Crystal

Chapter 12: Games aren't always fun

Waking up was pretty easy. I woke up an hour earlier than I wanted to which was fine. Rob was still sleeping so I leaned in and kissed his lips.

Gathering my clothes, I quickly dressed and walked home. As I started turning the knob I stopped. What the fuck was I doing? Why was I back? I hesitated for a moment.

I mean, this is insane. This whole thing was unreal. I couldn't let myself go crazy. Just go in. It's just a house.

I opened the door, letting it swing open slowly all the way. I turned on the light and the house lit up bright. It was how I left it. Nothing was out of place. Aside from the birds chirping outside, it was really quiet.

I walked in, and turned on the TV. Music videos were playing. I'm fine with that. I left it on as I proceeded to turn on the coffee machine.

I started back on my morning routine like nothing was wrong. Before I knew I was walking upstairs. I didn't realize until I stopped at the door that was wide open.

I walked in quickly, not looking around. I undressed and placed my clothes in a hamper near the bed. Still avoiding looking at anything else, I quickly took out my yoga jumpsuit, dressed and left the room. To my relief, nothing seemed astray from what I can tell. Not a single noise out of the ordinary either. I just dressed and went downstairs. The TV was still on so I clicked it off, grabbed my coffee and left the house on my way to work.

Work went by quickly. I even took on an extra hour. There's a treadmill in the studio so I used it for another 45 minutes since I decided against jogging outside for a while.

Rob texted me saying he was gonna be out with some friends and if anything call him. He wanted me to come with but I told him I was fine.

It was about 4:30pm. I would've gotten home at about 2 had I not procrastinated. There was still day light out, so I felt ok.

I drove up the driveway and proceeded to get out the car and head inside.

Once again, silence. But somehow I was okay with it. I turned the TV on which was playing some sitcom. I grabbed a beer and sat down.

I must have fallen asleep. I lifted my head and looked at my watch. It was 8:04pm. Holy shit! I got up and looked for my phone. I stood and realized the house was silent. The TV was off. Did I turn it off? Did Leza have a timer on it? No, I've fallen asleep before on the couch with the TV on and always woke up with it still on, and I had slept longer than 4 hours.

I heard my phone go off. It was coming from upstairs. How the fuck? Did I go upstairs when I came in? I walked up and as soon as I reached the top step the phone tune stopped. The door was still open to the room. My phone started ringing again. It was coming from the bedroom. Of course it fucking was.

I approached slowly, hating myself with every step. I walked in the room and immediately began searching. It stopped ringing after a few seconds.

"What the fuck." I just felt so frustrated.

I couldn't find it anywhere. Not in the sheets or the draws or under the bed, which took me about 2 minutes to man up and look. To my both relief, and disappointment there was nothing.

Then it started ringing again. But it wasn't coming from the room. It was coming from downstairs. I got up and ran down the stairs. It wasn't in the kitchen or in the living room or in the bathroom. It didn't stop ringing for a whole ten minutes. I stood still in the middle of the living room and listened to the sound change locations.