Killer Instincts

Chapter Two

The early October morning unveiled itself with relentless rain. The rising sun was hidden behind a thick shroud of charcoal clouds that cast the landscape into a dim, melancholic gloom. The desert, typically parched and resolute, was drenched and drenched again by the unrelenting downpour, its dry, brittle leaves transformed into a sodden mess. Cacti and mesquite trees loomed like spectral sentinels, their skeletal limbs dripping with rainwater. The air was thick with the scent of wet earth and creosote, while the faint echoes of thunder rumbled in the distance, giving the desert an unsettling, otherworldly aura.

The sound of car horns and bustling of tenants awoke Bailey Carson from her sleep. Her criminal psychology classes textbook, Murderess Minds, slides off the edge of her bed as she rolls over. The loud thud against the hardwood floor startlingly awakens the chocolate Labrador that was sleeping soundly at the foot of her bed.

Bailey hushes the dog as it barks by giving it small pets on the head and then reaches for the fallen book. She looks at the cover for a moment and then sets the book on the nightstand and grabs her phone to view the time. 6:36 a.m., it read.

Bailey sighs and throws her comforter off of her body, and sits up in her bed. So much for sleeping in. She thinks to herself as she slides out of bed, the floor groaning in protest under her weight when she stands up. Bailey does a few quick stretches before grabbing the textbook off the nightstand. Bailey dusts the front cover off and walks it over to her bookshelf, which was stacked with several volumes on criminology, cold cases, other types of psychology books on the criminal mind and leisure readings, like her favorite book series. 

Bailey slides the book into its designated spot on the shelf and runs her fingers along the spines of the other books, picking up a thin layer of dust that has settled on the books.

Beside the bookshelf was her laptop, which was open, revealing the last site she had visited before heading to bed the night before. A cold case file on The Zodiac Killer, she was studying for a research paper. Bailey glances down at her notes and scribbles out her last thought written before closing her laptop. Bailey sets her notebook on top of the black laptop, adorned with countless Dutch Bros stickers she's collected over the years, and slips both into the large pocket in her book bag then zips the bag closed. Bailey then strolls across the room to her bedroom door and yanks it open. Before she could get out of the small space first however, her labrador proceeds to hop off the bed and slip past her, running out of the room. The labrador bolts down the hall, and straight towards the patio door and lets out a whine as they paw at the door, the sound of her dogs' nails scraping against the glass, sending shivers down her spine.

She shakes it off and steps out the room, closing the door behind her. "Hold on, Max." She sighed. "I'm coming, be patient." She presses her fingers against her temples and rubs them as she walks into the living room. The events of last night were evident around the room. There was popcorn in every crevice of the couch and surrounding it because her roommate had gotten frightened by the jump scares in the horror film they watched. There were several empty cans of Dr. Pepper strewn across the coffee table and a box of Domino's pizza thrown open, revealing the pile of crust left behind. 

Bailey never could understand why her roommate hated the crust when it was her favorite part, but she always assumed it was the garlic crust that her roommate didn't agree with. Bailey throws the Dr Pepper cans into the pizza box and closes it so that Max doesn't get to it and walks it over to the trash. She opens the can and throws the box into it as Max scratches at the door again. "Shit, I'm sorry Max, I'm coming." She replies to the dog. She shoves the box down into the can before shutting the trash can's lid and rushes over to where her dog waits, his face pressed against the glass.

Max steps back slightly when he sees his owner approaching and watches as Bailey unlocks the door and pushes it open. He then runs out onto the porch and relieves himself while Bailey peeks her head out to look at what bipolar Tucson weather she would have to deal with today as she works her shift as an intern with the Tucson Police Department. Light rain sprinkled down onto the porch, and a small crack of lightning flashed across the gloomy sky. She shivers slightly and wraps her arms around her chest, and watches Max continue to do his business. When he is finished, Bailey hurries him inside then slides the door shut, and locks it again. Max shakes the light water, which dropped onto his coat, off, filling the room with the scent of wet socks, then struts off to his food bowl to eat his breakfast.