The Trail that Told A Tale.

She sighed, perplexed by how she was ever going to get rid of the dead bird under her bed. Tabby has done it again. This was not a new sight for a teenage Amber since her cat, Tabby was always surprising her one or the other day with small “gifts” for her. Of course, to the silly little fluff, it would count as a gift since she was proudly giving the results of her successful hunts by meticulously leaving it under Amber’s bed.

Just like she usually does, Amber braced herself, got a pair of gloves & cleaning supplies to get rid of the bird which has been dead for quite a while & was beginning to reek a foul stench. A few days later, Amber had once again got a whiff of a horrible smell. She shook her head. “Now what did the silly cat bring this time,” she thought as she chuckled at her cat’s thoughtfulness. Just a fe weeks back she was complaining to her friend Amanda about the”treasures” Tabby would bring to her – a leaf, a dead rat, a button, among many other of tabby’s great” finds. Amanda reassured her saying that it was other only because tabby was fond of her that she brought these little gifts & went on to explain what she read in a post. Convinced by her friend’s reassurance, Amber let it slide each time.

She got her gloves ready & her cleaning supplies to get rid of her furry feline’s next ‘gift’ to her. However, as she bent down to see what it was this time, Amber’s eyes widened & her blood went cold. The shrieked, inching backwards in a rather fast pace. Her mind was cloudy & her vision was getting blurred that she did not even notice Amanda enter her room. “Yo! I brought you some rice cakes made by my mother, but then I heard you scream probably over something stu-“, Amanda paused as she saw Amber’s frightened expression. She kept the cover to the side and rushed over to her friend who had turned almost pale by now. A “Speak! what happened?”” pressured Amanda. Amber was fighting to regain her senses & bring her vision back to focus. She tried to speak but to no avail, her lips were quivering too much for her to utter a single word. Instead, she pointed weakly to under her bed, with the energy left in her. Amanda looked to the direction Amber was pointing at & the goosebumps filled her skin. A severed hand. very much real, no doubt about it, with the hair on it & the dirty fingernails.

Although dirty, it was evident that the person whom it belonged to underwent a great struggle, judging by the deep gashes and the dried blood on the skin. Amanda hugged her friend’s head as she tried to get her to vacate the room.

After a few hours Amanda was successfully able to get her to get her friend sitting up straight, by herself. With a cup of hot chocolate in hand and a blanket over her, Amber had finally gotten enough energy in her to speak again. Amanda finally spoke up. “I’ve called the others. Dylan & Derek will reach in 5 minutes. Although Bea said she may not be able to make it.” Amber looked up to Amanda “Do you think it is- she started.” Amanda stopped her abruptly “Amber! Your brother went missing for 7 years now. You have to let it go. There is no chance of him being able to survive on his own for this long. Besides, the hand seemed like it belonged to an older middle aged man. If ever your brother did survive, wouldn’t we have noticed that scar he got on his forearm from trying to save me when I was a kid?” Amber went silent. Everything Amanda said made complete sense. It did leave her any gap to question anything else. “You’re right Jake wouldn’t still be-” Amber teared up. Amanda got up to sit next to Amber when suddenly the doorbell rang. “Ah! Must be them. Let me go get the door,” Amanda sprinted to get the door open. “It’s bad guys. We need to get to the bottom of this” she chirped to a confused Derek and Dylan.

After the duo came to understand the situations at hand, they sat on the couch where Amber was seated. Tabby who was peeping from under the table all this time couldn’t take that her owner was sad. He climbed on Amber’s lap and started nudging amber’s hands using his head. Derek started, “So how was there not a single trail? I mean, the hand would have been to heavy for the cat to carry right? It would have been dragged.” Without looking up, Amber answered, “There was a trail. It was no different to the other times Tabby brought in a freshly killed bird or a mouse. Only this time, the dried blood was more mixed with dirt & left a shoddy trail, so I didn’t think anything strange about it when I cleaned it up.” Dylan stood up, “This is bad. Amber where are your parents? We need to inform them & report it to the authorities so that they can take care of the situation.” Amber replied, “They are on a vacation. Would only return by next week, I don’t think this issue can wait until then” Everyone nodded collectively until Amber spoke up “Wait, Are you saying that We take care of the situation?” A few glances were passed. Derek enthusiastically replied, ”well! That settles it ! Now let’s see, we would need rope, cycles, trekking gear-” “Woah woah hold up. Lasy there bravissimo. We are not adventurous as you are”, glared Dylan, ” Besides, what if this case gets pinned on to us?” “Well, it is in Amber’s room, so it is not like there is no way it won’t,” Dack answered.

