Peeping Tom

Give Me a Minute

I flinched as I heard the sound of two loud thuds coming from downstairs. My eyes flung open as the knocking got louder. I wiped the beads of sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand.

            All night I kept having the same dream repeatedly, back to back. I was in a dark room with no lights; I could hear the heavy breathing of Kayla coming from inside the room. I kept searching my way and feeling my way through the total darkness, but I never could locate her. I kept reassuring that everything was going to be okay, but in my head I knew it wasn’t.

I was relieved when my hand finally found the light switch. I turned the lights on, and Kayla immediately screamed for me to turn them back off. I didn’t know why she was so worried about the lights being on, but before I could turn them back off I heard the sound of an alarm going off. The tears started rolling down her cheeks when the sound of a programmed voice start counting its way down from ten.

I panicked and ran over towards her, placing her in a tight grasp assuring her I was going to get her free. I fiddled with the straps around her arms but each attempt was unsuccessful. She pulled me into a tight hug as the voice stopped at zero.

I held her tightly, unsure of what was going to happen next. The sound of a shotgun rang through my ears. In an instant we both died in each other’s arms.

My dream would end like this and I would immediately wake up. I don’t think I got over two hours of sleep, but how could I. I listened as someone continued to knock on the door. It had to be Betty. I groaned and pulled the covers off of me and headed straight to the bathroom.

I placed my hands on the counter, and forced myself to look up at my reflection. I sighed at the face in the mirror. I ran my hands across my whiskers before turning the faucet on.

My hand filled with warm water and I gently slung it against my face, hoping to wake myself up. After a few splashes I turned the faucet back off, and turned to head out the door.

I slowly crept down the stairwell. My head was throbbing and the constant beating on my door didn’t help at all. “I’m coming! Give me a damn minute,” I shouted as my bare feet met the cold, hard-wood floor.

I scooted over to the door, and unlocked the dead bolt. The second the door creaked open Betty barged in. I folded my arms across my chest, and shot her an annoyed expression. She threw her arms up in defense.

“Don’t give me that look. If you didn’t want me to wake you up you shouldn’t have told me to be here so early in the morning,” she stated firmly. I rolled my eyes at her know-it-all look showing through her dark chocolate eyes.

“It’s not that you were here too early, it is just that you had to keep knocking. You could have at least given me a minute to actually get out of my bed. I figured you would stop after the first five minutes.”

She shrugged her shoulders and pulled her phone from her pocket. “It’s already 7:00, you better get you some clothes on. I will drive us to the police station if that’s alright with you.”

I didn’t respond, but immediately went back to my bedroom upstairs. I walked in my closet and pulled the t-shirt from the hanger Kayla had bought me a while ago. It had the words ‘I’m with dumber’ on it. She is so corny, I love it.

I pulled my pants over my boxer shorts, and plopped onto the unmade bed. I grabbed my black ankle socks from the dresser and pulled them on one by one. Before leaving my bedroom I yanked on my baseball cap. I didn’t have time to brush my matted hair so instead I decided to just cover it up.

I came down the stairs noisily. Betty looked at me with a shocked expression. “That was fast.” I gave her a smirk as I opened the door. “Who is the slow one now? Come on!” She left her position on the leather couch and walked behind me.

I hopped in the passenger side of her black Monte Carlo. My favorite song by Justin Timberlake blared through the speakers, but I switched the volume to zero because I was in no mood for music.

Betty slid in the driver’s seat. She gave me a hopeful smile before backing out of the long driveway. I watched the trees and traffic pass as we headed for the police station. My mind kept wandering back to the fair last night.

Why the heck did I ever let her go somewhere by herself. There were over two hundred people there, and anyone of them could have easily taken her. She was so frail and timid that anyone could have just yanked her away.

I continued to criticize myself for my ignorant decisions until we pulled in the parking lot. I finally came back to reality as Betty repeatedly tugged on my shoulder. “Jake, are you alright?”

I didn’t answer. “I promise you we are going to find her and the person who took her away from you,” she reassured as she squeezed my left shoulder hard. I clenched my fist thinking of the sick bastard who could do something like this. “Let’s go,” I stated as I gritted my teeth together and forced the car door open.

I walked behind Betty as she led the way towards the entrance. I swallowed hard as we entered the brick building.