Creeps, true stories from Reddit (Second book)

This is not a suicide note!

Several times I'd get lost in a phone call or spreadsheet and suddenly find that it was nighttime. I'd be so absorbed with work that I would block out Buster whining for food or to go outside. I started to set alarms to keep track but I had too many important clients to slow down.

I was on top of the world but my health was starting to suffer. I'd forget to eat and even sleep sometimes. There was always something else to do or someone to talk to. I even got better at taking care of Buster, better than I was taking care of myself at least.

Then my good mood ended with a bang. Literally. Buster was whining behind me as I finished another spreadsheet. Then we both heard a door slam upstairs.

For the first time since I brought him inside, Buster ran upstairs by himself. I almost called the cops but I felt silly with the phone in my hand. I started to doubt I had heard anything at all.

And if there were an intruder, surely Buster would have been making more noise. So I mustered all the courage I could manage and crept upstairs with frying pan as my weapon.

It was dark upstairs but enough moonlight was coming in from the downstairs windows for me to make out Buster standing in front of the bathroom. I had purposely closed every door when I last came through here looking for the lost dog but this door was now wide open.

I flipped on the hallway light but nothing happened. With no better ideas, I raised my frying pan high and walked slowly to the bathroom. There was no window in here so it was pure darkness inside.

I was terrified.

Bizarrely, Buster just looked frozen. His tail stood straight up and he just stood there pointed towards the door. I tried to take it as a good sign that he still wasn't barking. That's what finally got me through the threshold and into the bathroom.

The whole time my eyes had been getting used to the darkness and the bathroom was too small for there to have been anyone there without me noticing. I started to relax when I took a step forward into something sticky.

I suddenly realized that I had my cell phone in my pocket. I pulled it out and turned it on to cast some light on the floor. I immediately dropped it at the sight of the bright red liquid that surrounded my feet.

I fled the upstairs and this triggered Buster to follow. This time I had no trouble calling the police. Thankfully, there was already a patrol car nearby so two officers arrived within a couple of minutes.

Their powerful flashlights cut through the darkness like knives but they soon found nothing was wrong with the upstairs lights. Something did appear to be wrong with my pipes though as they called out from above that the puddle was just rusty water.

Because of their insistence, I climbed up the stairs again and clearly saw a muddy brown puddle in the bathroom. The banging must have been from a pipe breaking. Both cops had a laugh at my expense but were otherwise understanding.

They even gave me a number of good plumber though my cell phone was ruined after I dropped, and left, it in the puddle. I would have to use the one landline in the kitchen from now on.

I let them out and promised to call the plumber first thing in the morning. Yet, as exhausted as I was, I couldn't go to sleep over that excitement so I stayed up to draft some more important documents for my company.

Before I knew it, Buster had made another mess in the living room. I was dead tired and said somethings to Buster that maybe I shouldn't have and I did some things to him that I know I really shouldn't have.

I decided to do something about the stress I had been under and I spoke to my supervisor that same morning. To my surprise, they were happy to let me have the week off as a sort of mental vacation. Just like that, all my outstanding work was taken away.