Signs Something Terrible Has Happened
You're a woman in police precinct, wearing the well-meaning but ineffectual deputy's coat.
For any reason other than employment, you are in a mall at night.
You have discovered that you can hold your entire body weight on just the tips of your fingers...and that you can endure having the tips of your fingers stepped on by a boot.
You're standing behind a door, pressing your ear against it straining to hear.
You're a woman running down an alley, holding one shoe, and limping.
The wind is slamming the shutters of your house open and shut.
You have any idea what the undercarriage of your car looks like.
Anyone is going outside to investigate any noise, strange light, or to look for someone.
You're in the local library, looking at microfiche newspaper articles about the murder/disappearance/cannibalization in your sleepy town. They happened 20 years ago. 20 years ago today.
Anyone anywhere near you is tearing a sleeve off of a shirt, or ripping a blouse in to strips of fabric.
A cop has assured you he won't let anything happen to you. Bonus points if the captain told him not to let you out of his sight.
You've picked up the phone, found no dial tone, and are about to do that furious tapping of the hang-up mechanism thing. Hello? Hello?
