Morbid

Arnold and Kelly played for several hours and gathered a bunch more specimens of both rare and unequal quality, then they stopped for lunch and logged off. They sat at the kitchenette table and ate the last of the reheated pizza with Annie, who sat on the closest bed and ate.

“I think we have you at a good level now.” Kelly said to Arnold and took a bite of pizza. “Hours earlier than I had expected.” She let out a short laugh. “Your way of fighting things we shouldn't be fighting is so radical that we're wrecking the summoning system.”

“That's music to my ears.” Annie said. “I think we need to explore the local area and see what you two will have for both food and entertainment.” She looked at them. “Within walking distance, too.”

“A short walking distance.” Kelly corrected. “There's no way I want to walk anywhere around an unfamiliar place all alone, day or night.”

“That's a good point.” Annie said. “Make sure when you do leave, tell Doris where you're going and how long you're going to be.”

“Annie, that's a fantastic idea!” Kelly said. “She'll be like a guardian angel that watches out for me.”

“You should give her your cell phone numbers, too.” Annie suggested and both Arnold and Kelly nodded. “I'm sure she won't be too bothered by having to keep track of you.”

“That's her job.” Arnold said and Annie and Kelly looked at him. “She tracks who comes in and leaves the dorm building and stops people who are not supposed to be here.”

“Hey, you're right.” Kelly said. “We're just helping her do her job.”

Annie chuckled. “I bet she'll laugh if you tell her that!”

“Probably.” Kelly stood up. “If we're going out, we should change into something more appropriate.”

“What? You don't want your ass hanging out or your boobs bouncing around braless?” Annie asked.

Kelly laughed and shook her head. “I promised myself that I would only dress like this around Arnold and no one else.” She said and walked around the table and leaned down to give him a kiss on the lips.

“I should get changed, too.” Annie said. “Jogging pants are comfortable and are also a bad fashion statement.”

Kelly pointed to her part of the closet. “Help yourself.” She said and walked over to her dresser and grabbed a pair of jeans and a thin sweater from one drawer and a bra from the top drawer. “Mom made me bring a few things I'm never going to wear.”

Annie had to laugh at that and looked in the closet. “Ah, yes. I see.” She said and took out a dry cleaning bag with a red sequined dress inside that was similar to the dress Katheryn had worn when she first met Arnold.

“Yeah, that's never leaving the bag.” Kelly laughed and pulled off her tube top and tossed it onto her bed, then slipped on the bra. “That's so not me!”

Annie hung the bag back in the closet and rummaged through them. “Ooo, classy!”

“Which one?” Kelly turned around and looked, then nodded. “The beige pant suit. Good choice.”

“You don't mind?” Annie asked and opened it up.

“People living together need to get used to sharing some clothes.” Kelly joked as she slipped on her jeans and Annie nodded and started to change. Arnold walked over to his part of the closet and grabbed the first dry cleaning bag and took out a pair of dark blue dress pants and a blue short sleeved shirt. The three of them finished changing and then turned to inspect each other.

“Oh, your collar is a little crooked.” Kelly said and adjusted Arnold's shirt, then she unbuttoned the top button to give him some breathing room. “Annie, how are you doing? Does the suit fit?”

“The pants are a little tight, but manageable.” Annie said and turned around to show her ass and Kelly saw that the pants were quite snug. “I had to let them hang a little lower on my hips.”

“I knew mom bought them for leg length and not for the waist. She always makes that mistake with me.” Kelly said with a chuckle. “Don't worry, we'll walk slow and they won't ride up too much.”

Annie snorted and then laughed. “Thanks for your consideration of my future wedgie.”

Kelly laughed. “What are friends for?” She asked and took Arnold's hand. “You look very handsome.”

Arnold gave her a kiss and the three of them left the dorm room to spend the afternoon exploring the campus and surrounding area. They went down in the elevator and approached Doris. She was in a fit of laughter after Arnold told her that they were helping her do her job by giving her their cell phone numbers and asked her to keep track of them.

“Oh! You're so precious!” Doris exclaimed when she stopped laughing and walked around her desk. Her chest jiggled in her thin blouse and she looked up at the five inch taller boy. “You deserve a hug for making me laugh!” She said and didn't wait for him to respond as she pulled him down and shoved his head into her chest. She squeezed him tightly and then laughed again when he didn't resist or try to pull away, unlike nearly every other person she had ever hugged.

