Dangerous Dana (A Suspense Thriller)
Page 20
One Friday afternoon about a week later, Mark, Dana's upstairs neighbor, stands outside his building. He sees some small children coming home from school. He then* sees a group of around 6 small black girls, ages about 8 or 9 just skipping along in a line. They are all about to skip pass him. He then notices a skinny taller girl with a very dark complexion, wearing a light framed glasses, a light colored dress, and bangs in front of her head, in the back of the group. She is wearing a knapsack on her back. Mark comes up to her and stops her. The other little girls stop a little. Mark says to the little girl, "I'm sorry to bother you, but could you do me a favor? Could you send a letter to somebody that I know in this building?"
Mark hands the little girl an envelope. He asks the little girl, "Could you deliver this letter to apartment 4-D. 4-D is the apartment where a woman named Dana lives in. She lives there with her boyfriend, I think his name is Tony, I'm not sure." Mark gives the little girl a dollar and tells her, "Make sure that you give this envelope to a woman named Dana, alright? Give the envelope to Dana and nobody else! Do not leave there until Dana reads the note inside the envelope, okay? Come right back to me and let me know what happens or what Dana has to say."
"Okay," the little girl says. She turns away and starts to skip along. She skips towards Mark's building. The other little girls decide to leave. They continue to skip along towards the other direction.
The little girl soon enters Mark's building. She goes inside the lobby and skips all the way down the long corridor to the elevator. A few minutes later, the little girl reaches the 4th floor and looks around for apartment 4-D. She finds apartment 4-D and rings the doorbell. There is no answer. The little girl rings the doorbell again. There still is no answer. After the little girl rings the doorbell a couple of more times, she hears someone on the other side of the door. She hears the door unlocking. She sees the door opening. When the door opens, she sees a serious looking Dana at the door, wearing a green tank top with a shirt over it and dark green leggings. The little girl asks, "Is your name Dana?"
"Yeah," Dana replies.
"I have a letter for you." The little girl hands Dana the envelope. Dana takes the envelope and looks at it. She looks at the little girl and asks, "Where's this from?"
"It's from the man downstairs."
"What man?"
"I don't know his name. He just told me to wait here until you read the letter inside."
Dana looks at the little girl. Then she opens up the envelope, takes a letter out of it and reads it. It says: I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU AND I WANT TO BE WITH YOU. MARK: Dana angrily looks at the letter! Then she looks at the little girl! She turns and angrily goes towards her living room window to look outside! She looks for Mark, but does not see him anywhere from where her window is.
Back outside, Mark is talking to another fellow named Albert who has a van. The van is playing loud Soul music as Mark and Albert talk with each other. Mark waits for the little girl to come back. He stands outside for a while. The little girl does not show back up. Mark becomes worried. It is almost 4:00 now. He knows that the little girl was on her way home from school. He knows that her mother or guardian might be waiting for her. He didn't expect the little girl to stay away for long. He had expected her to come right back out of the building. He keeps looking at his watch, but she does not return. Albeit notices Mark constantly looking at his watch and says, "You keep looking at your watch. You have someplace to go?"
"No. It's just that it's getting late."
"Late for what?"
Mark doesn't want Albert to know that he had sent a little girl off somewhere and she did not return, so he lies and tells Albert, "Oh nothing. I mean, it's getting late and my sister hasn't shown up here yet. But it's nothing. She'll be here shortly."
"Where is she supposed to be coming from?"
"Oh from work. Knowing her, she probably stopped off somewhere to do some shopping or something like that."
"Yeah you know how women are. They like to shop till they drop!" Mark and Albert both start to laugh as Mark becomes more worried.
Mark soon decides to leave and make up an excuse to Albert saying, "Hey Albert, I'm gonna go upstairs for a few minutes. I'm going to see if my sister had left any messages on my answering machine. I'll be back."
"Okay. I'll be here."
Mark starts to walk towards his building. He enters the building and goes down the corridor to the elevator. A few minutes later, he arrives on the 4th floor. He does not see anyone. He goes to apartment 4-D. He rings the doorbell. There is no answer. He rings the doorbell again. There is still no answer. Mark continues to ring the doorbell for quite a few times. There still is no answer. He starts to bang on the door a little bit, but there still is no answer. Mark decides to leave and go back downstairs. He soon exits the building and looks around outside, hoping to see the little girl or the group of her friends that she was skipping with earlier. He does not see them anywhere. He goes to Albert and tells him, "Listen Albert, I gotta get ready to go, okay? My sister couldn't make it here for some reason, so I'm going to meet her, okay?"
"Okay Mark." Albert gets into his van and tells Mark, "I'll see you later, alright?"
