𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐭 ✔️

Bonus Chapter - Layla

4 YEARS AGO

I laid on my bed as the hot summer wind blew inside the open window of my room. It was only three o'clock in the afternoon and my mom wouldn't be home for another two hours. The only two friends I had had gone out of the country to travel and I wouldn't see them until the end of summer, leaving me alone for the entire break.

I scrolled through their countless pictures that they posted on Instagram and I wish I could've gone on vacation like they did. Mom was against us going somewhere and would only agree to go to places if it was close by the city here.

Ever since the summer started, all I've done is watch movies, read books, update my reading goals and movie reviews, and go to the grocery stores with my mom. She's always been this overprotective and hovering parent. I was never allowed to go to slumber parties that I was invited to nor be out alone with friends. Never really understood it, but I guess she had good intentions.

As I was in the kitchen grabbing something from the cabinets. I noticed that there was an unfamiliar car parked right in front of the house near the curb. It was a tan sedan with tinted windows and I could just make the shape of a person inside the car.

I grabbed the bag of chips I was looking for and headed straight to my room.

Going to stay for an extra hour. One of the printers stopped working.

My mom texts me and I sigh. I guess binging on movies is how I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon. Just as I turned on my laptop and loaded on Netflix, I heard knocking at the door. From my room's window I could just barely see who was standing at our front door. I didn't recognize the man and the disguise he was wearing was giving me the creeps. He was wearing sunglasses and a trucker hat and I had a gut feeling he was from that weird sedan parked in the front.

I ignored the knocking and decided to just focus on my movie. I could still hear the knocks pick up as the man's fist rattled the door. A minute passed as I was growing annoyed and so was he. His knocking turned into pounding as his fists hit the door with so much force. I paused my movie and jumped up from my bed, quickly grabbing my phone and getting a hold of my mom.

I let out a scream when I heard the door getting kicked down as the heavy door landed with a loud bang on the wooden floor. My mom's line went straight to voicemail and I immediately hung up. With shaky hands and glued to the same spot, I dialed the emergency line and heard it ring multiple times before the operator finally picked up.

"Someone just broke into my house—" The man immediately runs towards my room and our gazes connect as I'm practically calling the cops on him. I drop my phone and dive towards my closet.

He's able to get a hold of my arm and throws me to the ground. My back explodes with a sharp pain and my heart is about to jump out of my chest from the fear. I grab the lamp from my bedside table and bring it down to the man's head. It smashes immediately and he collapses on the ground and lets go of my ankle. I kick him away and grab my phone.

Frantically, I get up from the floor and lock myself in my closet as I press the phone to my ear. The operator is trying to get a hold of me as she's asking questions until I finally answer.

The operator is still on the line with me when I hear the sirens coming towards the direction of my house. My closet doors have slits that I can see out and I watch the man groan as he gets up and pushes the window's screen out. He jumps out of the window and I use that to carefully get out of the closet.

When I step out I see the man run away and just dodges the cops that were able to get out of their cars that were trying to stop him. Two of the cops begin to chase him while I hear another cop's voice yell out his presence. I'm still frozen in my spot as I try to digest what had just happened.

"Police, are you okay?" I heard the cop ask. "Miss, do you need an ambulance?"

❀

My mom didn't waste another day to pack up our stuff and find a temporary hotel to stay in as she tried to find a house somewhere far from here. And she did. She got in touch with a real estate agent and managed to sell our house and give an offer to a house she found in a small town in Oregon.

Crescent City had a population with only 4,000 people living there. I wasn't really allowed to tell my friends what happened except to say that my mom got a new job. The man that broke into the house was my mom's creepy co-worker that she had made multiple reports about due to his aggressive nature and not being able to take no as an answer.

He was obsessed with my mom and basically stalked her outside of work to get her specific routine. He thought that he could wait at our house and surprise my mom. Due to the fact that he left his car behind, they found tools that convinced cops he was up to nothing good.

Duct tape, rope, sleeping pills, and hotel cards were found in a bag in his trunk. He also had a notebook with a written plan and what places he wanted to go and take my mom. In his mind, his intentions were positive and romantic, while my mom and I knew that he was mentally insane.

So we moved to the woodsy state and nestled in the small town. The first week moving there was a bit rough on my mom. She was hyper aware of her surroundings and was cautious of the people that came to greet us. She always wanted me to be home before the sunset when Maggie would invite me on tours of the town. For a while, mom was on edge.

"And this was our prodigal quarterback," Maggie says as she turns the pages of her yearbook. She points to a boy that has been the talk of the town with his antics.

Landon Hills. He was described as a popular football player that was good enough to be scouted by college coaches from the most prestigious schools. Maggie gave me the whole rundown about some of the people here.

"And these are the girls on my team," she points to a group picture of cheerleaders.

"Must be nice to kind of already know everyone here," I comment.

"It's a blessing and a curse," she says, "you gain close friends that way, but if you have something against them it makes it awkward to run into them in town. Same goes for exes."

I nod, understanding what she meant by that. I wouldn't want to date someone that lived so close to me and then break up for whatever reason, only to run into them at school and in town. The process of moving on and healing would just be nonexistent at that point.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" She asks with a curious look in her eye.

I shake my head. "No, I actually don't. I've never dated anyone."

She gawks at my response. "What? Really?"

I shrug. "Never."

"Well there are a handful of cute guys at school, but beware of the girls on the team. Some of them have been claimed and they get jealous pretty easily."

"Who should I stay away from?"

"I'd say pretty much the entire football team," she winces.

"I'm not really into players."

"I think you'll find someone interesting either way," she chuckles. She continues to flip through the pages of the yearbook.

__________________________

A/N: Just a quick little bonus chapter into a small glimpse of Layla's past before moving to Crescent City. I wanted to mention the break in since it pretty much shapes the story. I'll be posting another bonus chapter for Maggie + Eric and that would be the last section of this story unless I have another bonus chapter in mind :)

Thank you all so much for 1.7k+ reads, I am honestly so shocked at the growing attention this book has gotten and for reading Damages and Daydreams as well! 

Till next time...