Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
CHAPTER THREE
The week had been silent.
It had been too silent, enough for her to feel a slight comfort and let her guard down.
"Are you going to be alright alone?" Her brother spoke, the big duffel bag looking heavy in his hand.
She nodded, glancing at her father who was packing. He had apologized for missing her birthday, although he never made it up to her.
She envied her brother. She knew her father's attention meant a lot of pressure but the fact that he could drop everything to drive him to practice, games and even be gone for days to watch him play, made her jealous. He never invested in her likings, nor invited her to join them in theirs. He could miss her birthday, which happened one day a year, but drop everything to watch her brother play.
She watched as he carried hockey gear out to his truck, shouting at her brother to hurry.
"Call if you need me, I fixed the lock on the garage." Her brother spoke, looking like he wanted to hug her but instead patted her back.
She nodded, glancing at her father without saying anything. She watched as they entered the truck, her brother waving while they left the driveway.
It had already become dark, she wished that they would've left in the morning but her father insisted that it was better for them to arrive in the morning.
She had asked her father to stay, which he had turned down with a grunt.
She was scared to be alone.
She was scared enough to delude herself into thinking it would be alright, terrified that if she thought too much about the man she would become insane.
He had threatened her brother's life.
Her anxious stare wandered over the porch, glancing at the forest and at the empty driveway. If something happened, she was truly alone.
She put her father's boots on the porch, to make it look like he was home. She locked the door and hurried to the garage, grabbing a wooden board and a hammer. It was paranoid, but the thought of a man standing outside her broken window while the house was empty, made her scared enough to do the most.
She boarded up her window, the nails ruining her pink wallpaper. She would take it down before her brother and father returned, knowing her father would be outraged that she ruined the wall, had had hated the wallpaper from the start and seeing her ruin it would anger him.
She turned on the light in both her father and brother's rooms. Hopping to create an illusion that they had never left.
Her phone was on silent, she didn't receive any other messages from the unknown number. It made her fear still, her mind pretending that it could be over and that the stranger wouldn't go further.
