There was an irritating wetness against his face. His eyelids fluttered their shutters and forced his eyes open when he felt something hairy tickling his nostrils. He wrinkled his nose and pushed his head back and groaned when he saw it was Elsa licking his face with her tongue as if he were a bowl of ice cream. The cat meowed as he rolled over on his back. Thad groaned from the pain coming from the side of his head. It felt as if the Devil had laid eggs on that side of his skull and was stabbing at his brain with multiple pitchforks. Lying on his back, with the Cheshire trailing her fluffy tail over his arm, Thad brought a hand to the spot where the bastard, whoever he was, had clubbed him and moaned when he felt over the ripe bump that was growing there. His brain was still sending forth smoke signals and he knew he was going to get a splitting headache that'll probably last a long time as long as he wore that bump.
He remained like that with his back on the floor naked, his limp prick resting partly on his right thigh, listening to the quietness that was in the apartment; the only noise that sounded foreign came from outside the open window where a cool breeze blew back the curtains briefly. His sweat acted like glue between his flesh and the floorboard. Elsa purred as she slinked around him and returned to licking his face like a dutiful housecleaning feline. Thaddeus ruffled the cat with his hand. He was about pulling himself off the floor when he thought he noticed something far underneath Kayla's bed. He squinted his eyes and blinked a couple of times as if to assure himself he wasn't seeing double. Some type of doorway seemed opened on the floor under the middle section of the bed. He managed pulled himself off the floor, feeling the throb of the bump echoing like traffic signals in his head as first he sat up on the floor and rested. He turned to look around the room as if ascertaining that he was the only one there. Both beds were empty.
He struggled to pick himself up, he rested his back against the far wall as he felt a slight wooziness come upon him as the pain in his head seemed to intensify for a minute. There was a pressing ache at the back of his shoulder where he'd landed on the floor. He looked at Kayla's bed as if thinking all that happened some minutes ago was nothing but a prank and she would materialise any second now. The bed sheet was half off the bed and also the head of one of her teddy bear had been ripped off. Thaddeus approached the bed and picked up the teddy bear's head while its body remained where it was on the floor. There had been a struggle between Kayla and whoever it was that had attacked him. His eyes scanned the room for any further clues but he was too numb and dazed he couldn't think or lay his eyes on anything out of the ordinary.
Curiosity got the best of him as he grabbed the end of the bed and pushed it backward. The bed's stand dragged on the floor as he took a step and then another backward, pulling it along. The sound of the bed's feet dragging on the floor felt like someone scratching needles on glass surface inside his head; it made the bump on his head increase its throb. When he'd pulled the bed further enough, he went to check out the hole underneath.
"The hell," he whispered to himself as he surveyed the square-shaped trap box that had been expertly cut out on the floor underneath Kayla's bed space. The lid of the box lay open and aside from a purple velvet cloth lying inside, it was empty. Thad picked up the cloth. It was actually a pouch bag, the sort of thing one would keep valuables inside. Whatever it had contained was long gone. He wondered if the bastard who had clubbed him had done the same thing he'd done—pushed back the bed and swore to himself when he found the box empty. At least he'd been a gentleman to push the bed back in place and made it look like nothing had happened here ... except not bothering to close back the lid as well as leaving Thad to lie unconscious. Thad took the velvet cloth but closed the lid and pushed the bed back into its former place.
His eyes scanned the room, thinking what next to do. His eyes fell to the floor and he saw his clothes. He picked them up and dropped them on the bed and first wore on his jockey shorts and went in the direction of the bathroom. Inside, he admired his head bump on the medicine cabinet mirror. He was happy no bleeding had occurred—nothing that a couple of aspirins and a cold glass of water wouldn't cure. He washed his face in the sink and dried his face off with a towel. He looked inside the medicine cabinet and thanked his luck that there was a capsule of aspirins inside next to other medicinal stuff. He went into the kitchen—nothing in there seemed like out of place. He got himself a glass of water and downed a couple of aspirins and waited for the drugs to kick in before returning to the bedroom. Wearing back his clothes, content with the head bump's current throb, he tried to think his way through whatever had happened in the room since he was knocked out. He hadn't been wearing his watch then and hadn't bothered looking at the time thus there was no way he could tell how long he was out. The time on his watch told him it was 01:27 a.m.
A reading table served as a divider between the girls' bed. On it sat a laptop, several reading books and a diary. Thaddeus wrapped a cloth around his hand for fear of prints and pulled out the drawers. He didn't know what he was searching for, if even he knew what it was when he saw it. Just like whatever the purple pouch bag had contained inside that safe in the floor. He simply felt like looking, taking snapshots with his eyes of the contents inside each drawer then closed it back. Inside the top drawer he unearthed a photo album belonging to Kayla. There were dozens of photos inside, majority of which included her in the midst of friends. He opted to take the album with him. He went about wiping his prints off the bed, looking about to see if he'd left anything that was his behind. He went into the bathroom and did the same cleaning in there before dumping the cloth in a hidden corner. He was about leaving when a meow sound came to him. He looked down and saw Kayla's cat rubbing her fur and tail against his ankle. It sat on its haunches, gazed up at him and meowed once more. He gave its head a rub.
