Chapter Nine
Matt Vickers was back. Somehow, her attacker had found her; had known exactly where she was.
Six feet of unstoppable, unhinged muscle, and danger.
And he. Was. Back. Perhaps he never left.
Maybe he had always been there, hiding behind bushes and fences, watching her from a distance.
Waiting around the corner for just the right time to strike.
None of her precautions or efforts to return to normalcy mattered now.
Jake was dead, and it was all her fault.
Vickers picked up right where he had left off, and once again, Dani Kincaid was running for her life.
Headlights chased her down the highway, horns blasting as she ran along the side of the road.
No one stopped to see if she was okay. Dani wouldn’t have trusted a roadside stranger anyway, even if someone did stop to help.
Her fight or flight senses told her to run the minute she locked eyes with her stalker.
All she wanted was to put as much space between her and his body and his dank fucking scent as possible.
Now as she stumbled on foot through the dark, Dani wondered if leaving the movie theater was the right choice.
If she had stayed and screamed for help, would she have been safe, or would she have put more people in danger?
When it came to Matt Vickers, no one was safe.
It was too late for what-if’s. Dani needed to focus on finding help.
The police station was too far away, and all of the local businesses were already closed for the evening.
Just like the first time she was attacked, there was nowhere safe for her to run to.
Nowhere to hide. Her feet ached and a sharp stitch blossomed in her ribcage, but she didn’t dare slow down.
Stopping would give him the chance to catch up with her.
It would mean death, or something worse than death. She didn’t want to find out.
After about a half mile, Dani rounded a corner and spied a familiar shuttered Gas-N-Go.
She was close to home. She had fond memories of buying candy at this very gas station when she was a kid.
Now the once lively hub was abandoned and ominous, its windows cracked and shattered behind graffitied plywood boards.
She prayed that the telephone booth near the entrance still had a connected line as she shoved her hand into her purse in search of a quarter.
Relief spilled into her veins as coins jingled at the bottom of her bag.
She pulled out a single quarter, plunked it into the pay phone slot, and punched her home phone number in.
Crunch.
Squeal.
We’re sorry. The number you’re trying to reach is no longer in service.
“What?” Dani panted and slammed the phone back into its cradle. Her quarter clinked and deposited inside the pay phone. “Fuck!”
Dani reached into her bag and found her last quarter. Maybe she had dialed the wrong number in her panic-stricken haste. She couldn’t risk wasting her last quarter. This time, she punched in 9-1-1. She breathed in short, ragged breaths as the operator’s voice crackled in her ear.
“9-1-1. What’s your emergency?”
“Please, help me! I’m at the abandoned Gas-N-Go off State Road 1 in Santana Beach. Send someone, hurry!”
“Ma’am, I’m having a hard time hearing you,” the operator said. “Could you repeat that again?”
“My name is Dani Kincaid, my friend was murdered at the Galaxy 8 movie theater,” she said, barely able to choke out the words. “Please, just send someone!”
“Did you say someone was murdered?”
“Yes!” She shouted, her hand a vice grip on the receiver. “It was him! He’s back!”
“Ma’am, I really need you to slow down. Who’s back?”
Her gaze flicked toward the highway and a pair of slow moving headlights. Dani held her breath as a vehicle turned into the abandoned parking lot. A black Mustang.
“No!”
Adrenaline rushed through her veins and numbed her limbs.
Dani dropped the receiver and bolted from the payphone.
He found her again. The police couldn’t help her now.
She would have to make a run for it through the woods that surrounded her neighborhood.
Even if she couldn’t outrun him, at least she could hide among the trees.
The ferocious sound of a V8 engine roared at her back as she pushed her way into the darkened forest.
Before that night, Dani wouldn’t have been caught dead in those woods after dark.
Her parents warned her of cougars, bears and strange men who lurked along the trail that connected the main highway and their suburban neighborhood.
She would gladly take her chance against fangs and teeth and vagrants compared to the horror that was searching for her.
Low hanging branches scratched at cheeks and her sneakers soaked through with mud as she stumbled along the unkempt path.
Dani never stopped moving and didn’t dare look back; she only looked ahead, through the trees toward home.
Every step she took was filled with terror as she anticipated the cool, sharp edge of a knife against her throat or a hand across her mouth as a blade pierced her shoulder.
Maybe it would be better if she just gave in and let him have her.
She could finally have peace then, bleeding out amongst the damp leaves, staring up at the stars through the canopy.
No. Giving up wasn’t an option. She had to live. She had to run.
Dani pushed forward and focused on the path until she spotted a street lamp through the trees.
She was so close. She worked her exhausted limbs past the brink and stepped out of the woods and onto the sidewalk toward home.
Her legs were tight from running, her lungs made of pure fire as she stumbled into her darkened driveway.
Even though she should have been relieved, a nauseous pit burrowed into her stomach.
Her parents always left a light on for her to come home to.
They always waited up for her. Something didn’t feel right.
As Dani approached the front door, the chasm of fear inside her only grew wider and deeper.
She pulled her keys from her pocket to unlock the front door, but realized that she didn’t need them before she even reached the threshold.
The front door to her house was slightly ajar, the latch just resting against the door jamb.
She held her breath and pushed the door open.
It took less than a split second for Dani to realize something was very wrong.
The entryway lamp was turned on its side, the bulb emitting a soft beam of yellow light toward the ceiling at an unnatural angle.
The air was stale and sour. She spied the portable phone on the entryway table and grabbed it with shaking hands.
Even though both of her parents' cars were parked out front, the house felt unnaturally still.
The only sound was the muted laughter and music of cable TV drifting from the master bedroom.
“Mom? Dad? Are you home?”
No answer. Dani walked past the overturned lamp, her heart drumming in her chest. She plucked the phone from its cradle and punched 9-1-1 into the keypad.
“9-1-1. What’s your emergency?”
“Hello,” she said. “My name is Dani Kincaid. I’m at 311 Juniper Drive. I just called a few minutes ago. I was attacked at the Galaxy 8 theater and …”
CLICK.
The receiver went dead in her hand. Her blood stilled as she returned the phone to the cradle.
It was too late. The canister of mace in her pocket was empty and useless.
All she had left to defend herself was the switchblade.
She wrapped her hand around the knife, removed it from her pocket and flicked the blade open as she ventured further into her home.
A soft glow from her parent’s television guided Dani through the hallway as she padded toward their room.
Tears pricked the corners of her eyes as she held the knife in front of her with a shaky hand.
Tommy. Kyle. The fucking fisherman. Now Jake.
In her heart, Dani knew her worst fears were about to come true.
It wasn’t even 10 P.M. Her parents wouldn’t have fallen asleep yet.
They always waited up for her to come home.
Still, she had to see it with her own eyes. She had to know.
Dani pushed the door to her parent’s bedroom open, and grief caved in her chest. Dom and Brenda Kincaid lay sprawled across their bed in a tangle of bloody sheets, unmoving and long dead.
The room was in disarray, and it was obvious that her parents had put up a valiant struggle with their attacker.
Dani shook and wailed as the horror of her reality played out in front of her to the soft backtrack of Nick at Nite canned laughter.
But Dani didn’t have time to grieve.
Under the soft television laughter, Dani could just hear the gentle gliding whoosh of the back sliding door.
There wasn’t anything she could do to help her poor parents now.
She snapped to attention, set aside her misery, and kicked back into self-defense mode.
She could have escaped through the bedroom window and ran to the neighbors’ house, but she would only bring Matt’s wrath upon them as well.
Dani was tired of running. She held her knife high and moved toward the living room, determined to face her attacker head on once and for all.