"Alright," Mark says as Albert starts up the engine and pulls off.
Mark starts to go around the neighborhood to look for the little girl because it is getting more late. It is almost 5:00! Mark figures that the little girl had probably went home and forgot all about him, but if she had went home, Mark would have seen her come out the building. The little girl does not live in Mark and Dana's building. Mark guess that the little girl lives in the building across the field because that's where her group of friends had skipped towards. Mark decides to go over to the building across the field to see if the little girl had shown up around there yet, or to see if he could catch any of her little friends that she was skipping along with. Mark reaches the area, but does not see the little girl or any of her little Mends. He figures that the little girl is probably home already, so he decides to go home.
Mark stays in his apartment for a couple of hours. It is after 7:30 PM now. He wonders if the little girl had returned to her home yet. He decides to leave his apartment and go downstairs to the 4th floor. He reaches the 4th floor and goes to knock on apartment 4-D again. There is still no answer. Mark continues to knock a few times, but there still is no answer. Mark then goes downstairs outside the building. He decides to go towards the building across the field again. He wants to see if the little girl or any of her little Mends are anywhere around that area. As Mark approaches the building, he sees a crowd of people in front of the building. He sees the police around the area. He sees the police talking with a woman. The woman is crying. She is upset and worried. Mark then asks one of the people in the crowd, "Hey, what's going on here?"
One of the people in the crowd tells Mark, "That woman's crying because her daughter hadn't come home from school yet and it is almost 8:00!"
Mark starts to gasp! He then asks the person, "How does the woman's child look like?"
The person describes the child to Mark. Mark gasps again! It's the little girl that he had sent to Dana and Tony's apartment! He knows that he is responsible for the little girl not coming home. He is nervous. He then hurries away to his building!
Mark soon enters inside his building and hurries to the elevator. A few minutes later, he steps out the elevator on the 4th floor. He goes to apartment 4-D again and starts to bang on the door! There is still no answer! He rings the doorbell very hard! There still is no answer. He bangs on the door a few more times, there is still no answer. Mark becomes more and more worried! He decides to walk away. He then looks up towards the ceiling and quickly starts to head back to the elevator. A few minutes later, Mark gets out on the top floor of his building and heads towards the staircase. He goes up the staircase and steps out on the roof. He looks all around the roof, but does not see anyone or anything suspicious up there. He goes back down the stairs. A couple of minutes later, he enters back into his apartment.
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As Mark is sitting in his apartment, the doorbell rings. He goes to open the door and sees a Mend of his, a male black around his mid 30's. He says, "Hey Ron, what's up?"
"What's up? I've been trying to call you for a while, but every time I call, you weren't here! Where were you man?"
"Oh I was running out back and forth. I had some important errands to do."
"You did? Well are we still gonna go to the card game at Junior's tonight?"
"Yeah, I guess so. Come on let's go," Mark says as he goes to grab his jacket out of the coat closet. He and Ron then leave out of the apartment.
As Ron and Mark are both walking out in the hallway, Mark tells Ron, "I have to make a quick stop on the way downstairs. I have to stop by the 4th floor real quick to check on a neighbor."
"No problem," Ron says as he and Mark get into the elevator.
A minute later, Mark and Ron are at apartment 4-D. Mark rings the doorbell. He and Ron wait for a while. There is still no answer. Mark rings the doorbell again. There is still no answer. Ron says, "I guess your neighbor isn't home."
"No I guess they didn't come home yet."
Mark and Ron then leave from apartment 4-D and start to head back to the elevator. Ron then asks, "Who is your neighbor by the way?"
"Oh it's just some old guy I had borrowed a few dollars from. I guess I can catch him tomorrow and pay him back."
"Okay."
Ron and Mark then get inside the elevator and ride downstairs.
It is after 9:00 now. It is very dark outside. Mark and Ron are at a bus stop where a small crowd of people is waiting. As Ron and Mark stand around waiting for the bus, Mark hears a certain noise way out in the distance. He hears the sound of shoes running or skipping. He looks out towards the darkness. He notices something far beyond in the distance. He stands there and looks. He sees a small figure in a light colored dress skipping along way in the darkness. He becomes hysterical inside. He realizes that it's the little girl! No one else sees or notices the little girl. Mark then says to Ron, "Excuse me for a minute, I have to go to the bathroom real quick. I'll be back."
"Okay Mark. But don't be too long. The bus will be here shortly"
"Okay," Mark says as he hurries off.
Mark walks swiftly away from the bus stop. He goes out into the darkness. He hurries towards the spot where he saw the little girl skipping! When he reaches the spot, he does not see the little girl. He looks around. He sees the little girl again, way in the distance. The little girl is still skipping along in the darkness. Mark hurries towards the direction where he sees the little girl and calls out, "HEY! HEY!" He continues to go after the little girl. When he reaches the spot where he saw the little girl, he does not see her again. Every time Mark tries to catch up with the little girl, she just seems to vanish! He continues to try and go after the little girl!
