Was he still watching her? Lexi lifted her eyes from the paperback she had in her hands and snuck a quick glance at the man dressed in black standing by the magazine stand. He held a copy of North American Hunter while pretending to read it, but his black soulless eyes were on her. Same as the other four times she caught him watching her since entering the grocery store.
What did he want with her? Was he a psycho that preyed on young girls? The thought sent a cold chill down her spine, making her shiver and lifting the fine hair on her slender arms.
An older woman wearing khaki pants and a blue vest with the store name printed on the breast pocket walked past her while she spoke into a walkie talkie, “I need you to clean up a mess in aisle number five.” The man dressed in black placed the magazine on the rack when the woman headed toward him. He quickly left the aisle without giving Lexi a second glance. She loosened the death grip she had on the book and let out her breath in a gust.
Finally, he was gone.
She placed the paperback on the rack and searched for another one to read. Stephen King, Dean Kontz and James Herbert—all the horror authors she enjoyed reading were crammed in the framed metal holders, but none of them interested her since she’d already read them all.
A boy with braces around her age, fourteen years-old, came up beside her. He said with a lisp, “Why don’t you read this book. It’s my favorite.”
He held out a book for her to take. On the cover it had a drawing of a man and a dead teenage boy with a wood stake pierced through his chest. She scrunched up her face. Not another vampire story. She wanted to push the book away, but reconsidered since it was the only one she hadn’t read.
“Thanks,” she said and tucked the book under her arm and meandered down the aisle, searching for something else that might interest her. The boy followed close behind. Her parents warned her to never talk to strangers, not even kids her own age, but he was cute and seemed cool. It wouldn’t kill her to hang out with him for a little bit in the store.
She moistened her lips, tasting the cherry flavor lip gloss. “So,” she said, tucking a strand of her strawberry blond hair behind her ear. “Do you want to play a game or something?”
The boy’s face lit up. “I know. I could show you a magic trick.” He grabbed a deck of cards from the stand, tore open the packaging and fanned out the cards. “Pick one and then I’ll guess what it is.”
She picked up the top card and focused on it.
“Is it the king of hearts?”
“No, it’s the four of clubs.” She showed him the card. “Maybe it’ll work if I guess what card you’re holding.”
“I doubt it.” The boy said with a hint of arrogance to his voice. “Only trained magicians can perform this trick.”
A devious smile spread across her lips. “We’ll see about that.” She snatched the deck from his hand and held it out for him. He pulled out a card and held it close to his chest so she couldn’t see it. She didn’t wait a second before blurting out, “It’s the queen of diamonds.”
“Yeah, it is.” He gaped at the card with his eyes widening. “But that was a lucky guess. Let’s see if you can do it a second time.” He grabbed another card.
“Seven of spades,” she sung out.
He blinked a couple of times. “Okay two out of three.” He grabbed another card. She guessed the card right again and then another and another until she went through twenty cards. “How can you do that?” he demanded.
She shrugged. “I can read your thoughts.”
“Cool. What am I thinking now?”
“Let me see.” She moved closer to him and made a big show of it, even though the distance had no effect whether she heard his thoughts or not. She whispered to him, “You think my green eyes are pretty.”
His head bobbed up and down. “That’s right.”
“Oh and that’s not all I can do. I can sense when something bad is about to happen—“ She froze when the man dressed in black picked up a comic book several feet from her.
“Who’s that?” The boy asked. “He’s scary looking.”
“Yeah, he is.”
His features seemed to transform into something dark and sinister. Even the way he stood seemed threatening to her. Any doubt she had whether he was a psycho or not disappeared. He was definitely a psycho.
“Oh, there’s my mom,” the boy said. “I have to go.”
“Goodbye,” she muttered, keeping her eyes on the man.
He thumbed through the comic and laughed, but once the boy left the aisle, the man dropped the comic and turned toward her with a hard, cold expression.
She rushed down the aisle, looking over her shoulder periodically. He followed after her, taking long strides. She sped up her pace. He did the same. The gap between them shrunk every step she took. She pushed herself to run faster, but he gripped her shoulder and jerked her to a halt.
Oh, God, she thought. This is it. I’m going to die.
Suddenly, he let go of her.
She couldn’t believe it until her mom shouted, “It’s time to go.”
Yes! Score one for mom. “Coming.”
Lexi ran to the end of the aisle toward a woman with long brown hair neatly pulled back in a ponytail. Once she reached her mom, she wanted to shout at the man, Ha, ha, ha. I got away. But her entire body tensed up as his thoughts filled her mind and he spoke directly to her.
