Too Late: Day 5

 Word Count: 30,005

Summary of Events:

Beleaguered by a rough day at school, Amarina laid down on her bed and cried for awhile before going to get ready for work, only to discover that Iliana was using the only bathroom in the house to have a shower, which made her late for her shift as well. Callan was distressed by the fact that he hadn't heard anything in response to his post from the 'little ant', but managed to put those thoughts aside to focus on the upcoming match versus Tottenham. Amarina, having bought tickets to the match, watched delightedly as, with just three seconds of injury time left, Callan scored the goal that gave Arsenal the win, but her delight was short-lived, as on her way out she discovered a vicious message had been sent to her by the monster. On leaving the match Callan saw a paper blowing around that looked an awful lot like the paper on which the first set of lyrics had been written, so he picked it up, but he didn't let himself look at it until he got back to his flat . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

It didn’t take him long to reach his flat, where he took up the paper and carried it all the way inside before he finally unfolded it and found the same familiar handwriting spelling out what were, for a large part, the exact same words:

The ants go marching two by two,

Hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching two by two,

Hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching two by two

The little one contemplates a noose

And they all go marching down, to the ground, to get out of the rain.

Instead of chilling Callan, the second-last line jolted him with shock. This was serious.

Immediately he snapped a photo of the lyrics and went on to his secondary social media account, where he immediately composed a response.

Little ant, I’m serious. I want to help. Talk to me. Don’t do this. People can help you, and we want to. Even if you don’t want to talk to me, please talk to somebody. Don’t try and do this alone, and certainly don’t keep up with these contemplations.

Adding the photo to the post, he tagged all the people he’d tagged before and immediately posted the photo, but his heart continued to pound even afterwards. 

His hands trembled as he took up the paper and looked over the words. Surely she wouldn’t act on this, would she?

Casting the paper aside, he paced his flat, his mind imagining a body hanging from a noose outside the stadium. Surely she couldn’t be hanging there.

The lyrics suggested she was merely thinking about it; that she was having ideations, thoughts, but it suggested nothing about acting on them.

Still, he could find no rest. He couldn’t sit still, His heart pounded and he nearly went through the ceiling when his mobile sounded.

Taking it up, he found that it was just a notification that one of the people he’d tagged in the post had reposted it, and they’d added a comment as well.

Callan tried to take several deep breaths to calm himself, even to think about the sweet little girl who’d been so delighted to see him, but nothing would help.

Finally he took up his keys and headed back to the stadium, where he desperately searched around the perimeter for any signs of a body hanging from a noose.

Only once he’d searched around the whole of the massive stadium and found nothing did his heart finally decelerate and allow him to take more relaxed breaths.

“Did you lose something sir?”

Callan startled violently and turned to see a security guard in a fluorescent yellow jacket behind him.

“I’m sorry to startle you Mr. Reid, sir,” the security guard replied.

“I didn’t lose anything,” Callan replied. “Other than maybe a bit of my mind, but…but it’s alright.”

“Are you sure you’re alright?” the security guard asked.

“Yes,” Callan replied. “I’m alright now.”

“Were you looking for something?” the security guard asked.

“Yes,” Callan replied. “And the fact that I didn’t find it is a good one.”