Never Again

Chapter 6

Katie's - POV

After that night I had trouble sleeping as I kept imagining someone breaking in and hurting me or, worse, mum.

Those thoughts kept me up, thinking about who did this, and more importantly, why they did and what their intentions were.

Although I wasn't getting much sleep in the night I made up for it by going to sleep straight after I came home from school, which mum noticed and commented on, but I brushed it off as the academic year kicking my arse, which to be fair, was.

She was going to be gone from this Friday, so I would be in the house without anyone there. No one was available to come over either so I would have to tough it out on my own.

Every time I walked home from school I had felt like I was being watched.  I shook it off as I had got used to it because it had been happening the past week or so. This made me a bit scared as I considered whether it was the person coming back, but nothing more had happened so I had slowly got more and more comfortable.

That was until one day when I was walking home from school.

It was a normal day apart from the feeling of eyes but that soon changed when, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of black hair as a person darted around a corner into an alleyway.

Deciding to see what was going on, I walked over to the entrance, peeking around the red brick corner into the dead end.

There was no one there.

Slowly walking to the alley I didn't see any trace that anyone had been through here, even though I was sure I'd seen someone.

When I got to the end of the alley and I still didn't see anything, I sighed, irritated that my paranoia had made me see things. I turned around to walk back when suddenly I felt a sense of dread, like that night, creeping up my spine. This scared me enough that I flew straight out of the alley way and kept on frantically sprinting until I got home. I only started to slow down when I saw my front door approaching.

Reaching into my pocket for my keys I pulled them out, jammed it into the lock, flung it open before shutting it behind me and double locking it.

I was out of breath and hated running and that's why I avoided it at all costs - I was definitely feeling the effects now.

Going into the kitchen I got a glass of water.

I started second guessing myself: was there really someone there? Why didn't I feel anything wrong before I went into the alley?

By the time I'd finished I was no longer as freaked out as before and chalked the experience down to what happened last week.

Checking the kitchen counter I saw the note that mum had left.

Have a nice weekend sweetie, I left money on the table.

Love you.

My mum was always so sweet. I didn't know what I'd do without her.

I was sitting at the kitchen counter thinking about things and made a conscious effort to push my fears away and go to the party that most of my school were going to. I really needed a distraction with everything that was going on.

                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three hours later I was on my way to the party. It didn't take that long to get ready. Luckily it only took two hours.

I was walking as I didn't want to waste money on an Uber fare. The money I had was for most meals over the weekend as we had run out food in the fridge.

When I arrived, I realised that the party was already well underway: beer cans strewn across the front lawn, people standing on the porch drinking and talking and music blaring from inside the house which seemed to shake the whole building.

I walked up the steps, weaving in and out of the people posted outside.

When I entered the house the music got even louder and there were way more people, which made me feel quite small and alone. Before anything had even happened I regretted coming here.

"Watch it!" Some big guy said as I accidentally bumped into him.

I quickly darted away to the drinks table as I really needed one to deal with this claustrophobic atmosphere.

I got a drink and quickly downed the whole thing and picked up another one before going into the less crowed kitchen.

In there I saw the first person I recognised ... someone I'd forgotten about since the incident.

Blake.

Feeling the courage from the beer I stepped up to him and patted him on the shoulder. His head turned, but when he saw that it was me, he faced me head on.

"Hey," I said, "how are you?"

"I'm good," he said, staring at me weirdly. "What are you doing here?"

"Um, at a party, drinking and talking to you."

"I can see that," he said amusingly. "I mean we don't really talk much, do we?"

"No, we don't," I conceded, "but you're the only person I kind of know who is here."

"Oh," he said, frowning, "You didn't come with one of your friends? I always see you with them."

"They were busy and I wanted to have some fun.  I didn't expect to see anyone that I knew here, so it's a pleasant surprise." I said, looking back into the front room.

I wanted to dance.

"...If you need anything, okay?"

"Sure," I said, then downed the rest of my beer, "I'm going to dance." Before slinking away.

Why did I feel so drunk? I had only had two beers.

I decided to check the table where all the drinks had been and then I saw why I felt the way I did.

Someone had spiked the beer with something stronger.

What I wondered was how I hadn't tasted the difference.

It didn't matter, I thought. I wanted to dance.

The rest of the night was a blur of people and drinks. I was dancing and laughing a lot, although I didn't even know who with, which, if I was in my right state of mind, would've scared me but as I had been drinking a lot it never even crossed my mind once that anything was awry.

"Cops!" Someone in the crowd shouted.

It was a stampede of people running out every exit and as I was pretty drunk I was having trouble standing up straight in the mob of people.

As I was dragged along with the crowd I stumbled and nearly fell just as someone latched onto my arm, keeping my upright.

"I've got you." They said, before taking me out a different exit as I passed out.

The next thing I remembered was waking up in bed with a stranger.