“You lucked out this time, but you won’t the next time I come for you.”
A lump stuck in her throat. He was going to try and take her again. She needed to get away from him. She grabbed the plastic cart handle and shoved it forward.
“Slow down,” her mom demanded.
Lexi kept going, stopping only after reaching the checkout stand. “I’ll take care of placing the groceries on the counter.” She threw several cans on the black conveyor belt. She dropped a box of noodles on the ground and spotted the man.
He stood next to a book rack a few feet from her and didn’t attempt to mask his thoughts. Actually, he flaunted it. “When I grab you later, I’m not going to kill you right away. I may torture you first, cutting open your veins.”
He wanted to torture her? She gulped and scooped up the remaining groceries in the cart and dumped them on the counter.
Her mom rearranged the mess she made and asked, “Why are you in such a hurry?”
“I have a bad feelin—“ Lexi held her breath when the man got in line behind her and placed a black book on the counter. He scooted right next to her and his hand grazed hers. She jerked her hand away from him.
“What’s wrong with you?” her mom demanded.
Lexi ran around to the other side of her mom and motioned toward the man. But the grocery clerk announced the grand total and her mom focused her attention on the credit card machine.
“Excuse me, but is this yours?” the man asked her mom, holding up a magazine for her to see. His eyes lowered to her open wallet where her driver license was in clear view.
Oh, no, he wasn’t going to get her address, not if she could help it. Lexi snatched the wallet from her mom.
She gave Lexi a scolding look for acting rude, but she didn’t care if her mom grounded her for life. She was getting out of the store and away from that psycho. She pushed the cart out of the store and across the parking lot to her mom’s Jeep Cherokee. Her heart beat faster when she noticed the man stepped out of the store. She needed to leave that second before he followed her home. She threw the groceries into the trunk and slammed the hatchback down.
“Lexi, you almost got my hand.”
“Sorry, mom,” she said and jumped into the passenger seat.
Her mom slid into the driver seat, closed the door and buckled up. Then she dug in her purse for a pair of sunglasses. All the while, Lexi kept an eye on the man. He darted over to a beige sedan. Her small window of opportunity to escape him had just about disappeared. She gripped her mom’s purse and pulled it toward her. “Can we go now? I don’t want that man.” She pointed at him. “To follow us home.”
“Why would he follow us home?”
“He tried to grab me in the store and threatened to try again.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?” Her mom stared at his car. It backed up, rolled toward the driveway and turned the opposite direction of their home. “He doesn’t seem to be following us, but I want you to stay inside tonight.”
Lexi didn’t argue with her mom. She wanted to stay inside, locked up tight so he couldn’t get close to her.
For two weeks she stayed inside her two-story house, sitting at the dining room table, staring out the large window, searching for him. Her eyes traveled from a redwood tree trunk and then to the narrow road that twisted around another tree trunk. There were no sign of the man since the day in the grocery store. Maybe he given up on trying to kill her, at least she hoped.
“Hey kido,” her dad said, holding a piece of paper in his hand. “Why did you fail your math test? You never get anything below an A.”
She turned toward him, standing on the other side of the table. “I didn’t study for it,” she diverted her eyes from his. “I left my book by the large tree in the woods and didn’t feel safe getting it after that man tried to grab me in the grocery store.”
“Is your premonition warning you he’s around?” He raked his fingers through his greying-brown hair. “The cops told me, he checked out of his motel the day after we reported him and hasn’t been seen anywhere in town since, but that doesn’t mean a whole lot.”
“No. I haven’t felt anything since I saw him in the grocery store.”
“Then it should be safe for you to go outside.”
Even though she hadn’t received any premonition warning he was close by, she didn’t feel comfortable walking in the woods alone. “Can you walk with me?”
“Sure, I’ll go with you.”
She followed him into the redwood forest a few feet from their house. The trees stood several hundred feet tall and blocked most of the sunlight from entering the forest. They followed a dirt path that took them deep within the forest and stopped close to a tree that leaned to the side.
“Which way should we go?” her dad asked.
“I left my book by that tree over there.” She pointed toward a large redwood tree with a notch carved out of it the size of a door.
“Go get it. I’ll wait here.”
Her mouth dropped open and she gasped out, “You want me to get it alone?”
“You won’t be alone. I’ll wait here.”
She scanned the distance from the tree to her. It appeared to be the length of a football field with several hiding places the man could jump out from and snatch her: behind a tree, behind a bush or inside a tree hole. Oh, she wasn’t going out there alone. “I rather you walk with me.” Her voice cracked. “I . . . I just don’t want to go by myself.”
