It had only been an hour and a half since Sidney walked through the front door, and she had already creeped herself out more than she was comfortable with.
She was constantly hearing noises, and checking under beds and in closets, and now she was reduced to a nervous wreck pacing back and forth from the living room, through the kitchen, and down the hallway to the foyer and back. She was always catching a glimpse of something. Or someone...moving behind a doorframe out of the corner of her eye. Of course, there was always nothing there.
It was just her mind playing tricks on her and keeping her on edge, and more than usual. Knowing that someone had been in her home without her knowing and had killed her mother had already turned her into some kind of survivalist-always checking behind doors and in her backseat for someone lurking for her...
She had been exposed to what the real world could be like at such a young age, and now, she constantly worried about someone being out to get her.
Someone with a bloody vengeance.
She kept dwelling on the news of Casey and Steve's murder. She kept repeating "It had to just be a coincidence" in her mind to soothe her nerves. It had to just be a coincidence that a killer would strike again just one year after...
Sidney snapped out of her thoughts and stared at the clock on the end table. It was only a quarter past five.
My God, what if there really was a lunatic out there? She thought, losing all sight of the mantra that had been easing her mind. This could turn into one of Randy's scary movies.
She walked back into the front room and stared apprehensively up the spiraling staircase. She remembered a movie that Randy had once shown her at a party called When A Stranger Calls where a young girl was alone babysitting and kept getting threatening phone calls from a strange man.
It turns out that when the police trace the phone calls, they're coming from inside the house, and when the babysitter looked up the stairs, there was someone standing at the top. He had been upstairs and had murdered the children long before.
The thought of someone being in the house without her knowing chilled her to the bone. What if her dad had left the back door unlocked last night and some weirdo had gotten in and had been watching them this whole time? What if the sick fuck who killed Casey and Steve somehow got in through an open window while she had been at school? What if he had planned to kill her last night and left her bloody body sprawled out on the bed for her dad to find?
Fuck this, she thought. She had to hear from Tatum.
She went into the living room, grabbed the cordless phone, and strolled out the back door onto the sunny patio that wrapped around the back of the house. Taking a deep breath, she dialed the number for the school office, and spoke with the assistant who stayed afterschool. After giving the assistant Tatum's name, there was a short pause before Tatum's snarky voice came over the line.
"Hey, Sid," she said.
"Hey, Tatum, I was just going to make sure that it was okay for me to stay at your place... I mean my dad won't be back until Sunday.." Sidney started to say, trying to inject a note of cheerfulness into her voice.
"No problem, I'll pick you up after practice," Tatum assured. "You ok?"
Sidney hesitated. It was always Tatum who could tell whenever she wasn't okay, and as much as she had tried to sound cheerful, it wasn't working.
"Uh-huh," Sidney responded halfheartedly. "It's just...with the police and the reporters, it's like deja vu all over again,"
"I'll be there by seven, I promise," Tatum said.
