Stalked

Chapter One

"Come on, come on, " I rifled through my purse, trying to find my car keys. The wind was going straight through my worn, thin sweatshirt, chilling me to the bones. It was a Saturday night, and, unfortunately, my turn to lock up the hardware shop where I work. Gosh, it's freezing for a March night, I thought to myself.

"Gotcha!" I closed my purse, and jammed my key into the lock on my car door. I unlocked my car and scrambled to get inside to escape the chill. I cranked up the heat and the tunes, Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol filling the silence. I had always liked that song. It was so peaceful.

I had just pulled out of the parking lot when something flashed across the road in front of my car. I slammed on the brakes just in time, muttering under my breath. When I had collected myself, I looked both ways, searching for the creature. There was nothing there. I continued driving, when all of a sudden, I saw something in my peripheral vision. I checked my rear-view mirror, trying to get a better view of what I thought I saw.

Again, there was nothing. I wondered to myself if I was just paranoid from being the only person in the shop late at night. I shook off the encounter, and drove home.

The drive home was uneventful. I didn't see any strange creatures. In fact, I didn't see anything strange at all. I pulled up to my comfy, two story home. It looked like everyone was home. My mom, Eliza, and Jack, my step-dad. My brother Josh was away at college, forty five minutes away at Yale. Lucky him, I thought for the millionth time. My parents got divorced when I was twelve. My dad was an abusive person to my mom. It was horrible on the whole family. Several times, I'd come home from school and my mom would have bruises and my dad would be drunk or recovering from a hangover. The police and child services moved him down south to Florida, and my mom, my brother and I stayed put right here in Connecticut. I didn't mind that. I didn't have to put up with him anymore, and in my early teenage years, I tried to forget him. I didn't have to put up with the fighting, either. But on the other hand, I've lived in Connecticut all of my seventeen and a half years. Part of me wants to see what it would be like living somewhere else. I've only seen my dad once since he was relocated, and that brought back all the bad memories.

"Hi sweetie," my mom called from the kitchen. I walked into the kitchen.

"Hi Mom," I replied.

Jack waved to me from a counter stool. I waved back, and said, "Hi Jack." Jack was my mom's boyfriend. I liked him enough, he was good to my mom, and he made her happy. I was always wary of him, even though I said he was a good person. I just didn't want a repeat of what happened.

I shook my head as the flashbacks started again.

"Then what did you just do?" I cried, pointing towards my limp mom. "I may be twelve, but I know a fight when I see one. Why. Can't. You. Be. A. Normal. Dad?" I screamed, about to go into hysterics.

"Calm down, Kelsey. That was nothing-,"

"Shut up. Just shut up!" I shouted and ran out the front door. I ran down the street and into the woods. I kept running until I couldn't run longer and I fell into a pile of pine needles.

I remembered the way he looked. His voice kept ringing in my ears.

"Calm down Kelsey."

The last words I would ever hear my father say.

"Kelsey?" a soft voice called, bringing me back to reality.

"What?" I grimaced as I became aware of the thudding in my head. Soon it would probably worsen and blossom into a wonderful migraine.

Note the sarcasm.

"We've been calling your name for like five minutes. Why didn't you respond?" Jack interrogated. I glared at him, not wanting him to take interest in my personal life.

"I was just thinking back to a conversation my friend and I had at work today," I muttered, staring at my feet. Note to self - buy new shoes.

"Are you sure?" my mom asked. Her innocent question brought up a lot of answers in my head and I scowled.

"I'm fine. I'm going upstairs to do some homework, call me when dinner is ready."

Glancing back at my mom, I could see her normally bright eyes were dark and disturbed. One hand was gripping Jack's, the other was yanking on her brown hair.

Noticing my stair, she quickly straightened herself out and sent me a sick smile. I returned her small smile and walked upstairs.

Once the door in my room was shut, I leaned against it and cried, slowly sliding towards the floor. The memories of my father were hard and depressing.

Of course they are, I told myself. What were you expecting, unicorns and lollipops?

I smirked at my lame joke, forgetting the raw emotion that was gnawing at my heart. For a few seconds anyways, then it returned, worse than before.

I groaned and stood up, putting my hand over my heart. One of these days, I was going to have a heart attack!

Attempting to fall and land comfortably on top of my bed, I slipped and slammed my elbow against the headboard. I let out a small yelp and jumped back up. I cradled my elbow as I carefully sat down on top of my bed, letting out a sigh of defeat.

"I am such a loser," I muttered to nothing in particular. "Why can't I be a normal person with a normal past?" I knew why. My mother married an alcoholic, that's why. Nothing good could come out of that.

"I never realized it until after we got together. He kept that part of his life a secret," Mom always said, trying to defend herself.

"Of course he did! But once you knew, why didn't you break it off? Why didn't you divorce him?" I would reply. "Why didn't you ask someone for help?"

Then her eyes would glaze over and her voice would soften. "I thought I could change him...make him better."

I would always ask why, but she would always change the subject. Who knew why my mother did what she did. Sometimes I dared myself to wonder how life would have been if she had married someone else.

"Kill me now," I groaned again, hating the massive migraine I was getting. "Life is cruel."

A small chuckle interrupted my thoughts and my head whipped up. What was that? I frowned and shook my head. It was probably just my delusional self imagining things. After all, I was the only one in here and I definitely haven't laughed today.

Then out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the window. I slowly stood up so the bed wouldn't creak and alert the intruder. What intruder, I thought skeptically.

As I was slowly making my way towards the window, a thought appeared inside my head. What if someone was actually there? Silently hoping I was hallucinating the chuckle, I approached the window.

I closed my eyes and gripped the curtain with my shaking hand. Quick as lightning, I pulled it aside, opening my eyes and expecting the worse. And then I gasped.

Nothing.

Nothing except a faint handprint in the frost on the windowpane. 

Shocked, I locked the window and pulled the curtain shut for once thanking my mom for getting me the black ones.

I ran back to my bed and pulled the sheets over my head so I couldn't see a thing. 

I was in for a long night.

(A/N BIG THANKS TO @florral she helped me with a lot of this chapter and is making my cover! Give her a cookie guys! She's amazing and she rocks! :)