Mia sat in her car for a few minutes.  She hadn’t heard from Noah in days and to say that she was worried would be a huge understatement.  She nibbled at her bottom lip as she wondered if she should even be here.

He’d warned her when they started dating that he would need a few days to himself each month, but she hadn’t heard a word out of him for three straight days.  She hadn’t even been able to get a text message from him.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she unlocked her car door and stepped out into the chill October morning air.  She could smell the crisp scent of autumn leaves and the warm scent of smoke from someone’s fireplace.

Her heels clicked on the concrete sidewalk as she made her way up to his front door.  She looked around for a moment, checking first inside of his mailbox.  There was at least three days worth of mail inside.  Was he even home?  She ran her fingers along the top of the door frame and found nothing.  Nothing under the doormat, either.

Then off to the side, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.  A small stone sitting on the side of the porch.  Reaching down to grab it, she found it was light, made of plastic and rattled loudly.  Turning it over in her hand, she smiled as she saw the little sliding door on the flat base.  Popping it open, she triumphantly pulled out a house key.

She paused for a moment, wondering if she should really do this.  This could be seen as a huge invasion of privacy, but every other time he took a few days, she’d been able to get ahold of him, at least during the day.  Steeling herself for the worst, she unlocked the door and stepped inside.

Looking around, she was surprised.  Nothing was out of place.  Everything looked just as it did when she left him three days ago.  No dishes in the sink, no extra trash in the can.  There was even a thin layer of dust on a lot of things in the house.  Had he just gone out of town for the weekend?

She was just about to turn and leave when she caught the smell in the air.  Kind of like stale dog food and meat that had gone off.  Walking into the kitchen, she checked the refrigerator first, finding it mostly empty except for a case of sodas, some bottles and jars, and a carton of eggs.  The freezer, which had been stocked with meat, was completely empty, though.

“Noah?  Noah are you here?”  She called out into the quiet.

Unsure of what else to do, she tried following the smell through the house.  It wasn’t coming from upstairs or out in the garage.  Finally, she reached the basement door thoroughly confused.  The smell of soured meat was odd enough, but the stale dog food smell was even stronger here.  Noah didn’t own a dog.

She slowly opened the door and the smell almost knocked her down.  She swallowed her gorge and managed to call out to him, “Noah?”

She heard a soft moan from down in the darkness.  Groping around until she found the light switch.  Flicking it on, she heard an even louder groan and raced down into the basement.

As she reached the bottom, she gasped and froze, her eyes going wide as she placed a hand over her mouth in horror.  Piles of what looked like half eaten meat were strewn all over the floor.  A huge bag of dog food had been torn open and was scattered everywhere.  Noah’s phone was smashed to pieces in the middle of the floor.

Worst of all was Noah.  He was filthy, naked, and was chained to the wall by a collar around his neck.  Mia raced over to his side, kneeling next to him and unfastening the collar.  The heavy chain rattled to the floor with a thump when she let it go.

“Oh my god, Noah.  Noah, are you okay?  How did this happen?”

His eyes were bleary as he blinked up at her, like he couldn’t think straight.  “Oh god, Mia..  Are you okay?  I didn’t…”  He blinked, his eyes going wide, then color rushed to his face as he looked away from her in shame, reaching for a tattered blanket to cover his nudity.

“Mia..  I…  Have a lot to tell you.”