text: I was just a young girl who graduated high school. When asked what I would do with my life I never was sure what to say. Senior year was when my mother died from a terrible car accident dad and her where in. My dad blamed himself and fell into a drinking binge. He never hurt me, but I also never bothered him during those times. I felt so alone after graduation. My best friend Analise was getting packed up to move to the city for college and I was so proud of her and though she begged me to go with her, I knew I couldn’t leave my dad even if my relationship with him wasn’t the best. If I would have left it would have been the last nail in the coffin for him. During that last few weeks before Analise would leave she decided to stay with me until her moving day. In the meantime, we had fun slumber partied together like old times, went shopping, gossiped and she even helped me look for a job in town. We came across a want ad at for a kennel tech at an animal shelter. It was perfect for an animal lover and introvert like me. I immediately made up a resume and sent it out to the owner’s email address. Not even a couple day’s later I got a call back for an Interview. I was so thrilled. The owner’s name was Darrin. He was 32, had the shelter for 7 years and was running it with himself, and a handful of employees including his stepsister who was 16, Victoria. I must admit he was very striking to me. He came off so cool and so sweet, any girl in this small town would’ve swoon over him. He hired me on the spot, and I was extremely excited to start this next chapter in my life. To turn a new leaf and leave all the dark stuff behind. Within a couple days our towns newspaper came out with a story of a missing girl Analise and I knew from high school. Her name was Bridgette, she was the bad girl in school. She was a bully to any girl in the school who was not in her clique and she dated any guy that was even the least bit attractive. For her everything was a competition in life. Although Analise and I did not get along with her the rumors of how she had gone missing had us worried. Bridget’s little sister believes her sister was kidnapped and murdered. She said Bridget was talking to someone new and then soon after went missing. Nobody knows who the person was that last talked to Bridget but people who did see her before she disappeared said she seemed like she was struggling. Working at the shelter I grew close with Darrin especially after Analise left for the sister, but I also felt like he was hiding something the more I hung out with him. He knew how to be charming and sweet but there would be moments in the day when I would seem him drop the facade and look almost scary and calculative. I passed it off as him just being stressed with his business but, I had a feeling it might have been something more. One night while working with Darrin and his stepsister Victoria he left frantically saying he had to deal with an emergency. He had never done that before and it was very odd. I went ahead and closed as usual with Victoria. After I locked the door to the shelter and got into my car I realized I forgot my jacket and headed back to the front door to get it and suddenly I heard a loud nose coming from the back. I went to investigate thinking it was one of the dogs getting lose again from his kennel but what I found was Victoria trying to shake the shed in the back open. There was this shed that since the first day of working here Darrin said was just a ‘junk shed’ and we would not need to worry about it. I found it obviously strange that Victoria seemed determined to get into it. The shed had chains all around it and without a key to the lock you where screwed if you wanted to get in. I asked what she is doing, and she startled that I came up on her feels caught and immediately starts to confess that she is afraid of Darrin. She tells me how she thinks he had something to do with the disappearance of Bridge because he was the last person to see her. Bridget had come to him looking for a job and she didn’t get the job but they did go out once and whenever Victoria tried to ask about Bridget to Darrin he would curse her and threaten her if she said anything. I am in shock and start to become scared too. She tells me he probably has her body in the shed or that there must be something in there that can prove she is not making it up. I take a moment and realize when Darrin left, he gave me his keys to the shelter that included every key to every lock.... I quickly try looking for the key that fits the lock on the shed quickly before Darrin shows up and finally after finding the right key, we open the shed. When we go into the shed, we find it is spotless. As if Darrin comes in to clean the shed daily. There was not a speck of dust in sight or anything else in that matter. No junk or anything... Just what seemed to be an empty shed. Until I noticed a hidden door within the wooden floorboards. At that moment I knew we where about to find something awfully bad. I tell Victoria to keep a look out in the parking lot for Darrin and to call the police while I go investigate. She was hesitant to go alone but after I beg her to go, she did. I then open the floorboard and take out my phone to use the flashlight. I see immediately that there are stairs leading down further. I start to go down the steps and I hear a whimpering growing louder and louder. Finally, I get to the end of the steps and a stench hits me. I start coughing and covering my nose trying to prevent my self from getting nausea and then I hear a collective whimpering. I look around and see caged up dogs and cats, they look starved and sickly, they can barely even react to seeing me as a normal healthy animal would. Then I see a operating table and medical tools... there’s blood on the table that drips to the floor but no human or animal on the table anymore... I then try to look around more for where the stench is coming from and I see a dumpster and in it is dead animals and... a dead body... I am terrified at this point, but I must know who it is. If it is Bridget. I shine the light closer to the face with my hands shaking and heart racing and it is her.... I run back up the stairs as fast as I can when suddenly, I hear Victoria crying for help in the distance and Darrin cursing. They where coming towards the shed... I run back down the stairs with tears in my eyes and try to look for a place where I could hide. The only place I could hide is in the dumpster. I crawl in it and try to bury myself beneath the corpses of dead animals and Bridget. I cannot help but cry as I cover my mouth making sure no sounds come out. I can hear Victoria’s screams as he is trying to get her down the stairs. I suddenly realize this is it. I need to do something while Victoria is distracting him so I can help her. I get up out of the dumpster and grab the nearest object I can which was a scalpel knife that was laying bloody on the exam table. I yell for Darrin and as he looks at me in shock, I clench the scalpel and thrust it into his left eye. As he screams and falls to the ground Victoria and I start running out of the shed as fast as we can. We run and run and finally we hear the cop’s sirens coming closer to the shelter. We wave them down in a frantic and tell them to run to the shed and the cops start running with their guns immediately. Victoria and I stay back while the ambulance pull’s up and start examining us and checking our vitals. I had not been able to process anything that happened, I felt so sick after taking a moment to catch my breath. With the overwhelming feeling of nausea, I step aside from the EMTs and throw up until I cannot anymore. As I am hovered over on the side of the street, I suddenly get a chill... As I look up slowly towards the end of the street, I see him... smiling at me.