Falling For A Criminal

Falling For A Criminal - Chapter Seven

When I didn’t say anything, he ran into the door again, and that sent me into a panic. I had already endured enough pain today; how much more was coming my way?

Shaking off my possibly over-dramatic thinking, I looked under my bed for a pair of sneakers and I ran towards the window. Another loud thud against the door caused me to jump, and I was certain that I heard the door begin to break. Damn it, how do I explain that to my mom? Cussing under my breath, I threw the window open and stuck one leg out, just as the door was crashed into again.

I looked down and grew wide-eyed; how the hell did I forget that I was on the second floor? I knew that now wasn’t the best time to freak out, but what else could I do? I was afraid of heights!

Just as I began to second-guess myself, the door flew open and the hooded figure walked in, making eye contact with me for just a second before I closed my eyes and jumped. I expected my landing to hurt, but the snow had just been deep and cold—really cold. I guess I chose the wrong day to wear shorts in the house…

Forcing myself to sit up, I looked up at my window and saw that the person was watching me with a sudden playfulness in their eyes, and I stiffened when I saw that they were now running out of my room, and most likely out of the house to where I was. I didn’t want to give him the chance to catch me, so, ignoring the pain that shot up my legs, I ran off my front lawn and down the block.

I could hear a pair of footsteps behind me, but that simply encouraged me to speed up my running; knowing that at any moment I could slip and land on my head—something dramatic; you never know.

“Adriana!”

“Leave me alone!” I sped up just a little more until I turned the block and saw the familiar two-story house that I had spent a lot of my time in. Hopefully she’ll hear me if I call her… Stopping for only a second, I opened my mouth and screamed. “Cassandra!” Almost out of sheer instinct, she poked her head from her window and looked at me with a confused look on her face. It was only when I heard a pair of footsteps behind me that I ran towards her front door and frantically began knocking. “Cas, open the door!”

Quickly, the door was opened and I came face to face with her dad. I honestly didn’t care at this point who it was; I threw my arms around their torso and began to sob uncontrollably into his shirt. “Adriana, what happened? Why are you in shorts?”

Was that really his main concern?! Slowly turning around, I looked into the night time air and tried to see if the hooded person from before was still there, but since none of the street lights were on, I really couldn’t tell. But I knew I wasn’t crazy; I knew someone had been chasing me, but should I really tell that to my fathers best friends? He’d probably think I was making it up. Of course, I wouldn’t be crying—or so short of breath had it not actually happened.

“C-can I see Cassandra?”

Nodding, he stepped out of the way and let me run into my worried best friends arms. A look of concern passed from her face to her fathers, but I was too scared to care; I had just barely escaped being kidnapped—if not something worse; I deserved to let out a few tears. “Adriana, what's the matter?”

Not knowing how to answer, I shook my head and felt myself slowly losing consciousness. The last thing I remembered was someone screaming my name before everything went black.

[ Haydn's POV. . . ]

Bringing a cigarette up to my lips, I blew out a puff of smoke and looked at the snow fall from the front of my apartment. I had been casually leaning across the frame of the door when I heard frantic running coming in my direction from inside, and sure enough, when I turned around, my brother, Chase was standing with his hand on his chest and a scared look on his face. Since I wasn't really in the mood to deal with anything, I simply raised an eyebrow and took another puff. “Something on your mind, Chase?”