Vulnerable

prologue

PROLOGUE... I sat there trembling, with my back pressed against the wall of my closet, knife in hand. Tears poured down my cheeks, but I tried to hold in my cries with the fear of being heard. I tightly hugged my knees to my chest trying to stay calm. What if he finds me? What is he going to do to me? The very thought of what this strange man would do sickened me.. 

Footsteps. Heavy, footsteps. They slowly crept down the hallway twards my bedroom. Oh no. I could feel my heart rapidly pounding, trying to punch it's way through my chest. I've got to clam down. He won't find me right? Right? The doorknob to my room turned and the door slammed open. Wrong.  

"I know your in here." he teased in a raspy voice that sent chills up my spine. "What makes you think it's so easy to hide from me Kim?" My eyes widened. He knows my name. Who is this man? My heart sped up making my entire body shake. I began to fear that he would hear the very sound of my heart. What an awful thing to give my hiding place away.  

He walked around for a moment. The heels of his boots loudly slammed to floor with each angry step he took. I could tell his frustration was building by the way he slammed my desk to the side and threw my desk chair across the room. It slammed into my mirror and I heard the glass shatter to the floor. I could hear other things being tossed around as he continued to search for me. 

"Where the hell are you!" He screamed, which made me jump and I slammed my head against the wall behind me. It made a loud thud, stopping the strange man in his tracks. Shit, he knows where I am. 

He slyly laughed just like I do when i'm playing poker and i've got a royal flush. I was never very good at keeping my poker face. But I guess it didn't matter now since the man behind my closet door was about to kill me. I could hear him slowly stepping in front of the door, hesitating to turn the knob. His breath was heavy and raspy just like his voice. He sounds like a smoker, a heavy one. 

I lifted the knife in front of my face that I had grabbed out of the kitchen from my mother's collection of knives. It was my first instinct when I realized there was someone in my house, and that someone wasn't one of my parents. I knew I hated being home alone for some reason. 

His hand latched onto the knob and slowly turned it. I defensively pushed myself against the wall more, but it's not like it could save me. Nothing could. I was truly helpless. Tears continued to flow down my burning cheeks. The door began to creek open. This is it. The old wooden door slammed open, although I saw no one. It was so dark. I was nearly swallowed by the blackness. Maybe this could save me, maybe he wouldn't see me?  

But in those next long, agonizing seconds, I was found. But not because he saw me. I heard a sudden loud boom that irritated my ears, and felt the rumble of the floor beneath me. Did he just shoot the floor?  I screamed out with fear, and surprise, which may have costed me my life.

He grinned in the moonlight at his now cornered prey, and before I could try to find a way to escape I was being punched. His rough fist slammed into my temple sending an awful pain through my head.

 I began to sway, and as I fell to the floor slipping into unconsciousness, I could just barley hear him chuckling with delight, he finally got me.