See No Evil...

"Hi neighbor!"

They shared the same lot of land, his house being on the back of hers. They never saw each other during the Winter season, but come Spring, they'd both be in their respective yards clearing away winter's debris and making the ground ready for the incoming blooming season. They'd stand by their connective fence talking and catching up on their lives and each new year she saw a new dog. He collected dogs but he was really good to them and she liked this. It showed he had a good heart.

She was raking the area in the back that connected their lands when she came upon a marbled eye on the ground. She thought it a great marble and went to pick it up to clean it and give it to her husband who collected unusual things. He'd love it. The moment she touched the eye, she screamed and dropped it. It wasn't marble at all. It was real, it's slimy liquid still protecting it. She began to shake and unwillingly, but knowing she had to, forced herself to inspect the area on the ground where she found the eye to see if she could find anything else. Was there a dead body around here somewhere? On her hands and knees, inspecting closely, she noticed another eye on the other side of the fence, in her neighbor's yard. She climbed the fence and went to retrieve it so his dogs would not come upon it and eat it. She then went in search of him so she could show him what she found and they could call the police. His back door was open and she yelled out his name through the screen door. All the dogs were in their kennels and for the first time she noticed that he collected cats as well. A melange of different colors and sizes were roaming around free. One seemed to have gotten stuck in an empty birdcage and another had lifted the top of a plastic cake holder quietly and methodically eating the contents inside. She yelled out his name again. Nothing.

Being that they were on friendly terms, she did not think it wrong to open the screen door and enter his home in search of him. She went through the rooms, all messy and in convoluted disorder, and continued her search. She finally came upon a room in the back of the house that had thick plastic panels covering the door. She called out his name again. He exited from the room when he heard his name and looked at her in quiet anger. He was wearing a plastic, bloody apron. Panic set in at the grave mistake she had made.

She turned around to flee but he ran and grabbed her roughly by the neck, "You should've never come in. How dare you come into someone's home uninvited?"

He pushed her through the heavy plastic panels and locked her in a dog cage in the back of the room. The room was like an icebox. In the center laid a stainless steel table that held the remainder of what was once a woman. Her upper limbs were gone and her torso had been cut open. He went back to what he was doing before she interrupted him. He picked up the electric saw and began to cut the woman's legs into pieces. She noticed her eyes were gone as well. In her fear, she had forgotten about the eyes and now looked down at her fisted hands that held within the eyes she had discovered in their yards, eyes that most likely belonged to this woman; a woman who would never be found. She trembled in fear and could not stop from screaming. Something snapped within her and she rattled the cage screaming to be let go. It annoyed him and he took off his heavy duty plastic gloves and grabbed a roll of duct tape and two sets of handcuffs from the desk. He pulled her out of the cage and handcuffed her hands to the heat pipe in the corner. He then covered her mouth with duct tape.

He went back to what he was doing. "You should've never come in. How dare you come into someone's home without being invited? Who does that?" Roxie, his favorite dog, had come into the room to see what the commotion had been about. She hadn't noticed her in the house before when she was searching the rooms. She wondered where she could've been.

"Come here girl! Pappa's got something for you!" The dog approached her master, wagging her tail in anticipation of her treat.

She now knew where she would end up. How could she have misjudged him so wrong. He loved animals. People who loved animals weren't psychos. But now she knew, now she knew. The subtle signs had been there all along, but she had failed to pick them up because she was so enamored over his love of animals and fake, kind smile. Brilliant.