“Can I have him back? We're going on a self-tour of the campus.” Kelly said.

Doris laughed again and let Arnold go. “I'm sorry. People usually fight me off by now and it was nice that he didn't.”

That made Kelly and Annie laugh and Doris looked at Arnold's face.

“Any time you want another hug like that, you come and see me.” Doris said with a huge smile.

“Okay.” Arnold said and Kelly led him and Annie out of the dorm building.

“I should warn you that she might have designs on you; but, she looked like she genuinely liked that you didn't try to get away.” Annie said. “Who fights off a hug, anyway?”

Kelly laughed again. “You definitely haven't dated in a while. I had to fight them off all the time!”

“You're super-cute and cuddly, so that's understandable.” Annie joked and Kelly rolled her eyes. “Let's start at the cafeteria and work our way out to the edges.”

“We should have brought the map they gave Arnold in the assistant's package.” Kelly said.

“We'd be spending too much time looking at the map and not where we're going.” Annie said. “Trust me. You'll remember this layout a lot better if you find things for yourself.”

The three of them walked around and noted the different things they had access to on the campus, which included an Olympic size pool in its own separate building, two tennis courts, a basketball court, a large football and soccer field, and there was even a physical education building that had every kind of workout equipment that you could imagine. Everything they found was available for students to use in the evenings and on the weekends, barring any special events that might be using the facilities at the time.

“It's like its own little world.” Kelly said as they walked around the perimeter of the campus after their tour. “The only thing it's missing is fast food restaurants.”

Annie nodded and pointed. “Let's go that way and see what we can find in that regard.”

They walked around for a while and found several good restaurants and grabbed their take out menus, then stopped at a nice Chinese food place and sat down to eat. The food was quite good and Kelly marked the menu as a higher priority for take out orders, then the three of them walked back towards the campus. They made it back to the dorm as it was getting dark and went inside, and Annie changed out of the pants suit and put on her clothes from the day before.

“I better go.” Annie said. “It's getting late and it's a long drive.”

Arnold took her into a hug and gave her a quick kiss. “I love you, mom.”

“I love you, too.” Annie said and he let her go.

“We'll see you in five days.” Kelly said and gave her a hug, too. “The buses run early, so we'll be at your house at about nine o'clock Saturday morning.”

“I'll be waiting.” Annie said and gave her another hug, then whispered in Kelly's ear. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.” Kelly said and Annie let her go.

Annie gave the both of them another hug, touched Arnold's face for a brief moment, then she left. She held in her tears until she climbed into the car and then she sat there and let them flow. It took her almost ten minutes to calm down and to compose herself. She wiped at her face and took a deep breath, looked at the building that she was leaving her son behind in, and drove out of the parking lot to go back to her large and empty house.

Annie drove all the way back home without stopping. When she reached her street, she had to slow down because of the traffic. She thought that was odd, since her street was a quiet one normally and nothing really happened. People turned and looked at her and she saw that it was her neighbours. They looked really sad for some reason and she immediately wondered what had happened.

Annie managed to get around the parked cars and almost reached her house and saw four police cars. “What's going on?” She asked as she pulled up to the house and had to park behind a police car. She couldn't even get into the driveway because two other police cars were there. She stepped out of her car and looked around to see what was happening and didn't notice anything at first... then she saw it. “NO!” She yelled.

“Ma'am? You can't park here.” A police officer said.

“This is my HOUSE!” Annie yelled and waved at it. Both the yard and the house were almost completely obscured by toilet paper, dozens of egg splatters, and dark blotches of something that she really didn't want to know what it was, because it looked like shit, and she didn't want to face that if it was.

“We called it in, Annie.” Beth, the woman from next door said. “I'm just sorry I didn't see the bastards before it got to this point.”

“W-what... wait, you caught them?” Annie asked and turned to the police officer. “Please tell me you caught them!”

The man gave her a huge smile and pointed to the two police cars parked in her driveway and then at his own parked in front of her car. “Six assailants caught brown handed.”

Annie groaned. “Dammit. It really is shit, isn't it?”

