Chapter 12 Part 2

   Skye watched the kids file out the front door from the top of the stairs. Once the door shut she let out a soft sigh and felt the tension she was holding inside flow out of her along with her breath and she began to relax. Then as the quiet set in, she heard soft thumping and she noticed that the dogs were gone. Not so much gone as not right by her side as they usually were so she listened closely to the thumping as stood up to follow the sound.

   When she walked down the hall to the bottom of where the ladder was to the attic she saw Angel and Kona in a perfect sitting position while Kona’s tail was thumping against the floor and their noses pointed upward. As Skye got closer, the rumble of a low growl came from Kona as Angel whimpered and shook in short bursts.

   “Angel?” she said softly and the Pitbull didn’t turn or even acknowledge Skye’s presence.

   “Oh that can’t be good” Skye said to herself and the tension came flooding back as fear rolled into every muscle. She felt like she shouldn’t make too much noise but had no idea what to do, then the sound of footsteps came from above her and she froze as tension changed to panic in the blink of an eye.

    The dogs continuing their vigil under the ladder had her even more panicked along with the sounds from above. “Ok…it’s a squirrel. It’s a squirrel right?” she said out loud and again neither dog even looked in her direction. “Great!” she said under her breath as she took slow steps backwards and tried to get back to her bedroom to get her cell phone. Every few seconds she would look from the dogs to the attic door and steal a glance behind her to make sure she didn’t bump into the hallway table while her so called protectors did nothing but look up at the trap door. She got to her bedroom door and bolted to the nightstand, almost dropping her phone because she picked it up so fast.

   Once she regained control of the phone she hit #1 speed dial and called Leigh, seeing as she was the closest person to her in the area by living only a few houses away it made perfect sense that she would call her so that she didn’t go through trying to catch what she hoped was a squirrel on her own. As the phone rang she briefly thought about hanging up and calling Maury to help her but he was too far away and the lack reaction from the dogs was beginning to scare her.  She didn’t want to entertain the thought that this was not a squirrel but considering the weight of the footsteps she had heard, and rodents in general aside she was not going to try and trap this thing by alone.

   With a sharp click Leigh answered, “What’s shakin?” Leigh’s happy go lucky voice sang down the line and Skye almost forgot why she called because she was beginning to shake and have awful thought’s run through her head.

   “Hey! I need your help, can you come over?” she all but whispered, “like…right now?” She heard the uncertain pause in Leigh’s voice. “I sure can?” Leigh replied “Is there something wrong?” Skye quickly ran through what had happened in the attic with Cyrus and the squirrel. When she was done she could hear Leigh giggling on the other end.

   “Leigh this isn’t funny!” Skye said as forcefully as she could at whisper level.

   Leigh took a breath. “It’s is funny! I know you don’t like them but come on!” Skye started to get frustrated. She wasn’t scared of much but had no tolerance for rodents of any kind. “Fine!” she said exasperated, “never mind, I’ll get it myself!” and hung up the phone. She knew she was on her own now and as much as she wanted to be angry at Leigh she knew it must have sounded ridiculous. Skye gathered her courage and stalked back out into the hallway where Angels whining got louder. To her relief when he touched each dog on the head they did turn and look at her almost pleading and Kona’s tail began to swish along the floor.

   Skye carefully reached up and grabbed the rope attached to the door and as she started to pull it down doorbell rang, startled her and she let out a small scream in her throat. She let go of the rope and put a hand over her heart as it threatened to beat out of her chest. Taking a deep breath, she quickly and with more relief than she thought hurried to get the door. On her way down the stairs she was happy that Leigh had come through and showed up to help her.

   On the tip of her tongue as she opened the door was a thank you to her best friend for showing up even though she felt silly but once the door was open all she saw standing on her door step was the old woman from the Flea Market...carrying a bird in a cage.