After a while, Mark decides to stop and give up the chase! He gets tired and tries to catch his breath! He then says to himself, "Well at least she's still alive. Unless she's dead and I'm seeing her ghost!" Mark starts to head back to the bus stop. He reaches the bus stop where Ron and the small crowd of people are still waiting. The bus finally arrives. Everyone soon hops on the bus.
It is around 9:30 PM now. The police and a crowd of people are still standing outside around the little girl's building where her mother is still crying uncontrollably! People are all holding pictures of the little girl. There is a small group of people standing far from the little girl's building. A woman who is standing several feet away from the rest of the group looks at the picture of the little girl. She then hears a certain noise coming from way in the distance. She hears the sound of shoes running or skipping. She turns her head around to look. She notices something far in the distance. She sees a small figure in a light colored outfit skipping far beyond in the distance, in the darkness. The small figure seems to be skipping towards her direction. The woman becomes puzzled. She doesn't know who that small figure is, but she could see that it's a small child. As the figure approaches closer, the woman then notices that the figure is a little girl, in a light colored dress. She wonders what is a little girl or small child doing being all by herself way out in the darkness like that! She starts to wonder where the little girl is coming from! The little girl continues to skip towards the woman's direction! She is skipping closer and closer towards the woman and the people in the crowd! The woman continues to look towards the little girl as the little girl continues to skip in the darkness. The little girl continues to skip closer and closer towards the woman and the people in the crowd. As the little girl skips and approaches closer and closer, the woman starts to recognize the little girl's face! She looks at the picture that she is holding! It is the face of the child in the picture that is reported missing! The woman then alerts the other people in the crowd! The crowd turns around and look! They see the little girl skipping and approaching closer and closer towards them also! They all start to look at the picture that each of them is holding! They then look back up towards the little girl as she continues to skip along in the darkness! They all wonder where is she coming from and why is she way out far in the darkness all by herself! They wonder who is with her! Everyone in the crowd thinks that it is very strange! The little girl continues to skip all the way towards the people, still with the knapsack on her back. The crowd starts to go towards the little girl and approach her. They ask the little girl where is she coming from and why is she way out in the darkness all by herself. They all tell the little girl that her mother is very, very worried about her and that the police are all over the neighborhood looking for her! They all start to bring the little girl towards her mother and the police right away! The crowd then approaches the little girl's mother and brings the little girl right to her. The mother becomes overjoyed! She is very happy to see that her child is safe and sound. She gets hysterical with excitement and tells the little girl that she was worried sick! The mother then asks the little girl, "Where in the heck have you been?"
"I had ran into a friend that goes to my school! I went over to her house! I tried to call you, but you weren't home!"
"I wasn't home because I was standing outside all this time waiting for you!"
"I had left a message on the telephone answering machine!"
"Why hasn't anyone in your friend's family walked you home or came home with you?"
"My friend's family didn't know that I had left their house! I just walked out!"
The little girl's mother then gets overjoyed with excitement again and tells the police, "I will call her friend's family up when we get upstairs!" The little girl's mother happily takes her upstairs. Everyone in the crowd is happy that the little girl had come back home safely.
Around 12:00 midnight, Mark comes back home and approaches towards his building. He sees a small crowd of people standing in front of his building. He goes to the small crowd, wondering what is happening or what is going on! Mark looks around the crowd. He then looks away from the crowd and sees Tony walking alone towards the building. Mark sees Tony dressed up in a suit, carrying a brief case. He sees Tony looking at the crowd outside the building. Mark then sees Tony approaching an older black gentleman in the crowd, asking, "Hey what happened? What's going on?"
The older gentleman tells Tony, "A young child had been missing while she was on her way home from school. She had been missing for around several hours, but she is home safe now."
"Oh yeah? Well what happened to her? I mean how was she found?"
Mark stands quietly listening to the conversation as the older gentleman tells Tony, "Oh she had come home on her own after she had wondered off somewhere to one of her little friend's house and didn't come home until around 9:30 tonight!"
"Nine thirty?"
"Yeah, but you know how children are. They like to go off and wonder somewhere."
"Yeah that's true. You got to keep an eye out for them."
"Yeah that's true too."
"I'm glad the child is home safe."
"Yeah, me too."
"Okay sir, you take care alright?"
"Alright."
Tony walks away and goes into his building. Mark stares firmly behind at Tony as Tony walks away, down the corridor.
Chapter 18
The Doctor's Office