“Among other things.” The police officer said. “As far as we can tell without actually examining the contents, it's compost.”

“Ugh. I think that's worse. It's rotting.” Annie said and sighed. “I just cleaned the place, too.”

“I'd suggest calling the insurance company right away and making a claim, since there are a few broken windows and...” The police officer tried to explain and Annie cut him off.

“What? No! No no no! It's inside my house? That shit is INSIDE MY HOUSE?!?”

“At least downstairs.” The officer said. “I'm sorry.”

“Who was it?” Annie asked, because she had no idea who would want to do this to her.

“The leader of their little group is a guy named Brad Peckerwood.” The officer said and several laughs came from the middle car.

“I'm going to fucking kill you guys!” Brad yelled and the car he was in shook as he struggled.

“Quiet!” A police officer by the car said and Brad settled down and glared at him.

“His real name is Brad Willowby.” Annie said.

“You know him?” The police officer asked.

“No; but, I know of him.” Annie said. “Arnold dated a girl a while back and she was a real piece of work. When she broke up with him over something stupid, she dated Brad to get back at him and tried to make him jealous.”

“Did it work?” The officer asked.

“No. Arnold started dating a great girl and he doesn't even think about Heather anymore.”

“That's curious. Why would he come here to do this?” The officer asked.

“I have no idea.” Annie said. “I didn't even know he knew where I lived.”

The police officer made the connection right away. “Obviously, she gave him the address.”

“Oh, that bitch.” Annie said before she could stop herself, then she blushed. “Sorry, officer.”

The man chuckled. “Ma'am, I've heard worse from my ten year old.”

“What are you letting your kid watch that he learned things worse than that?” Annie asked, a little incredulous, and he laughed. “You can drop the ma'am, by the way. I'm Annie. Annie Strickland.” She said and held a hand out to him.

“I'm Officer Hallman while on duty.” He smiled and shook her hand. “Charlie when I'm not.”

“Nice to meet you, Officer Hallman.” Annie said. “Now, what do I do about all of this crap?”

“I'll escort you inside to get some things, then I suggest staying in a hotel for a few days.”

“I can't leave the broken windows and...”

“I've already got a call in to a buddy of mine. He's coming over with some plywood and he'll board them up for you.”

Annie let out a sigh. “All right. Thank you.”

“This isn't my first rodeo.” Officer Hallman said. “I assume you want the perpetrators charged?”

“Damn right! I want you to throw the book at them!” Annie exclaimed.

Officer Hallman chuckled. “They only say things like that on television.”

“Well, you charge them with everything you can and keep them in jail. I can sleep tonight and won't have to worry about them coming back here to finish the job later.”

“That won't be a problem.” Officer Hallman said. “Thanks to Mrs. Smith, we've got them dead to rights for everything from trespassing on private property to destruction of said property. I'll have to wait to hear from the insurance company before I can add charges for excessive damages and cleanup.”

“I'm really glad I just paid a year's premiums on the house insurance.” Annie said.

Officer Hallman chuckled. “Then you won't have to worry about your rates going up until next year, especially if this turns out to be a costly one.” He waved at the house. “I can take you in now if you want.”

Annie nodded and looked at Beth. “Thank you so much for watching the place for me.”

“What are neighbours for besides spying on their neighbours?” Beth joked and Annie gave her a hug.

“Hey, Chuck! I'm taking the home owner inside!” Officer Hallman said.

“Great! We've got permission to go in.” Chuck said. “Okay, guys. Photograph everything. If it's as messed up inside as I think it is, watch where you step.”

“The main downstairs window is busted, so yeah. It's going to be messy in there.” One of the other officers said. “Tell me you have face masks.”

“I never leave home without them.” Chuck said and pulled a handful of them from his pocket.

“All right, let's go.” Officer Hallman said and took two of the masks and gave one to Annie. They put them on and walked over to the front door. Annie opened it with her key and led a group of officers inside the crime scene.

“UGH!” Annie gagged as the smell hit her. “This mask sucks!”

Officer Hallman laughed. “You would be tasting that smell if you didn't have it on.”

Annie almost threw up and covered her mouth.

“Sorry.” Officer Hallman said and put a hand on her shoulder. “Where to first?”

“Upstairs bedroom.” Annie whispered. “I need clothes for a few days.”

