Dog Tags: A Love Story

I’m in. Sarah hears only her short, quick breaths. High on adrenaline, her heart pounds in her chest. She steadies herself and calms her breathing before moving on. Her hands are trembling, and she feels dizzy as she slowly closes the door behind her.

She enters the dark prison. She thinks of happier times shared with Calvin, Eden, Stephen, and Kat. What happened to that equation? Sarah wonders. Now there is only darkness surrounding her. Sarah can feel the wickedness in the house. The evil is thick.

As soon as she reaches Kat’s bedroom, she heads straight to the closet. Flipping the closet light on, knowing it will not be seen from the road, Sarah feels a sense of sadness sink into her heart. Not one of Calvin’s belongings, not even a family photo of Calvin, remains in the room.

The closet is only filled with Kat’s designer clothing, purses, and shoes. Sarah begins lifting each shoe rack, seeking the lid to the floor safe. She finally discovers it under the fifth shoe rack. Removing the combination from her dusty gray bag, she suddenly feels a chill of nerves sweep through her. Her hands begin to tremble, and her breathing is short and rapid in anticipation of what she will discover. As frightened as she is, she hopes she finds something to condemn Kat. “Calm down. You can do this, Sarah.”

Taking a deep breath, she attempts opening the safe for the third time. It opens. “Third time is a charm,” Sarah says, relieved by the outcome, still overcome with nerves. Lifting the lid of the safe, Sarah holds her breath for an alarm to sound, knowing full well it might also be a silent alarm. She picks up her pace just in case. Removing many precious jewels, she continues to look for something related to her investigation, some evidence that appears odd. She isn’t sure what she is searching for, but she continues to dig.

Toward the bottom of the safe, she discovers an envelope with the flap unsealed and tucked in to keep its contents enclosed. The envelope feels of a heavier weight paper, and the inside is lined with a fancy satin finish. The tri-folded letter she removes from it is printed on the same weight of cream colored paper. Her hands tremble as she opens the letter. She immediately recognizes the letterhead. It is distinct. She has seen it on many of Stephen’s awards and accommodations.

The seal at the top signifies the emblem of the President of the United States—the embossed gold eagle with olive branches in its talons, the symbol that reads The White House. The letter reads, Congratulations on your new promotion as CEO of ViaStem. Sarah thinks this is odd, but it doesn’t intrigue her like the second letter. Removing the second letter from the envelope, she sees another distinct emblem—that of the CIA—which fully engrosses her attention.

Sarah reads on and discovers that the introduction is directed to Katarina Fortunata. Spiderwebs pull from Sarah’s skin. She shivers with the fear of what is to come. She continues on with utter despair smeared across her face.

She falls back against a shoe rack, which gouges her in the back. She feels nothing. She sits shaking and stunned, not knowing whether to cry or scream but longing to do both. She continues to finish the letter, unable to control her tears. She weeps. In the midst of a breath, Sarah hears the front door open. She quickly swallows her angst and turns out the light to the closet. She quickly scoots herself to the back of the closet until she feels the wall press against her back. Maybe no one will notice me, she prays. She continues to grip the letter in one hand and the envelope in the other. She now knows the danger from the incriminating letters discovered in the safe is significant. She has no other choice other than to face it. Her fear is true.

I know I will be caught. She wants to cry out and scream with anger, but she traps all of her emotions within the confines of her skin. Her chest is going to explode. Her head pounds. Her heart aches with such unimaginable pain of the few words she read above a lengthy encrypted message. Sarah knows she has no time to concentrate on something so perplexing.

Sarah’s heart plummets. This is it. I’m doomed. My mission is foiled. No one will ever know the truth.

She hears footsteps. Silence. More footsteps. Sarah agonizes. She can only listen and await her fate.

The front door opens and closes, and Sarah releases a deep sigh with the click of the lock. She must hurry. Just take everything with you. Quickly now, Sarah demands herself to move.

Crawling forward and feeling for the opening of the safe, she feels the jewels she removed. Some of the sharper pieces pierce her latex glove and dig into her skin, but she ignores the pain. She bleeds but has no time to stop it. She is dizzy with fear. Finally she locates the flashlight and clicks it on. Some of the fear disappears without the blackness or the unknown intruder.

Quickly now. Sarah takes one last view of the inner safe and then replaces the removed belongings without care of how they land. She doesn’t care; she just wants out. She places the envelope and its incriminating evidence into her gym bag and zips it closed. She looks at her hand. It is smeared with blood. With her flashlight she scans the carpet for blood but doesn’t see anything obvious. She lifts the shoe rack and dares to look. Sarah spots a drop of her blood being absorbed by the carpet. Unnerved and confused as to a solution, she covers the area with the shoe rack, hoping to conceal the droplet. Quickly pulling on her boots, there is nothing she can do but run.