Before The Fall (Suicide Notes Prequel)

The Dark

~Published: March 16, 2015~

Victoria London drove herself home in worried silence. Her grip on the steering wheel never loosened and was borderline painful, but it was the only thing keeping her tethered to the moving vehicle and her mind.

He knows, Victoria thought. How can he know?

He knows everything, a voice whispered next to her.

Victoria snapped her head in the direction of the voice and stared at the grim face of her sister.

Veronica sat in the passenger seat in the same outfit that Victoria had last seen her in before the accident. She wore a white sundress with a cutoff jean jacket and brown boots.

Her short brown hair swirled around her head and those almond eyes, so much like Victoria's, gazed into the distance at the setting sun.

Victoria stared at the figure next to her in a shell-shocked state. Her lips parted and her mouth tried to form words, but nothing came out.

Honk! Honk!

Victoria snapped her eyes away from her deceased sister to focus on the road in front of her when she realized in a panic that she was now driving in the wrong lane.

Victoria swerved the car back into her lane before the oncoming car could make contact with her old, rusty truck. Once her heart had settled and she had safely gotten herself back together she glanced over to the passenger seat only to find it empty.

I'm losing my mind, Victoria thought.

Her decision to end it all had been a fleeting thought that had been planted into her mind first with her diagnosis of PTSD and depression, but delusions? Seeing the dead?

What a wonderful thing to tell my therapist, she thought. Let's just make the crazy girl even more insane.

Not to mention the strange man at the café.

He can't know, she reassured herself. He can't read my mind and he doesn't know me.

Victoria nodded in an attempt to convince herself of what she knew to be a lie.

Stop it! You're being paranoid, she scolded herself.

Victoria parked her car in an empty space and jumped out of the cabbie. She slammed the door shut and was quickly making her way to the front door of her apartment when she felt the eyes again.

Victoria froze with her fingers hovering over the electronic keypad that would allow her entrance to her safe haven.

Chills crawled down her spine as she slowly turned around and glanced around her. She took a step back and peered into the dark.

"H-Hello?" Her voice shook as she called out. "Who's there?"

She took a few more steps forward until she was in view of whoever it was that was out there.

"Hello?"

Stupid! What are you doing? a familiar voice startled Victoria.

"Veronica?" Victoria yelled into the dark. "Veronica?!"

No answer.

Her already pale face turned ashy as she continued to glance nervously around her. Victoria shook her head at herself suddenly feeling foolish.

Veronica is gone and she is not coming back, she thought. She turned on her heel and was about to walk back to the front door when a low growl sounded on her left.

Victoria stopped in her tracks and slowly turned to face the noise, and there right in the dark folds of the trees, a pair of glowing silver eyes glared at her.

A scream tore from her throat and she ran for the door. She threw herself at the keypad and with stumbling fingers typed in the passcode. A buzz of rejection sounded from the door.

She turned her head to find that the eyes were getting closer to her, this time accompanied by the crunching of leaves under heavy footfalls. She retyped the passcode once again and at the sound of a loud click, threw herself against the door.

She slammed the door shut behind her and ran up to her room where she swiped her card at the door and ran into the safety of her home, closing it behind her. She leaned against the door as her heart slowly stopped racing in her chest.

Victoria turned her eyes up towards the ceiling and took a step away from the door when a loud knocking startled her. She scrambled over to her kitchen in search of something to protect herself and quickly decided on a big butcher knife before creeping back to the door where the pounding was still going.

She reached out and pulled the door open, making sure to hide the knife behind her. In front of her was the woman from the next room over who was staring at her wide-eyed.

"Umm...hi. I'm sorry if I'm bothering you or anything, but are you okay? I heard you running and screaming a few minutes ago and thought I would come check on you...?"

"I'm fine." 

Victoria stared at the woman and uncomfortably flexed the knife behind her in her fingers all the while making sure to keep the door partly closed so the woman couldn't see her hand clutching weapon behind her.

She didn't need the police arresting her for attempted assault before she could fully go through with her plans.

"Oh...okay. Umm, also, did you happen to see or hear a dog while you were outside? I let my dog Bruno out earlier and he refuses to come inside. He has dark fur and silver eyes...?"

"No. No dog," Vicki lied, glancing down the hall behind the woman almost expecting said mutt to appear.

"Okay well, thanks anyways and I hope you're alright." 

The woman smiled and turned away heading for the stairs leading outside, most likely to get her dog.

Victoria shut the door in relief and locked it before turning and walking back into her kitchen where she proceeded to throw the knife into the sink.

"It was just a dog," she whispered to herself. Just a dog.

She ran a hand through her hair and chuckled softly to herself feeling utterly ridiculous.

Victoria quickly got ready for bed and then climbed under her blue sheets before flicking the lights off and shutting her eyes.

It wasn't long before the dark shadows that were haunting her followed her into her nightmares.

Just a dog.