"Sorry ol' boy," he said. "I can't take you with me."
He turned to go, but the cat trailed behind him even as he got to the apartment door. Kayla had left the key in the door lock, but hadn't locked it. Whoever it was that snatched her away had sneaked inside unseen and unheard because of this. Elsa was busy sliding back on forth between his legs. Thaddeus gazed down at it. Against his better judgement, he scooped the feline into his arms, along with the photo album, and turned off the room's lights and closed the door behind him, turning the key in the lock and looking about as he and the cat strolled down the down the hallway and stairs and from the out of the building into the night.
Thaddeus stood in front of the entrance to her apartment building with the cat cradled in his arm and a cold breeze blowing against him. The wind blew against the trees ruffling the leaves. Everywhere was dark; few cars were on the street. The atmosphere was eerie and unsettling. He walked away from the building, his eyes turning in every direction for passers-by. He wondered if anyone had seen him arrive with Kayla, and if by tomorrow she was declared missing would that someone have seen him up-close enough to give the cops a good facial description. If that happened, then his ass was cooked. The cops would just love to get at him with smiles on their faces. He dipped his hand into his pocket and felt for the velvet cloth that he'd put there; whatever it had contained, he would have to think it through later.
The whole night seemed like a dream: visiting his friend, getting to know the lovely college girl with her friend and mom and then heading out to a night club, after which the two of them had returned here for some good fucking. Then getting clobbered by some stranger guy, then waking up with no Kayla to be found. Now here he was walking away from her apartment building like some burglar hurrying to flee the scene. He knew he hadn't smoked anything before this evening. If ever he had, then this was some weird trip he was having. The feel of the cat in his arm was enough clarification that it wasn't. Such wasn't exactly how he'd wished his weekend would be. First getting caught by his neighbour, and now fucking a young slut and getting knocked over on the head and the waking up and not finding anyone around him. Several cars drove past him, one or two were taxi but they were occupied. He kept on walking, though a few times he kept looking behind him as if expecting Kayla would materialise out of nowhere, laughing at him over the joke she just played him. That would be some weird joke if ever he'd been played like that before. There was the bump on his head—that was no joke. He kept picturing the momentary look on the man who had clubbed him before his eyes. The image stuck like glue to his head he doubt if ever it would leave him. Unfortunately the hallway was dimly lit and hard for him to make out anything regarding the intruder. He prayed that their paths crossed once again, on equal ground next time. He would do everything possible to break the sneaky bastard's nose off his face.
He got to the end of the block and stood next to a street lamp. He ruffled the cat's neckline while it purred against his arm. Across the street from him was a 7-Eleven shop. Beside it, almost hidden from plain view was a police vehicle. No way was he going over to ask them for a lift. Now that would be a joke.
He looked up in time and spotted a lone taxi cruising past him. Thad waved at it and it drew to a stop a little further from him. He went to it and gave the driver his friend's address and got in the back seat as the cab then drove off. He placed the cat along with the album book on the seat next to him. Elsa came to rest on his thighs, fixed him with a pair of round innocent eyes and meowed.
***********
Thad was tired without really knowing it and had slipped into a doze by the time the taxi drove him into Frisco Beach. The cabbie tapped the glass divider and he grunted as he came awake. He directed the cabbie towards the house he was looking for. The outside lights of his house lit the surround compound like only a palace would. The taxi deposited him in front of Pimp Zee's pad and Thaddeus and the cat alighted from the cab and settled the fare. He lumbered up the driveway that lead through the back of his friend's house and came to a stop in his front door and knocked on it. Zee drew back the curtains of the nearest window and saw him then came over and opened the door for him. His friend was grinning at him as he entered, but the smile went away by the time Thad narrated to him what happened to him.
Zee came on his centre table questioning Thaddeus who sat slouched on a chair across from him, feeling his hand on his head bump. He'd let the cat down and staying to its true nature it disappeared from the room to wherever else. "What? What the fuck do you mean that she's gone?"
"You heard what I said, didn't you? Some bastard—I don't know who the fuck he was—hit me with some sort of club and then I passed out, for how long, I don't know. When I woke up, I was the only one in the apartment. She was fucking gone."
Zeke sat there staring at him dumb-founded. He got up, told Thad he would be right back, and went into the kitchen. He returned seconds later with two beers in his hand and passed one to his friend. They drank in silence while contemplating the eeriness of the news Thad had returned home with.
"What happened between you and her mother and her friend, by the way?" Thaddeus enquired.