Amanda sighed, “He’s got a point. Let’s get started & get this over with” The 5 of them packed up, ready to overcome any sort of situation they might come across. They let tabby lead the way on the off-chance that maybe he might go again & retrieve more body parts. Amanda started “did you know? If a cat is hungry and there is no food, it would feast on human flesh?” “Oh shut up Amanda. Not the time or place to start this now. Can we just walk quietly & follow the damn cat to wherever it may lead us?” shouted Dylan. Nobody said anything after that & quietly went on following Tabby. It was a futile journey. At the end of 5 hours, Dylan grew impatient. “This is bull! We’ve been walking for 5 hours. Are you seriously telling me that this cat was carrying the hand for 5 hours?”.

Besides, we gained nothing from this! N-O-T-H-I-N -G! All that cat did was pounce on a bird or two, run and climb a tree, kill a snake. I’m calling it quits.” Derek finally spoke up, “ well, if you were observant enough, you’d have noticed we took a circle back just 2 hours ago. I believe Amber’s house is not too far away from here now. But you’re right. The sun will set soon, I guess we should head back.”

Amber bent down to pick Tabby up. As soon as she touched Tabby, his ears perched to the side & in a second, he ran away without thinking, Amber’s body acted on its own as she ran behind Tabby, trying to get her dear cat back, with the hot 4 on a lurch behind Amber, trying to get her back. Amber huffed panted as she parted the bushes, only to see her cat standing by a tree. She ran to hold her little fluff, who ended up hissing at her. That was a strange behaviour. Tabby had never hissed at Amber. “Y’know, usually after a cat experiences threat, they start getting assertive & hisses back, thinking everyone to be a predator.” Before anyone could say anything, Dylan yelled “Quick! That tree seems hollow! Someone help me out!” The 4 of them successfully managed to bring out a man who was camping inside the tree. He was semi-conscious as they laid him on the ground. “I guess we finally found our person. His hand is missing. What say we bring him back to the house and hear his story?” Derek speaks up.

After the man regained complete consciousness and cleaning up, he sat on the chair of Amber’s house. But I need to leave. It’s not safe for me here. They will be back…”, the man starts spiralling. Just as Derek was about to speak, Tabby jumped on the man’s lap. “ Oh, it’s you little one. I guess he is your pet huh? This one is extremely smart. Oh, where are my manners? I haven’t even introduced myself. My name is Jacob. I was on the run for God knows-how-long: Long story short, I came across some bad blood who are serious hunks you do NOT want to mess with.” “This,” Jacob says as he shakes his arm with a missing, “ is a result of that. I wanted to find my sister. Well, not even find, maybeto to see her once, you know? I told my friend about my escape plan but word got round that he was hiding something so those criminals thought he stole the jewels & tortured him. He ended up telling my plans. I had already escaped by then until they caught up to me, shot, but they got my arm. Ah. I was immobilised. But I ended up falling in a ditch so they never caught me. Oh? the severed hand? I cut it off. I did not want to leave a blood trail towards me. It was hard climbing back up, for surely. I don’t even know how the cat ended up with my hand. Imagine that I finally got in a hollow tree & lost consciousness due to the blood loss. The next thing you see when you regain consciousness is a cat! dragging your severed hand across, crazy right?” Amanda & Amber looked at him stunned while the boys were in awe to the cool story. Amber was at a Loss of words. Amanda’s eye widened “You-!” when suddenly her words were on deaf ears by the sounds of gunshots “Crap! Tell me anything but that! Don’t tell me they found my location!” panicked Jacob. The door swung open and small army of masked bandits surrounded the house. “You thought we can let you escape after all that you’ve seen? Think again pretty boy,” the leader says as he cocks revolver “& say your last prayers.”

His words got drowned by the sounds of police sirens encircling the whole house. Bea appeared behind the officer-in-charge and exclainied “whew! Imagine if I got here later eh? I just felt like I had to. It’s not everyday you get the serious Amanda begging. Bea ain’t gonna take these lightly y’see. That’s why I got my gang covered. Always making the last minute saves. The police had captured every single bandit who were later revealed to be one of the major rings of smuggling. They had conducted several heists and grew their circle. From stealing valuables they took to kidnapping a fellow or two to do the dirty work for them. Now that the whole ring got captured, they were safe. The police went to the hideout to capture any others & to release their prisoners.

After the police left, Jacob sighed a sigh of relief as he started tearing up. This is all finally over, eh? The 5 friends chattered excitedly as they filled the details to Bea regarding what she had missed. As Bea listened to the story, she happened to glance at Jacob. “Oh hey! You Amber finally got your broski back, Amber? Happy reunion eh?” Jacob froze at those words as he tilted his head bit by bit towards Amber. “Wait, you didn’t tell him? There’s no way you guys wouldn’t have known. That tattoo on his arm did everything except cover up the scar he got from saving Amanda-” Bea Continued. Jacob ran & hugged his sister, overtaken by his emotions. After the happy reunion & the sharing of stories to fill in the details of what they’ve missed out, the phone rang Amber answered the call. “How’s it going dear?”, her mom asked her. “Boy, do I have a surprise that you would love when you return.” Amber ended the call