“You’re going to need these. You know you will.” a strange man hands a small, rust-infected hammer and nails to Jessie. Jessie glares at the man covered in dark clothing, who has just interrupted a blissful walk home after a stressful day at work.
“What would I need that for?” Jessie grumbles in an irritated tone, “I’m trying to get home, so if you’d just-” she glances at where the man once stood, but he was no longer there, the only trace left of him being that old, rusty hammer along with its matching old, rusty nails. Jessie looks around her, but there’s no sight of the man she was talking to seconds before.
“Okay… maybe I’ll take them. Just in case that man comes looking for them…” Jessie speaks to herself in a quiet tone as she carefully picks up the hammer and nails and places them in her bag. After glancing around her, praying she wouldn’t see the owner of the hammer and nails, she turns in the direction of her apartment. She almost feels like someone is following her, watching her every move, and she starts walking as fast as she can, earning her a few curious glances from bystanders on the street.
Once Jessie arrives at her apartment, she searches for her keys in her packed bag, but to no avail. She sighs, “I knew I was forgetting something…” she mumbles as she bends down to search for the spare key near the door; it slowly creaks open. Jessie rolls her eyes and pushes open the door, closing and locking it behind her. “Come on, Ana, I told you not to leave the door unlocked.” Jessie hollers as she empties her bag onto the counter, the hammer and nails landing on the marble countertop with a clang. She heads to Ana’s room and knocks on the door. “Ana? Are you even listening to me? Ana?” she snaps as she opens the door, but Ana is nowhere to be seen. “Ana, this isn’t funny. I know you’re home.” She stomps around the room, searching Ana’s closet, under her bed, and every nook and cranny that Ana could be hiding in, but still finds no Ana, causing her breathing to quicken and her heart to race. She hurriedly searches the rest of the house, but still no sight of Ana. Jessie sprints back to the kitchen to find her phone, quickly realizing it’s dead. “Sh*t…” Jessie mumbles to herself, “Ana, this better be another one of your dumb pranks.” She hears a thud behind her and whips around to see the source of the noise. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the door to her apartment slam shut, and she runs to see where the noise comes from. “What the…” she mumbles as she looks at the same old, rusty hammer dropped by the intruder Jessie had been searching for, without its old, rusty nails. But as Jessie looks up from the floor, she wishes the whereabouts of the hammer’s matching old, rusty nails had remained a mystery instead of seeing them holding up her best friend, her sister, Ana, against the wall, with blood splattered along every surface around her cold body, and those words, written in her own sister’s blood, that would haunt Jessie for the rest of her life. “I told you you would need these, but it looks like I needed them instead.”