He opened his mouth, but closed it when her mom’s voice sang out, “Brian, there’s a phone call for you, someone from your office.”
“I’m sorry kido.” He patted her head. “But I have to take this call.”
“Wait dad—“
“I’ll only be an earshot away. Grab your book and come straight home.”
Her mouth dried up. It took all her strength to force out the words, “Please dad, don’t leave me here alone.”
But he continued to run toward their house. Within a few seconds, he disappeared behind several trees and the forest became silent. Not a single sound could be heard. That had to be a bad sign. She debated whether to run home or go get her book. Her dad would be upset if she didn’t bring back the book and failed another test.
The feeling of danger overwhelmed her, sucking the air out of her lungs. Oh, God. The man must in the woods.
She sprinted toward her house, pumping her legs as hard as possible. She side stepped a bush and leaped over a fallen tree limb. After a few seconds, the dirt path that led to her house came into view. She only had a few yards to go and she would be safe at home.
Her foot caught on something and she landed hard on the ground. She stood up and searched the ground for whatever tripped her. Her eyes settled on a black book lying in a pile of leaves. Who would put a book here? Then it hit her. The man in the store bought a black book. Every alarm in her head went off.
The man jumped out from behind a bush and reached out to grab her.
She dodged to the right to get around him, but he blocked her. So she moved to the left and he blocked her again. Lifting her foot, she kicked him between the legs hard like her dad taught her.
He bent over and grabbed his groin and, she sprinted toward the clearing. She ran past a tree stump and then a rock. In the distance the red roof on her house came into view. She didn’t have far to go before making it home, but it wasn’t close enough to escape him. Suddenly, her body slammed on to the ground with a thud.
“I got you,” the man said and sat on top of her.
She struggled and screamed for help, “Mom, dad—“
He placed his hand over her mouth before she shouted another word. A sad expression swept over his face with a hint of regret, something she didn’t expect of a psycho like him.
“You’re very pretty. You remind me of an angel—pure and innocent. I wish I could keep you for all of eternity and make you my own, but,” he pulled out a large hunting knife with a long serrated blade from his pant waist band and lifted it up high before he continued to say, “you’re the spawn of the devil and because of that I must kill you before you destroy us all with your powers.”
She bit his hand covering her mouth, until he jerked it away from her. Then she screamed, “Mom, Dad, help—“
He struck her face with his fist. The force of the blow made her head spin as she struggled to remain conscious. He lifted the knife up in the air and thrust it at her chest. She closed her eyes and waited for the blade to pierce her heart.
But the blade never reached her chest. It flew out of the man’s hand and hit a redwood tree when her father kicked the man. The man scrambled to reach for the knife, but her dad held a gun to his head and shouted, “Cheryl, grab Lexi. I’ll take care of him.”
Her mom ran out from behind a tree trunk, breathing heavy. She clutched Lexi’s hand and pulled her toward their house. Not once did her mom slow down. She didn’t stop until they were safe inside the house and the front door had been dead bolted.
Her mom bent over to catch her breath and asked Lexi, in between gasping for air, “Are you alright?”
But Lexi wasn’t alright, far from it. Tears welled up in her eyes and she choked out, “He thought I was the spawn of the devil.”
“He’s crazy, honey.” Her mom hugged her. “You’re not the devil.”
“But he thought I would destroy everyone with my powers.”
Her mom pulled away from Lexi and stared at her with wide eyes. The color had faded from her face and she swallowed hard before stuttering, “H-he k-knew you can read others minds?”
“Yes. He saw me guessing cards with a boy in the store.”
“Why didn’t you mention before you told a boy you can read minds?” Her mom grabbed her shoulders and squeezed them tight. “Lexi, how many times must I warn you, it’s not safe to tell anyone what you can do?”
“But why?”
“There are too many people like that man who can’t handle it and consider you’re a threat to them.”
“They think I’m dangerous because I can read their minds?” She couldn’t believe it.
“Yes and they’ll do anything to feel safe again, even kill you. I don’t ever want to lose you because other’s twisted fears.” Her mom hugged Lexi tight and kissed her forehead. “So please promise me to never tell another person about what you can do.”
Lexi nodded her head and bit her lower lip until it bled. “I swear. I won’t ever tell another living soul about what I can do.”
She didn’t want to come that close to being killed ever again. And for the past couple of months, nothing bad happened to her. She started to believe nothing bad would ever happen to her again until now . . .
- - - - -
The first book The Zeuorian Awakening is now available at Amazon and other online retailers.
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