2

You need to search for the animal control number and click the browser icon on your phone. After a half a minute of watching the wheel icon spin, you realize your phone isn't connected to the internet for some reason. You leave the kitchen and rush to your laptop on the living room desk. You click on your browser—your internet connection is working here at least. Searching for the number to the township animal control, you punch the digits into your phone. After six rings, a recorded message comes on: "Thank you for calling Nightfall Animal Control. Our office is experiencing considerable call volume, today, May 10, 2012. Please leave a message as this mailbox is monitored for emergencies."

You leave a brief message about the odd squirrel bursting through your window. You hang up and return to the kitchen.

No squirrel.

You cross the kitchen and scan the floor—a smear of blood lies diagonally where the body used to be, with a scant patch of gray-and-brown fur embedded in the dark stain. The kitchen door leading to the back porch bangs shut.