Chapter 7
Liz
Imade my way slowly and painfully to my front door and put my key in the lock.
I should have been home seven hours ago but thanks to a bad wreck on the highway, I’d been stuck in my truck with no way home.
I was definitely billing this as overtime.
I thought I would never tire of the scenery up in the mountains, but after the day I had, no view would be more beautiful than my bed.
The door creaked as I opened it, and I trudged into my dark living room.
Hypervigilance had become my life since I found that note, so when I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up, I stopped.
I moved my keys so they stuck out from between my fingers, essentially making sharp brass knuckles, and scanned the room.
What was wrong?
In the dim light, I couldn’t see a thing out of place.
My TV still hung on the wall. My favorite cozy blanket was still thrown across the back of the couch.
I took a tentative step forward. Had that cup been on the counter when I left?
Why was there dirt crunching under my feet on my doormat?
Was that a boot print on my floor or just a trick of the light? I backed out the front door.
All I wanted to do was shower, have a snack, and go to bed, but since my brain was tired, I was relying on instinct.
Instinct told me to run. I walked quickly back to my car, checking the back seat before I got in and locked the doors.
I was always the one yelling at people in horror movies for making foolish mistakes, so I wasn’t about to make one myself.
I glanced back towards my front door; I had closed it behind me, and it looked the same as it did any other day.
So, I sat there, undecided on what to do.
I could drive to my sister and brother-in-law’s place.
They were newlyweds though, and she was expecting.
The last thing they needed was me showing up on their doorstep at midnight talking about a weird vibe.
I knew they’d bend over backward to help me, but I didn’t want them to feel like they had to.
I could just lie. Say my power was out or something, but it was midnight, and they were probably asleep.
Calling the cops was the next option, but what would I say?
I had no doubt they would send an officer to come check things out if I asked for one.
But this was hardly an emergency. It could take a while for someone to respond.
Besides, I didn’t want to be the woman who cried wolf.
If the note situation really was something, then I would need the cops on my side.
If I called them now and they found nothing, would they hesitate to help later when it was really something? I wasn’t sure.
I had a few friends I could call, or I could go to a hotel.
Instead, I pulled my phone out and my thumb hovered over Nate’s name.
Logically, he was a trained fighter, so if I wasn’t going to have the police with me it would make sense to have him when I walked back in there.
On the other hand, he made me feel safe and not just physically.
He seemed to accept without question that sometimes I needed a hand to hold.
Whether it was driving me home or altering the way we trained so I was comfortable.
He had become a safe space for me without me even realizing it was happening.
I clicked on his name.
“Liz?” I thought I would have woken him, but he answered on the first ring.
I glanced again towards my completely normal-looking front door and momentarily regretted calling him. “Hey, yeah, it’s me.”
No shit.
“What’s wrong, what is it?”
“I don’t know.” That was a hard thing to admit. “I just got home from work, and something felt off as soon as I walked in.”
Silence. “You haven’t been home since this morning?”
“No, there was an accident on the highway.”
I could hear movement. “Where are you?”
“In my car with the doors locked.”
“Stay there, I’m coming.”
There was no point in replying, he’d already hung up.
My anxiety level settled as I waited for Nate, and I felt more and more silly for having called him.
My building looked the same as it always did.
The same cars in the parking lot. The same yellow light burning above the main doors.
Being on the first floor wasn’t ideal from a safety perspective, but the door was closed and locked.
If it wasn’t for that note, I would have been positive this was all in my head.
Nothing had happened since then that I could confidently say wasn’t in my head.
That didn’t change the fact that my intuition was going off like a firework.
I didn’t want to become a statistic. One more person who met an awful fate and people brushed it off by saying they would never have fallen for the perpetrator’s tricks.
I had already escaped that once by leaving my ex.
When Kyle and I met through a dating app, I was ecstatic.
He was good-looking, had a great job, and gave me a hundred and ten percent of his attention on our first date.
He complimented me endlessly and was kind to the waitress.
I left that first dinner thinking he might just be the one.
We were in constant communication after that.
He was always texting to ask how my day was and just check in.
It was so sweet. At least, I thought it was.
Slowly, the texts started to include questions about where I was, who I was with, when I would be home.
He slipped so seamlessly from caring to controlling that I hadn’t even noticed it at first.
Slowly, I stopped going places because it was easier than answering to him about who I was with or hearing the accusations that I was clearly cheating. I toned down my tendency to argue back to keep the peace. If it wasn’t for my sister Natalie, I was not sure if I would have ever gotten out.
God, it had felt good to be myself again once I’d left him. I wasn’t a shrinking violet. I hated the idea that this note had brought that fear back into my life.
Interesting how Kyle always sprang to my mind when I caught sight of the silver car, or when I thought something seemed off.
As much as it didn’t make sense for him to leave a note about my job, he was still my prime suspect.
He had never been violent with me directly, but our apartment had a few holes in the drywall.
He’d physically restrained me on more than one occasion, but it was a big jump from being a little rough to stalking, wasn’t it?