My eyes flutter open and for the first time in ages I feel relaxed. It takes me a second to realise that im in my bed with a book in my hands and headphones in my ears. Closing the book, I sit up and pull my headphones from my ears. The house is quite, too quite. My feet move off the bed and I stand up, heading towards the door.
I knock on my brother’s door but there’s no reply and no noise from inside. Pushing it open I say “Nath, you here?”
Once it’s fully open I see that it’s empty. i turn and walk out closing the door behind me and calling down the stairs “Nathan? Mum? Is anyone in?”
No one replies. I sigh and go back to my room, grabbing my phone and checking the time. Its 5:26, my mum should be her in like an hour. I lay back on my bed with nothing to do.
I wonder where Nathan is. I know he left after he warned me not to get involved with Dan, but that was like 2 and half maybe 3 hours ago. I hear a rattle from downstairs, making me jump. Im frozen in place, straining my ears to hear the noise again. When I do hear it again I shoot to my door and into the hall way. I have a perfect view of the front door from the stair case and I see it shake and the handle turn.
What the fuck?
Slowly, I creep towards the door. It continues to rattle and shake and I know that someone is trying to get in. looking through the peep hole I see that it’s a man. He has his back to me so I can’t see him very well but I know it’s a man from his short haircut.
He turns around and looks at the door with such hatred it shocks me. I stumble away from the door and crash into the small table in the hallway, making me fall. “Shit” I curse under my breath.
“Who the hell is he?” I whisper to myself, even though I know he heard the racket of me falling into the table.
My mind runs with possibilities. Maybe it’s one of Nathan’s friends from college. I shake my head. That’s not possible the way he looked at the door like it had killed his mother tells me that he isn’t.
Maybe it’s my mum’s stalker. It’s a possibility. I’ve never actually seen the guy that keeps on hanging around our house so I wouldn’t know it if he was but he may be. If this man is my mum’s stalker then why did he look so hateful towards the door? Isn’t a stalker supposed to like be in love with the person he’s stalking?
Something is eating away at me and I don’t know what it is. Im scared, alone and I don’t know what to do. Call the police, idiot. My subconscious says to me but I push her down. No, my mum would kill me if I called the police and caused a scene.
Building up my courage, I stand from my fallen spot on the floor and walk back to the door. Bringing my eyes to the peep hole again to see the man’s still there staring at the door with the same burning hatred.
I take time to study his features. He has short chocolate brown hair, defined cheek bones and full lips. He must be in at least his thirties. When I look at his eyes I see that there a startling blue, like my own.
My chest tightens and a lump rises in my throat. It couldn’t be him. No way. I would recognise the man who ruined my childhood. The man that left me afraid every night. He opens his mouth and a deep voice sounds from his lips “Karen. I know you’re in there. I heard you. You can’t run away from me forever you know. I’ve spent years tracking you and the kids down. I will see them again. I wasn’t quite finished with my son when you left. Hadn’t quite finished toughening him up.”
What?
“I’ll be back. Again and again I will return here until you open this door and let me see my children. If you don’t open this door, things won’t be pretty and I won’t be nice” he throws his head back and laughs. “Hell I can’t promise I’ll be nice if you do open the door, but I can promise one thing, I will get into this house one way or another. If you pack up and run, I will find you. That’s my only promise.” He smirks at the door in an evil way and turns, walking away from the house.