Annie led him up the stairs and to her bedroom, then she grabbed a large suitcase from the closet and emptied most of her drawers into it and then grabbed a pile of things from the closet that she really liked. The smell wasn't as bad up here, so she made sure to close everything again and Officer Hallman took the suitcase for her.

“Kitchen.” Annie said and led him out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

“I wouldn't take any food, not even dry goods.” Officer Hallman cautioned her. “We don't know how much the toxins have spread around.”

When they passed the living room, the couch was covered in compost and eggs.

“I loved that couch.” Annie said sadly. She and Arnold had spent a lot of time on it and its loss was probably going to hit her pretty hard later.

They went by the dining room and it only had one good solid hit with compost... which was enough to ruin the table for all future meals.

“Goddammit.” Annie said and went into the kitchen. She had been glad that she had already given Arnold the last of his college fund money, which was about eighteen hundred dollars, and she retrieved the thousand dollar bursary money from the can on top of the refrigerator. Officer Hallman didn't comment about how insecure that was and led her back out of the house and to her car.

“Call your insurance company.” Officer Hallman said when he put Annie's bag in her trunk. “If you're lucky, they can send someone out first thing in the morning to look at the place.”

Annie sighed. “We need to go back in. I forgot my phone number list by the phone.”

Officer Hallman gave her an inquisitive look for a moment, then brought her back into the kitchen and Annie retrieved her list. She picked up the phone, dialed the number and waited, then left a message on the answering service about the state of the house and about making a claim. She hung up and followed the officer back out of the house and to her car.

“Thank you.” Annie said to him.

“Call them again and leave the number for the hotel.” Officer Hallman said. “They are probably going to want you here to walk through the place.”

“I'll warn them about the smell, too.” Annie said and he laughed.

“Good luck, Ma'am.” He said. “Ah, I mean Annie.” He corrected and held a business card out to her. “Call me if anything else happens, all right?”

Annie nodded and climbed into the driver's seat of her car and carefully pulled her car away from both the cop car and the curb, then she slowly made her way down the other end of the street and left her house behind. The irony of the situation was not lost on her. First she had to leave her only son and return to a large empty house... and now she couldn't return to it because of vandalism.

She sighed and drove to the closest motel that she knew about and parked in the parking lot. It was pretty late, so she went to the office and the front desk and asked for a room for a few days. The guy there told her the price per night, that she almost told him to go screw himself over, then she sighed and paid for the night. She needed the contact number for the insurance company.

Annie took the key and drove her car over to park in front of the room on the bottom floor near the end of the building. She took her suitcase from the trunk and locked the car, and her spirits waned as she went into the room and saw that it was a ratty old bed with old sheets and a blanket on it. She checked it and to her surprise, there were no bed bugs in it. She wasn't getting under the blanket, though. That was a bit too much risk for her to take.

She went into the bathroom and looked at the fairly new shower curtain and smiled. She easily unhooked it from the rod and took it out to the bed and covered it, to give her at least some protection from anything that might be there that she couldn't see, and she sat down on the bed to the sound of the crinkling plastic.

Annie took several deep breaths to stop herself from crying. She needed to be strong, and she hoped beyond hope, that the insurance company would answer and would be at her house in the morning. They needed to clean the place up by the end of the week, or Arnold and Kelly would have nowhere to stay for the weekend.

“Oh, Arnold.” Annie said and closed her eyes. “This... what a mess this is.” She said. “I can't even imagine what you would have done if you were here.” She opened her eyes and looked at the number on the telephone. She called the insurance company and left another message with her name, her new contact number, and that she would meet them as soon as they needed her to.

Annie hung up the phone and debated calling Arnold about it. She knew that if she did, she couldn't predict what he would do about it. No one had ever threatened their home before and Annie had no way to predict what Arnold would think about it. She looked at the alarm clock on the bedside table and saw how late it was, so she decided to wait until the morning to tell him and Kelly. She didn't want to ruin their first night alone together.

She laid back onto the shower curtain and didn't even think about taking a shower or changing her clothes for bed. This was not a time for her to be either comfortable or to enjoy the experience. She was in a crisis and she needed to stay alert and aware of her surroundings.

Needless to say, after the long day she had, she fell asleep almost immediately and slept all night.