Stalked

Chapter One

    You never think it will happen to you. We all go through life with the delusional understanding that we are all, individually, invincible. The last time I heard that was in tenth grade health class, but I didn’t really believe it until I had to. After our world fell out of the sky and fear began to crawl through the streets, people became quieter. They didn’t smile anymore. In a town as small as that, we were all connected to each other in some way. The second girl was in the grade above me, friends with my boyfriend’s sister, but when they found her, it still hurt like I really knew her. They didn’t release pictures of the bodies, of course, but the imagination- the rumors were worse. Images of grey skin, bubbled and peeling, hair ripped out from the roots, and ghostly open eyes began to haunt us as the shakey, whispered gossip traveled from home to home. I didn’t sleep much anymore.
    But the end product wasn’t what terrified me, it was the days that they were gone. I felt guilty when bodies were found, but a breath of relief slipped out of my lungs with each report. No matter what lay after for those girls, I knew it couldn’t possibly be worse than what they suffered in their last days. There were three girls at that point- dead by the hand of some unknown creature lurking behind our homes. With each death, he gave us all the chance to grieve, but not for long. A week after a body was found, another girl was snatched and vanished into thin air, only to be seen seven days later, dead on the bottom of the lake. We were all rigid with fear- and anger- in the days following. No one knew if they are the next one to disappear. After the second girl was found, a lot of parents tried to keep their daughters inside, but I suppose that didn’t keep Carmin, the third victim, safe. I started feeling hopeless. The police had been patrolling every inch of town, people slept with their lights on, kids skipped school, and still, girls were being taken. I couldn’t sleep any more.
    My mom always used to tell me that I had a very vivid imagination, but it became more of a burden than a gift. Whenever I would drift off, I saw the girls, Joanna, Racheal, and Carmin collapsed on the ground, beaten until bruises, welts, and gashes cover their skin. They didn’t even look human anymore. In these dreams, I strained to see who the man doing this was, but all I could see was a bloody bat and a blowtorch.

    School was cancelled the day after Carmin was found. She was a year younger than me. The administration knew keeping school open would be pointless since everyone who did show up would only talk about the murders. But I didn’t know what to do with myself. My mom wouldn’t let me leave the house- even to walk my dogs- I had mindlessly scrolled through all the social media I could take, and none of my friends were leaving their houses. So I tried to sleep on the couch. The dreams kept me awake though. As I sat, staring blankly at the wall, my mind wandered to every dark corner it could even as I tried to pull it back. I started to recognize the daze I was in. I felt nothing. I wasn’t sad or scared or angry, I was simply apathetic to everything that was happening around me. I looked at my dog Juno and gently glided my hand over his silky smooth ear. I felt a hole in my gut where my love for him and Chaser, my other dog, usually laid. Anger shot through me in a short burst when I thought about how this psychopath, who was terrorizing my town, was also controlling everyone like puppets. I wasn’t tied to the grate in his floor or in the back of his car, yet I felt as though I was his captive. Without thinking, I quietly asked Juno if he wanted to go for a walk, but seconds after the words escaped my mouth and the boys scrambled to get to the door, regret flooded my stomach. My thoughts wrote a cheque of bravery that my nerves couldn’t cash. But the dogs’ excitement to walk around the block made it impossible for me take back what I said; I would feel too guilty. So I grabbed my phone, clipped on their leashes, and walked out of the front door.

The sun, high in the sky, was warm, but there was a cool breeze that rustled the leaves above me. The silence was uncanny for a bright afternoon on such a beautiful day, but I suppose the idea of a serial killer on the loose keeps people quietly indoors.
As the dogs yanked on their leashes to sniff every inch of dirt and the trunk of every tree, my heart began to pound. My eyes darted from side to side, staring into every car window and intensely eying every dark shadow. I looked behind me at every subtle noise that reached my ears, and my stomach began to churn with dread.
Without thinking, I began taking bigger steps, my head swiveling back and forth as I wished I had a second set of eyes, or, better yet, a second person. I tried to use logic to get out of my panic. I thought about Chaser’s stranger anxiety and knew he would bark if he saw or smelled someone approaching. I knew the three girls that had been kidnapped were taken at night when they were leaving work. And I also knew that it was broad daylight the day after the most recent girl was found and there would most likely be six more days before anyone else went missing. But I was in the prime position to be taken. My parents wouldn’t be home for hours, there was a dense forest just to my right-
I was yanked out of my thought wormhole by the sound of a car engine starting behind me. I looked back and saw an old, grey sedan slowly pulling into the center of the street. I strained to see the driver, but the glare on the windshield was too bright, so I looked ahead again and walked faster. I could see my house just around the corner, but I could hear the car creeping up behind me, its engine rattling rhythmically. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw its shiny grey hood pulling up next to me and I could feel my heart pounding in my throat, my fingers getting cold and clammy. The brakes squealed as the car slowed and stopped just ahead of me. I stopped. My knees shook and chills climbed to the back of my neck. Suddenly, the cool breeze raised goosebumps on my forearms. I pulled Juno and Chaser closer to me and watched, my breath stuck below the lump in my throat, as the window rolled down.
I didn’t know how the psycho was going to get me in the car but for a brief moment, I grieved that I would never see my dogs or my mom or my dad again and my parents would have to live the rest of their lives knowing that they outlived their youngest daughter. I silently plead to my mom for forgiveness as the person in the car began to speak.

“Jamie!” Panicked confusion took over my mind as I tried to figure out how this person could know my name.

“What are you doing walking around outside by yourself?” He shouted. For another brief moment, I tried to figure out how to get away. I nearly cried when I wondered what would happen to my dogs when he took me.

“Jamie?” He called once more. I heard his concern and suddenly I recognized his voice. I choked out a laugh and my fear morphed into embarrassment.

“Mr. Jacobs! I’m sorry” I said, relief lining my words as I walked up to the open window. When I peered in, I saw his face, creased with worry, looking back. I saw him so often since I started dating his son I felt another surge of embarrassment in my gut. “I can’t believe I didn’t recognize your car. With everything going on around here, I kind of freaked out.” My breathy laugh shook.

“Don’t worry about it Jamie, I would be pretty scared if one of my girls was out here like this.” He tried to chuckle and lighten the mood, and I appreciated the effort.

I shyly smiled back. “ Yeah, I was just feeling so restless, and I figured my dogs deserved to get out of the house. It wasn’t my smartest idea though.”

There was a short, awkward silence before I spoke up again. “What are you doing on this side of town?”

He sighed before answering. “Oh, Kate wanted to spend time with a friend, and I felt more comfortable dropping her off myself. If I’m being honest, I don’t like the idea of her being out of my sight, but I can’t lock her in my house forever.”

I looked back at the house that I saw his car pull away from and realized I didn’t know who lived there.

“Would you like a ride back to your house?” I turned back to look at him as he said this and smiled.

“No, thank you I’m alright. I’m just right over there,” I said pointing in the direction of my house, “and I have the dogs so…”

He nodded and smiled back. “ Of course. Stay safe, ok? You never know where this creep is.” As he drove away, I waved goodbye to him and sighed heavily. I looked at my boys, impatiently shifting their weight and glancing up at me and started toward my house again.