bought Jane a guard dog – a
Doberman named Max from the local humane society. The dog had been abused by
his former owners, and had become mean and distrustful of humans. But Jane
always had a strong love for animals, and she took the poor dog into her care.
In a matter of weeks, Max became very much attached to Jane, and extremely
protective whenever anyone else would approach her.
One morning, Jane came
home from a trip to the hardware store to find Max lying in the middle of the
floor, coughing and wheezing uncontrollably. She immediately rushed him to the
local veterinarian, who performed a series of tests. After a while, the vet was
satisfied that Max wasn’t dangerously sick, but he couldn’t figure out why the
dog was still coughing.
“Don’t worry,” he told Jane
in his calm and soothing voice, “Max looks perfectly healthy. But I’d like to
run some additional tests on him this afternoon. Why don’t you go home and I’ll
call you when we know something. There’s no sense in sitting in the waiting
room all day.”
So Jane got back in her
car, made a trip to the health food store, and then returned home. As she
walked through the door, she could hear the phone ringing in her bedroom.
Loaded down with shopping bags, she decided to let her voice-mail catch the
call. But no sooner had the phone stopped ringing then it started ringing
again. Thinking it may be an emergency – or perhaps an annoying telemarketer
who needed to be yelled at – Jane dropped her bags and ran to the phone,
catching it on its last ring.
“Hello?” she
breathlessly answered.
She was surprised to
find her veterinarian on the other end. “Jane, we have some results on Max. We
need you to come back to the office.”
“Okay. I’ll be there in
an hour or so…”
“…No, Jane,” interrupted
the vet in a barely controlled voice. “We need you to come down now.”
Jane was taken aback by
the sound of his voice. She could hear the tension lurking behind his words.
There was something he wasn’t telling her. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “Is Max
okay?”
“We’ll talk about that
when you get here,” answered the vet, his voice growing louder and more
agitated. “Just get in the car now.”
“Why can’t you tell me
over the phone?” asked Jane.
The vet suddenly blurted
out, “Are you in the house alone?”
A chill ran through Jane’s
blood. She slowly sat on her bed and replied, “Yes. Why?”
She could hear the vet
taking a deep breath on the other end of the phone. Then, barely able to
contain the tremor in his throat, he said in a hushed voice, “Listen to me
carefully. We found out why Max was coughing.”
It was then that Jane
noticed her bedroom window. A hole had been punched through the glass, and it
was unlocked.
“Jane, are you there?”
“Yes,” Jane answered,
her voice starting to shake.
She then noticed drops
of blood on her carpet. They stretched across the room and underneath her
closet door. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but what we found in your
dog’s throat were fingers. Human fingers.”
As the vet spoke, Jane
sat frozen as she watched the closet door slowly creak open on its rusted
hinges. “Did you hear what I said? He bit the fingers off somebody’s hand!”
Jane still didn’t
answer. In the darkness of the closet, she swore she could see the hand of a
large man, blood dripping from where his fingers had been gnawed off. And on
his arm was the orange sleeve of a prison uniform.
“There’s somebody here,”
Jane whispered into the phone.
“Get out of the house, Jane!
For God’s sake, GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!!!!!”
The
phone line went dead.
As the vet as was
not able to reach Jane, he immediately searched visitor’s database for an
alternative number, luckily Jane disclosed her parent’s details to which, vet
called to inform that Jane is in danger.
As soon as Jane’s
parents learnt that she is in danger they got an idea, they thought this is a
great opportunity to kill her.
Yes! They wanted
to kill their daughter and put the blame on someone else.
Jane’s father Tony
was on his way to put an end to Jane’s life the reason being, Jane was an adopted
child but Jane was not aware of this fact. Many years ago Jane’s real father
who was a drug addict and a dangerous convict decided to give all his wealth to
Mr. and Mrs. Tony and in return requested them to bring up Jane as he did not
want his daughter to be embarrassed about being the daughter of a criminal, but
now as she had grown up he had to transfer entire wealth to Jane which made
Tony angry and provoked him. Tony was not willing to give away all the treasure
but instead was ready to kill Jane.
Meanwhile Jane
knew that she is not alone in her house. There is a genuine fear inside her,
the fear of unknown, and the fear of her life in risk, she is under a severe
panic attack …
Jane missed her
dog Max badly and she also wished that her parents would come and save her, the
irony was her father Tony is indeed coming not to save but to murder her ,Jane is extremely
nervous; she knew that a stranger in a prisoner’s uniform probably a prisoner
from the nearby jail is in the house. In anxiety and confusion not knowing what
to do, she rushed to the basement to hide
It seemed as if
she will surely die now if not in the hands of the prisoner; she would
definitely die in the hands of her father who is steaming in to kill her, the
prisoner whose right hand with no fingers is soaked in blood holds a pistol in
his left hand starts’ looking for Jane. After searching top floors of the studio
he slowly goes down to the basement, Jane reacts quickly eludes him and flees towards
the Main Gate shouting and screaming for help.
Someone Please
Help, Please Help!
At the same time,
driving with head lights on and with great speed a Car honks at the main gate,
it was none other than Tony. Jane finally felt happy and relieved thinking that
she is safe now. But as soon as Tony
comes out of his car he takes out his handgun and starts firing at Jane.
Jane is scared to
death, she is unable to understand what is happening, she for a moment thought
that Tony is firing at the prisoner but could not interpret why the bullets are
coming at her; she runs away from the car now and goes towards house again. This is the first time she sees prisoner’s
face, immediately the prisoner screams Jane please move away.
For a minute Jane
is baffled and mystified. She has no clue why her father Tony is firing at her
and how did the prisoner call by her name!
It is completely chaotic out there.
Out of nowhere
the prisoner picks ups his pistol with his left hand and fires twice accurately
straight into Tony’s head. Tony is laid down on the ground.
In tears Jane
shouts daddy! Daddy! She runs as hard as she can towards Tony. Fuming with
anger and in complete rage, Jane picks up the gun lying down and points out at
prisoner and questions
Why did u kill my
dad?
The prisoner
drops his pistol and says baby I am your real dad .please trust me. Believe me,
Tony has adopted you and now after so many years he now wants to kill you. He
loves your property not you. Trust me dear. Trust me for once.
Jane does not
believe the prisoner and shoots at him. The bullet hits the unarmed prisoner in
his heart.
Jane’s real
father who actually saved her from Tony in his last breath says
“Please take care
dear. I love u my angel. Sometimes one needs to blindly trust.
Good Bye!”
