Flawless Liar

Chapter Three

The discussion I had had with Detective Reynolds couldn't have gone much worse, I still felt exposed and unsafe. All I could do was drive around town for hours to avoid going back home. I was more afraid of being alone in that house than anything else; the spooky essence it had was enough to drive me insane. I felt as though I had nobody I could trust left in this town and in my eyes it seemed as though everyone around me was a suspect. 

I had found an inner peace believing that I had figured it all out, believing that I knew it all. Detective Reynolds had completely erased any kind of security that I had. 

My stalker hadn't even made it clear exactly why they were blackmailing me and from my understanding usually if someone went through the trouble to stalk, attack, drug, threaten and blackmail a person they made their wants and demands clear first. Maybe I was wrong, I wasn't the criminal here. I obviously hadn't received the memo on the proper way to stalk and blackmail a person. The only situations I could refer to came from long nights of watching CSI which of course was a scripted show so I was probably improperly informed on true criminal technique. The sense of humor I had about this situation was beyond me, humor seemed to be the only form of coping mechanism left at this point. I was becoming Ava; less sensitive and forced to use humor as a coping mechanism. If this person wanted me dead, they had made it very clear that they could make that happen whenever they wanted. I just had to make the best of this terrifying situation I had been given.

Eventually, I had no other choice left but to return home and try not to think of how exposed to the world I was. The sun had begun to set behind the hills on the horizon and the streetlamps along my neighborhood road had flickered to life for the night. As my house became visible I realized that there was the silhouette of a vehicle parked in my driveway with the lights off. I knew for a fact that I hadn't scheduled any visitors tonight and given the circumstances I was extremely cautious as I got closer to home. As I approached my driveway and the mysterious vehicle I realized it was Jay's truck. Quickly my mind ran through multiple scenarios, if Jay was this stalker he was probably here to kill me and I could either accept that fate now or later. I decided that there was no point in running from him, he was going to find me especially if his intentions were fatal, running was pointless now because it wasn't going to get me anywhere.

I had barely stepped out of my car before Jay was towering over me from out of nowhere, there was so much anger that could be felt in that small space it was almost suffocating.

"Wow Alana, you're braver than I thought you were. I had the cops knocking on my door this afternoon with a search warrant in suspicion with the murder of Janelle Hoffman. And when I finally got the chance to ask them why I was a suspect after being dragged in handcuffs to the police station in front of my sick mother they told me that they had reason to believe I had killed Janelle Hoffman based off an anonymous tip." Jay's words were venomous, he was far from angry.

"J-Jay, I know you're blackmailing me. Excuse me for telling the police the truth." How I managed to get those words out was unknown to me.

"Based off what? I have no reason to blackmail you Alana, I don't want anything from you if I hadn't already made that clear by sneaking around with Janelle behind your back." With those words it was hard to tell which part hurt more, the way he was able to say it with absolutely no emotion or just the fact that he said it. With how close Jay was to me and how he managed to make me cower to him I couldn't bring myself to even open my eyes and look at the ground, I was terrified and trying to hide it.

"Take your cell phone that you left in my house last night and get the hell off my property." Those words came from a completely different person, I didn't even know I was capable of speaking at that moment in time the words just came out. There always seems to be a moment in time where your body takes over your mind and just simply does what it wants to do, for me that moment was now, quite obviously. It was better for my mind to shut down because my emotions were only set up to make me fail right now.