Creative Works Of The Mind

The Package

The Package

I throw my hair up into a bun and head downstairs to grab the mail. On my way down the last flight of stairs I meet up with Joe, he normally picks up his mail at this time too so I usually see him.

"Hey, Sarah, how's your day going?"

"Pretty good, thanks for asking. And how's your day going Joe?"

"Well, I've had better days, but today isn't a bad day." Joe is a living cancer patient, his doctors are constantly experimenting on him because he has a rare type of cancer. It's sad because he's such a nice old man, but at least he hasn't seemed to have given up hope yet otherwise he'd be more crotchety and rude.

I open my box as Joe opens his. I have a few bills and a small package. Hmmm, I don't normally get packages and I haven't ordered anything. I wonder what it could be, maybe it isn't even really mine. I tear open the seal and peer inside, but I can't see what's in the package. I pull out a photo and wonder what it could be of. Maybe it's my mother sending me a picture of my sister's baby, he's only three months old and almost the center of my mother's life. She's been over there helping out my sister most days, I think my mother should let her figure things out. I mean, my mother didn't have anyone helping her out, not even my father, she had to figure it out all on her own, but she wishes she had a boy and she only had two girls so maybe that's why she is fine with smothering them. It isn't for them, it's for her.

I stare at the photo and am astonished by who is in it. It's a picture of me wrapped in a towel just out of the shower. One in my hair and one around my body. I live alone and I am single at the moment so no one could have taken that photo of me with me knowing, but who would have been able to when I didn't know? I keep my windows and drapes shut at all times, I live in the city and I'm single, I have to protect myself. 

My heart hammers in my chest and my mind goes wild, my thoughts turning from happy and carefree to being violated without even knowing it. How would someone have been able to get this photo of me? Am I secretly being watched? Why wouldn't someone just ask to take my photo. It wouldn't have been one with me in a towel, but I wouldn't object to a normal photo, but I suppose that if someone needed to sneak around to get photos of me they wouldn't want just a normal one. They would want one where I look vulnerable.

"Is everything alright, Sarah?" I her Joe's voice ask, cutting through my thoughts.

"Yes, of course, everything's fine. I'll see you tomorrow Joe."

"You betcha!"

I turn the corner and practically throw myself up the first flight of stairs in a big hurry to get up to my apartment where I can lock myself in and be safe. I slam the door shut behind me and lean against it. Oh shit, I didn't lock it, I scramble to lock my three extra locks that Joe had installed for me then slouch against the door again.

My heart won't quiet down and my breathing is becoming heavier and I start to feel dizzy. "How??? What??? When??? Oh my god. Impossible." I rush to every one of my windows lock them and pin the curtains closed tightly together. Once I am sure that every way in or out of my apartment is closed and covered I am able to take a cleansing breath an calm down.

"I suppose I will just have to be a little more careful." I warm up a dish of leftover lasagna in the microwave and sit down to watch TV and eat. After I finish the lasagna I feel the night start to wear on me and my eyes start to slip closed. I get up and check each of the windows to make sure they are secure then I pack up and go to my bedroom.

I pass the mirror and see myself in it, I turn and admire the features I like about myself, my long hair and my blue eyes and my cute little button nose. I turn sideways and check myself out a bit. I always loved my body, I was never self-conscious about the size of my body or the proportion of it, it always looked so good.

I turn and hop into bed turning out the lights, I smile to myself thinking about all the good things in my life just as my eyes close and I feel myself fade into nothingness.

A buzzing from in the dark makes me wake. I stir and feel around on  my bedside table and locate my phone. I pick it up and sit up in bed. I unlock it at stare at the screen puzzled for a moment then my mind seems to finally click on and I realize what I'm staring at. A picture of me, sleeping, I check the time and it's two a.m. and I check the time on the picture and it was taken only ten minutes before I woke up. So whoever took this picture might still be inside.

I sit bolt upright in bed and slowly shuffle out form under the covers and onto the floor. I put my phone back on my bedside table and creep to my front door.I check the locks and they are still closed and the door hasn't been moved. I move around and check every window, the drapes were all exactly as I left them and the windows are all sealed the same as they were a few hours ago when I locked them.

I turn to my TV puzzled to the point of my tired brain actually starting to think that maybe it's a boogey-man that came out of my TV like that movie The Ring. I shake my head and give myself a mental shake and head back to my bedroom feeling better knowing my place is still locked up tight.

My phone is buzzing when I enter the room and I hurry over thinking it might be an important call, but when I open my phone to see a picture of my in my pajamas from behind and the time is, two minutes ago. I look around my bedroom and notice my closet door is ajar and I remember closing it this morning.

I tip-toe over to it as quietly as I can, not that it is really helping because there is only so much space in there. It isn't like the intruder wouldn't be able to see me anyway. I try to open the door as slowly as I can, but at the same time not wanting to give the intruder any tome to hide or get away. The door swings open and my eyes grow wide then everything goes black.