"How did this get in there?" she wondered to herself. "Dad must be playing one of his jokes on me," she decided and took the axe into the bathroom, intending to put it back in the garage, where it belonged, after her shower. She set the axe on the counter, next to the sink and only then noticed a sticky, dark substance covered the edge of the blade.

"Oh, nice work, dad. Ha, ha. Very realistic," she said, softly. Hailie turned on the faucet and washed the apparent 'blood' off the blade, now sure that her father was behind all of this. He loved to play practical jokes on her and besides, it was almost Halloween. The axe cleaned, Hailie got into the shower and her earlier fears began to melt away as the steaming water massaged her body.

After the shower, Hailie dressed and went back downstairs, taking the axe with her. On her way to the garage, she glanced at the kitchen clock and was surprised to see that it was almost 2 AM.

"Where could dad be?" she wondered, aloud. He never stayed out this late--not without calling to let her know, at least. Well, when he got home, she was going to really get him for playing this stupid joke on her, Hailie thought, as she opened the garage door and leaned inside to flip on the light switch.

Once again, the light did not work. "All right, dad," she said, becoming somewhat irritated. "This is getting kind of old."

Hailie entered the darkened garage and felt her way along the wall to where her dad's workbench was located, knowing that he kept a flashlight on the bench with his other tools. Just as she felt the corner of the workbench beneath her questing fingers, her foot slipped in something and she almost dropped to the concrete.

"Crap! Now what," she grumbled as she pulled herself up and felt around the workbench until she found the flashlight. She clicked it on and directed the beam of light toward the floor.

Stuffed beneath the bottom of the bench was a small, plastic trash bag that was leaking a dark fluid onto the floor. It had formed a fair-sized puddle near the bench, which she had slipped in. Curious, Hailie squatted down, pulled the bag out and carefully opened it. She pointed the flashlight beam into the bag and nearly screamed as the light shone off a decapitated head, as it floated in a pool of congealing blood.