(Extra) Returning Home
A tired sigh escaped the woman as she made her way to the entrance of her home. Balancing the groceries on one arm, she inserted the key into the lock to let herself in. A loud click signaled to her that she was free to enter her home. As such she pushed the door open, flipped on the lights, then made her way inside. After having been away for so long, it was nice to be home. What made her return even nicer was the fact that her home was clean. She had been gone for a long, long time. Making arrangements for a housekeeper to visit her home had been tedious. Admittedly their behavior had made her think that no one would be sent out to maintain the home. So finding the house in such a clean state came as a pleasant surprise. While the air inside was a bit stagnant and musty, it was nothing that a few cracked windows wouldn't fix.
That could wait, though. A bit of stagnant air wouldn't kill her. For now, her focus was on dealing with her last few errands before going to bed. It had been a long day. A long day mostly full of driving while suffering from the jet lag of her recent plane ride. Next on the agenda - getting the groceries put away. That and making sure that the essential people knew that she had made it home safely; but could kill two birds with one stone. Her phone was pulled from her pocket and placed upon the countertop beside the groceries. A few taps on the screen and the desired party was being called. She went about her business as she waited for the person on the other end to pick up.
""Did you make it back okay?"" The faintly distorted voice of the man on the other side of the line sounded off abruptly, making it clear that they had finally managed to answer their phone.
"I made it back alive. That count?" The woman replied in turn, unpacking her groceries from the plastic bags she had brought them home in.
""Ayala I'm getting some weird static on my end. Everything alright?"" The man inquired, a clear note of concern evident in his voice. The woman reacted to this by offering a tired laugh. She stopped messing with her groceries in order to make it easier for him to hear her.
"Just putting away some groceries, Logan. Everything's fine." Ayala explained, taking a moment to lean her arms against her counter so that she could try to rub the sleepiness out of her eyes.
""Groceries. Yes. Good. Yaa-aaaa - alright, real quick - real talk. You feeling alright? Any jet lag? Is the house okay? Did they ever send that housekeeper out to make sure the place was clean?"" Logan inquired, shooting off a whole mess of questions in quick succession as they popped into his mind. The rapid fire questioning only proved to coax an additional tired laugh from the woman, who allowed herself a moment to lay her chest down upon the counter.
"Logan, I'm fine. Just some standard jet lag, so y'know. I am a little tired. But the house is fine. Inside is pretty clean, so it looks like they sent that housekeeper. Would've been nice for them to get back to me about it, though. I really thought I was about to come inside to find a family of dust bunnies gettin' busy." Ayala responded, cracking something of a joke towards the end. Her joke thankfully didn't fall on deaf ears, given the slight chuckle that sounded over the line.
""Yeah, well, that's good at least - but hey, I'm gonna have to let you go. It's a quarter to midnight and a certain someone might have a cow if they catch me on the line with you. I'll call you sometime tomorrow."" Logan stated, quickly establishing that he needed to get off the phone before his spouse caught him on the line. Having been informed that his friend had indeed made it home safe, he would finally be able to sleep.
"Yeah, yeah. Don't let them bully you too much now. Goodnight~" Ayala mused, teasing her friend just a bit before pressing that magic button to end the call. With that task done, she resumed putting away the groceries. Nothing much. A gallon of milk, some meat, and some vegetables. She had just made a quick stop at a small shop along the way to make sure she'd have something in her house to eat for breakfast. After having spent so long on the road, there was absolutely no rush in getting back in the car first thing in the morning. So she'd made sure to grab enough to give her the chance to decompress at home. Once that was over and done with, the last task of the night was to go ahead and let a bit of fresh air in. The musty air had admittedly started to get to her.
For as clean as the house looked, it certainly smelt as if it hadn't had a proper clean in months. First she cracked open the small window in the kitchen. Thanks to all of the mechanical locks on the bottom floor, she unfortunately had to use a key. With the kitchen window open, she proceeded to make her way towards the living room. Given that trying to find a key hole in the dark was all but impossible, she naturally turned on the light - but something peculiar had caught the corner of her eye just as she flipped the switch. Slight movement had caught her attention. She turned, expecting to spot a bug scurrying up the wall - but that was not what she encountered. Admittedly, she struggled to process exactly what it was. At first she thought it was some sort of statue - not that such a thing would have any reason to be in her house.
Then came the terrifying realization of what she was looking at. Not a statue, but a machine. A machine that had no business being in her home. Then came the pain. She found herself laying face down upon the cold, unforgiving wood of her living room floor. An intense pain resonated from her arm - and from her chest. At first she thought that she'd only been winded. Knocked down by the sudden movement of the machine as it reacted to her presence. Then she became acutely aware of the fact that she could not breathe. There was an intense pressure on her chest. She had not fallen. Something unseen was holding her down. She panicked - rightfully so - but there was nothing she could do. Whatever it was that had restrained her, it held firm. She could not move.
Her heart rate increased as her vision became spotty. She could see the unknown machine moving beside her. She could hear it speaking - but in her panic, she could not focus on the words. The voice changed. It became distorted by the lack of air. For a moment, she thought there might be two voices. But it was so hard to focus on anything beyond the urge to breathe. The pain in her arm quickly became a figment of her own imagination as the suffocating feeling overwhelmed her. Building and building. Agonizing. Then. Nothing.