Matt

I open the front door and sigh as I see my jacket knocked off the coat hanger and thrown in the middle of the hallway floor. If this is Annie's way at getting back at me for being late, she sure is acting childish about this. I was gone for an extra half hour. I didn't expect her to be that mad about it.

I had something really nice planned for her. I was going to make her dinner.

"Annie?" I call out for her, hoping to talk about why the front hall is a mess with our jackets.

I set my things down on the kitchen table and look around me, discovering that my coat isn't the only thing misplaced around the house.

"Annie?!" I call out, more concerned than before.

Is she cheating on me? Is this the leftover mess her and her lover created while I was gone? Is that why she wanted to know exactly when I would be home?

I can't believe this. After all these years.

I reach in to my pocket and play with the little box deep inside.

I can't believe I was going to propose tonight. I bought things to make her a very special dinner. I was going to ask her to marry me after we finished eating. I was going to ask her to be my wife, to make me the happiest man alive. And now this?!

This is crazy.

Where is she?

"Annie?!" I shout, walking in to the den. I walk over to the couch and grab her phone. She has to be here somewhere. She never leaves the house without her phone. She is like an addicted teenager when it comes to her phone. It never leaves her side.

I lift it. Maybe I can figure out who she is cheating with. The screen lights up. 911 has been dialed but no call was made. Why would she dial but not call? Why did she need to dial in the first place? What was so scary she felt the need to be prepared to call the police?

I run in to the kitchen and grab her pills from the counter. She is probably off somewhere having a panic attack. That is why our things are all over. She isn't cheating. She is just having a breakdown.

I open the bottle and shake two pills out in to my hand. "Annie?! Let me help you. Where are you?"

I run up the stairs and in to our bedroom. I look around. This place is a mess. I will have to clean this all up after I am finished calming her down.

"Annie?" I pull the blankets up and look under the bed. "Annie?!"

She is not in here. I don't hear her anywhere either. Usually I can hear her when she has one of her episodes. Not this time.

Something is wrong. "Annie!" I turn around and see what is left of a phone, smashed on the ground by the door. "What happened in here?"

I walk down the hall and see a small blood stain on the bathroom floor. "Annie?!" I kneel down and look at it closer. It is enough that it could just be something as simple as she cut herself badly whole shaving. But everything about the condition of my house makes me believe it was not that simple.

I run downstairs and grab the phone to call the police. Something happened to Annie while I was gone. Something very, very bad.