“C’mon Jax, this is taking forever. Are you sure you know where you’re going??” Daisy exclaimed.

“Oh hush, I know exactly where we’re going.”

“Then why has it taken you this long???”

“Because- it takes a long time to get there.”

She huffed and rolled her eyes. The blue, bathroom sign became visible ahead of us both.

“See, there it is!” I excitedly said.

You could barely hear her, due to mumbling, “Finally- after a million years of walking”

I ignored Daisy’s comment and kept walking beside her until the door was directly in front of us.

A sign on the pale wood door read; “Out of order. Sorry” With a frowny face below it. I looked back at Daisy, face bright pink and ears lowered almost to my shoulders.

“I think I’m gonna have to come into the ladies room with you..”

“What?”

“Out of order.” I said mocking the sign.

She scratched the back of her head and replied, “Well, you could pull off as being a short haired, flat chested, girl.”

“At least I’m less flat than you!” 

Daisy jokingly punched my arm and laughed. We walked to the other side of the store, where the ladies restroom was. As we were walking, I noticed something I hadn’t before. A tall, german shepherd. He seemed so familiar. With his grey, stained hoodie and blue basketball shorts. He was leaning against the glass railing before the escalator, his hood up, covering the top half of his face. I’ve seen him before. But where? I decided to throw the thought away and keep walking, thinking nothing more about it.

We came to the door, and Daisy propped it open with her arm.

“Ladies first!” She said flicking her tail. 

“Gee, thanks.”

I walked into the small, empty bathroom. Daisy trailed behind me. The walls were covered in tiles, most cracked and exposing the drywall behind it. The sinks were to the left, and the tiny beige colored bathroom stalls directly in front of you when you walk in. I walked up to one stall, and poked the door. It squeaked as it opened. I went inside and did my business, and so did my short, bubbly companion. Still in the rusty stall, I put my paw out to unlock it. I stopped as I heard the bathroom door open with a loud thud. The clatter of hooves on tile loudly echoed, hurting my sensitive ears. Causing me to quickly lower, and cover them. A man breathing anxiously bolted into the stall next to me. As the door shut, the lock clicked. Right after, another man ran into the bathroom, with rage he screamed.

“WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GO, DEER?!?!”

The bathroom was silent apart from the faint drips and drops of water and my rapidly beating heart that only I could hear. I noticed the man’s breathing in the stall beside me had ceased. I carefully, and as quietly as I could, made my way back to the toilet, and begun to climb on top of it, to avoid my feet being seen.  My phone buzzed in my back pocket, and I froze. I had one foot on the seat, and one of the floor. Everything was silent for what felt like an eternity. I was suddenly unfrozen by the angry man’s footsteps shuffling against the floor, to the stall at the end of the bathroom, Daisy’s stall. He waited a moment, then pounded his fists on it loudly.

“YOU’RE MORE OF A CHICKEN THAN A DEER!!!” He exclaimed loudly, his voice cracking. My phone buzzed again, and this time I grabbed it out of my pocket.

New message from: Daisy

Daisy: 

12:02 What the hell??? 

12:04 CALL 911 

(Daisy’s phone calls would only work when she had Wi-Fi, so I always had to make the calls.)

Me: 

12:05  How am I supposed to talk to them?? He’ll find me if I speak!

Daisy: 

12:05 WHISPWR

I could tell she was full of fear, her spelling mistakes made me assume she was crying. Shaking,  I select the call app and press the numbers, “911”. I put the phone up to my ear, it looked strange being so small compared to them. Heart still racing, I dreaded speaking. I waited as the first set of dial tone went by. Then the second, and the third. A man’s voice on the phone spoke.

“911, what’s your emergency and location?”

I could barely speak, my throat completely tensed up, trying not to cry. I whispered, the man still pounding on Daisy’s stall door. As he did this, I took advantage of the situation and climbed up, on to the toilet.

“Th-three ninty two Dorville street, the D-Dorville city mall-”

I froze, and stopped talking. The man stopped hitting the door.

“What’s your emergency?” The operator pleaded.

I could hear his shuffle, over to my stall. The tips of his work boots pointing straight at me. Covered in something that looked to be- almost dried blood.

“Hello? Sir?”

My mind almost cut out the man, still on the line. I could hear the raspy breathing of the enraged man. He growled, and sniffed around the corners of my stall. Returning back to his original position in front of my stall. I imagined him, baring his yellow, crooked teeth.

“WHERE ARE YOU, YOU STUPID??!!” He slammed his dirty work boots on the tiles as he reached the stall next to me.. Again, he sniffed around the edges. 

“Hello?” The operator called out.

Silence.

“The police are on their way. Sir I need you to tell me where in the mall you are.”

I hear him this time, and replied shakily as the man outside was screaming off the top of his lungs, beating harshly on the stall door beside me.

“In the upstairs- w-women’s bathroom in Macy’s.”

“Stay on the line. If you can, just breathe quietly into the phone, so I know you’re okay.”

I did as he politely demanded, breathing quietly, and rapidly into the speaker on the bottom of my cracked phone. The man was now backing up from the door, and slamming all of his body weight into it. Everytime he did this, the whole row of stalls would shake and squeak. I began to cry quietly as I feared for the life of the man beside me, Daisy’s and lastly mine. My vision became fuzzy, and I became light headed. (This usually happens when I’m having anxiety.) Suddenly, my vision became normal. Only because I was “awakened” by a loud thud, followed by another. The man had broken into the stall, and right on time, the police burst into the bathroom, aiming pistols at the man, yelling.

The angry man was a german shepherd. In fact, someone I saw on the news for being the lead suspect in a triple homicide case, and the abduction of a 3 year old kitten. The blood on his shoes belonged to her. He was only one of the 6 men involved. According to the police, they found the kitten’s left dewclaw, her white fur stained with her own blood. Nothing else. I’m glad they took him. Now I can have my little princess all to myself.