Queen of my Heart

30

THERE WAS A BOX ON MY DOORSTEP.

It was small, and the color of blood.

I was alone on my street, but the hairs at the back of my neck stood. It felt as if someone were watching me.

I shrugged it off. All this funny business with Sander makes me paranoid.

I went inside the flat, carrying the box with me. There was something in the air, as if it, too, could feel the weirdness in the atmosphere.

There was nothing out of place in my flat, but it felt like someone had broken in.

Slowly, I peeled the lid of the box off, my hands shaking.

A piece of paper with four words that shattered my world.

I see you. Everywhere.

• • •

That night, I couldn't sleep.

I had been so out of my mind that I called Sander over.

I know. I was a damn hypocrite. Here I was, feeling guilty as I talked to Shiela, and I still had the audacity to want to be with Sander.

But I was so terrified. I didn't know anybody who would hold a grudge on me that much to send a threat on my doorstep.

Okay, so basically, it wasn't a direct threat. But when you found a mysterious-looking box on your doorstep in the middle of the night containing those words, you'd also be bedraggled.

There was a knock on my door.

I rose from the couch, my fingers shaking a bit. Please let it be Sander.

“Hey, Juliet, are you in there?”

I breathed a sigh of relief before running to the door and letting him in. Just seeing him, his hands on his pockets as he smirked at me, almost made me forget what I was so afraid of.

Almost.

“Thank God you're here,” I said as I hugged him.

He chuckled. “Missed me already?”

I led him in the living room, but not without locking the door first, and sat beside him.

“What's the matter?” he asked, his fingers playing with my hair.

Should I tell him? “Uh . . . There was—” I glanced at the kitchen counter where I placed the box earlier. I shivered. “—um, I'm feeling a bit . . . stressed.”

And terrified, nervous-as-hell, and bloody out of my wits, but you didn't need to know that.

“I'm sorry for being an inconvenience,” I said to the floor.

He pulled me close, his arm around my shoulders. “Nah, you're not. Did Shiela say something to you?”

That conversation seemed like a long time ago. I shook my head. “You should talk to her though. She has something to tell you.”

“Why can't you tell me now?”

So you can leave me tonight for her? No, thanks.