California Dreaming

Chapter Twenty Five

   I shut the front door and immediately felt my heart begin to beat faster than before. I tried to take a few deep breaths and went around every room on the bottom floor of the house, flicking on as many lights as I could. However, even once the emptiness was illuminated, I still felt the darkness, enclosing around me like a mist, like sharp fingers clawing at my skin. I began scratching at my bare arms, niggled by something which wasn’t even there. 

   I went to the kitchen and pulled open the fridge, sliding out a plate of cut up pineapple and putting it down on the side. I pulled off the cling film and began picking at the pieces of fruit, not hungry, but wanting to do anything to distract myself from the fact that this was the first time I had been on my own in the house for two weeks. I pushed myself up onto the island counter, kicking my feet rhythmically against the shiny, white cabinets. 

   I looked down at the bottom of the fridge, at the black and white floor tiles. That was the place where Gabriel had nearly died, the place where Harry had cut into his flesh and watched as he bled out all over the floor. That image was imprinted on my cortex, the way his blood had shone, like scarlet, glittering in the moonlight. I blinked rapidly, rubbing at my temples slowly, the back of my throat stinging from the pineapple. I pushed the plate back onto the side and started rinsing my hands with cold water, bending over and splashing it back into my face, letting it drip down my cheeks. I stood back up and looked at my reflection in the kitchen window; I looked so thin. 

   I had always been small and sinuous, my shoulders and waist narrow, curvy when compared to my mother’s figure. However, these past couple of days I had been noticing how taut my skin was against my cheekbones, my hollow cheeks. My rips and hipbones could clearly be seen, protruding from my skin unnaturally and unhealthily. 

   Suddenly, there was a flash outside, a movement in the darkness of my backyard. My senses felt heightened, my eyes sharp on the shadows I thought I had seen by the pool. I went to the back door and turned on the spotlights, making the night seem much less scary. I could see the tall oak by the back fence, the wild flowers lining the beds. The pool looked still, the pale blue tiles shimmering beneath the surface, like precious jewels. 

   Switching off the garden light, I continued to look out, flattening my palms against the cold doors and pressing my nose up against it, my breath fogging up the glass. There it was again, as if someone was moving around the side of the house, out of the trees, making vague shadows dance on the pool’s surface. I gasped and moved slowly away from the door. I grabbed my temporary cellphone from the kitchen side top and dialed speed dial one, holding the handset to my ear, my eyes stuck to the back doors. 

   “Jia? What’s up” Gabriel asked, his voice upbeat and optimistic. 

   “Gabriel,” I whispered, “I think there’s someone trying to get into the house,” I said urgently, looking around franticly for the best place to hide, somewhere he wouldn't find me. 

   “Oh my God, Jia,” Gabes gasped, “get out of the house.” 

   “No, I can’t,” I argued. 

   “Get out of the house, go to your neighbors, I’ll be there in five minutes,” I heard him gathering up his keys, the slamming of doors as he rushed out to his car. 

   “Gabriel! I can’t get out, he’ll hear me!” I uttered, backing up against the wall by the front door, turning on the burglar alarm so I would know if anyone came into the house. I grabbed my keys off the hook by the door and pushed one of them into the first lock, turning it to the side and hearing a satisfying click. 

   “Jia, please, do as I tell you, if anything happens to you,” he paused and I heard him gulp anxiously. “Just, I couldn’t live with that; get out.” He sounded distraught, desperate. He was begging me to leave, but I couldn’t get out now, I knew he would find me anyway.