Deeper

29 | In the Dark

All of those things are real. I've seen them on the news. There are many cases of women being kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed in a sadistic manner before their bodies were found sometime later.

A tear falls from my eye. What have I done to this psychopath that made me deserve to be in this position? What have I done wrong?

A few minutes pass by in silence. I'm praying to God that the person won't find me. Vaughn is coming, and I can't help but hope that he'll be here soon. It seems that he's taking a motorbike earlier, which can make him get here faster.

I know that the person is trying to find me, because I hear him opening the door to the room at the far corner of the hallway. As to why he's on the second floor, I'm guessing that he'd heard me play the piano and knew that I was walking upstairs.

His footsteps slowly pace on the ground as he opens another door on this floor. He would check all the rooms, one by one. I can't see what he's doing, but when I think that he's entering the other room, my mind tells me to just run off and head to the front door.

But no, it will be too risky. I can't guarantee that he won't catch me. This is the time when I realize all over again about how weak a woman's strength compared to a man's.

I don't have any idea how he could break into my house and turned off the power supply. As far as I remember, I've locked the door. And there are securities guarding the complex. He wouldn't have been able to get inside without my consent unless he'd been here before. But, who knows? Those criminals have always found ways to break in, just like I saw on the news.

My breath hitches as panic swells up inside me. Please, please, please. Don't let him get me.

Hiding here behind the desk by myself, while knowing that it's only to be found later by the psychopath in just a matter of time, makes me feel like I'm waiting for a death sentence. More minutes that pass by feels like hours.

I jerk a little as I hear his movement getting closer. My body goes limp, as if all my bones have dissolved away.

The door to this room creaks open, and my heart almost stops before it pounds against my ribs at an incredible speed. A scream threatens to spill from my mouth that I have to cover it with my shaking hand, my eyes wide and filled with tears.

The person stops moving as he stands by the door, probably noticing the music sheets shattered on the floor. I swallow a big lump in my throat as his footsteps draw nearer.

"Melanie!" Vaughn's shout suddenly echoes as I hear the front door banged open.

My sobs almost break as sudden hope and relief explode in my chest. He came.

I can feel the person whirl around, taken aback by the sudden intrusion. His attention is immediately shifted to Vaughn. While I'm guessing that he's slowly stepping back into the hallway, I peek from behind the desk and gasp when I see him pulling out a pocket knife.

The sound of Vaughn's footsteps fades out as he walks further from the staircase, probably starting to look in my room.

No. I want to scream that I'm here, but the words are caught up in my throat. The psycho finally steps out of the room, and when I think that he's far enough for me to get out of my hiding place, I tiptoe toward the door and peek again.

Then I see him stepping closer to the railing, eyeing Vaughn, who just disappeared around the corner downstairs. A gasp leaves my lips as the person opens his pocket knife.

I whirl myself back into the room and push my back against the wall, shaking. The thought of the lunatic having a weapon to attack Vaughn behind his back and that he may be able to hurt him goes crazy inside my mind.

No, Vaughn. I'm here. He's here!

"Vaughn!" I scream. My heart thumps wildly, and I feel like my legs are about to give in.

Hearing abrupt movement from the psycho, I wait no longer to rush away from the door, running further toward the end of the room. But what could I possibly do to escape him? It's just a matter of time until he catches me.

The moment I find myself trapped in a dead-end, I turn around, my back against the window.

And here, I finally come face to face with the bastard. My lips tremble as I see him approaching me. With that balaclava mask and hoodie covering his head, I still can't recognize him in the dark.

He grips my wrist and catches me in his arms, making me struggle against his hold.

"No! Let me go!" I scream at the top of my lungs, but to my horror, he tightens his grip on me that his arm throttles my neck.

It hurts so much to the point that I can't even breathe. Roughly, he drags me outside the room and toward the railing leading to the stairs. With his arm against my neck, choking me, my vision can't make anything that surrounds me except for the ceiling. But I can still hear Vaughn's footsteps as he runs upstairs. Even the sound of his ragged breaths fills my ears, telling me that he's goddamn panicked as he's coming for me.

I cough from the lack of air filling my lungs. My hands shoot to the person's arm, gripping it, begging him to release it from my neck.

But instead of him sparing me, I feel something cold and sharp against my chin. My eyes snap open, and fear clenches tightly around my chest.

Vaughn pants as he reaches the second floor. My lifesaver is now here before me, but somehow, that hope is once again shattered as I lie limp in this lunatic's arms.

A tear falls from my eye, my sobs finally breaking. I wince as a sharp pain slices my skin. The person has just scratched a small cut on my neck with the knife.

And for the first time, I see fear in Vaughn's eyes.

"Stay there!" the person whispers frantically, making me think that panic had seized him the moment Vaughn entered the house. My consciousness slowly begins to leave me due to him throttling my neck that I can't make out the owner of the voice muffled by the mask he's wearing.

The panic and frustration in his voice apparently frighten me, because I know that he might even do something crazy when he's threatened.

"Or I'll hurt her," he hisses, making my heart freeze in place.