Anchor (Book 1)

Chapter Five

Even through my closed door, I could still hear my mother's lecture. I felt really bad because after all, Austin had just been honoring my request to go exploring. I thought about going down there and informing her, but quickly decided against it, not for the fear of getting in trouble myself, but for the fear of making it worse for Austin. She'd probably go off and say something about how he shouldn't be listening to what I want because I am barely an adult. Plus, I know Austin would feel horrible if he saw me getting reprimanded as well. He takes the fault for everything, even when he doesn't deserve to.
In a desperate attempt to dull her rebuke, I reached for a pair of really good headphones I'd received as a present from my cousin Jesse two years ago. They were the ones that captured and amplified sound amazingly. I really loved them, and distinctly in times like these. However, when I headed towards the dresser where I kept them, something else caught my eye. It was a folded piece of paper, not much bigger than the size of a flash card, and I knew it had not been there this morning. I opened it up and written in sloppy, but equally eloquent handwriting was:
The offer to help catch those criminals still stands. I'll be in the park tomorrow at 2 o'clock if you are still interested. You know the place, I assume? Oh, and bring no one.
The note was not signed, but I knew exactly who the sender was: the man in the trench coat, the man who mysteriously appeared in my hospital room and just the same, mysteriously vanished as quickly as he had come. I'd almost forgotten about him, except a couple of times when the temptation surfaced to find my attackers and I thought about ways of  going about it. It never stayed long enough for me to reach out though. But now he was reaching out to me and had somehow found where I lived. Now it was up to me to make the decision to confront this eery "detective" head on and to demand why he was so interested in helping me.
The ball was in my court, but I didn't know if I had the strength to hit it over the net.

It was midnight and I had been swimming around in countless scenarios in which I meet this trench coat guy for hours. What if he could really do what he's promised? I was curious about what Anthony had to do with this. I shooed away the thought instantly. That was probably bait to suck me in - mention my friend and lure me to go after him even though he's innocent. I should not fulfill that, I will not. But, then again, maybe if I did meet him he'd leave me alone.
"Why is your light still on? It's late." Austin sounded in the doorway. "Go to bed."
I shifted in bed and rolled his way. "Why are you still up?" I retorted. "It's late." I smirked.
"Hey, I just took a bullet for you." He notified.
"Oh yeah," I recalled and then abruptly, "was she as hard on you as I'm imagining?"
He nodded, sighing.
"Wow." I breathed, "She's really mad."
"Yep," He confirmed, "I'm just glad she didn't confiscate my car. She threatened to."
"Yeah," I laughed and pulled the covers closer to my neck. "I'm sure she did. One of the drawbacks of mom and dad gifting you it."
"Please go to sleep, okay?" He started walking further down the hallway to his room.
"Okay." I called after him, but I knew I was lucky if I got two hours of sleep tonight. My guilt rested heavily on me, pulling me into a deep sleep.

I'm going to go meet him. I'm gonna tell him to leave me alone and that I want nothing to do with him. That's what I feel in my gut. I thought of calling Jen and getting a second opinion on the matter, but then I remembered it involved her boyfriend being a possible suspect. Besides, if I told her, she probably would beg to come with me so she could beat up the guy. Jen is very strong and not afraid of a fight, but I didn't want her to jeopardize her safety when I was already putting mine at a potential risk. and, trench coat guy advised me not to bring anyone and I didn't want to do anything that would upset him. I hoped he had the decency to at least tell me his name; it's getting pretty annoying calling him trench coat guy.
I walked all the way to the park because I'd be crazy to use Austin's or my mom's car because they would question my whereabouts. I guess I could've taken the bus, but the driver Bertha gives off an eerie vibe and I had a feeling I'd be experiencing plenty of uncomfortable vibes today; any of them that I could avoid, I was going to.
I arrived at the park and it didn't take long for me to spot him. He was sitting on a park bench near a bunch of trees where I assumed he was trying to look as obscure as possible. Nevertheless, he stuck out like a sore thumb being the only one dressed in a trench coat in eighty degree weather. When I was closer, he looked up and eyed me coyly.
"Ah, Natalie, I'm so glad you could make it. You look almost all the way recovered!" He beamed at me, a wide smile crossing his lips, then scooted over and made a spot for me. "Please, sit down." He tapped the space on the bench and it rattled.
I took a seat, but not in the place he'd motioned to. I moved to the far end of the bench. I mentally prepared myself for a quick getaway in case I needed one. We are about forty feet from the family sitting nearby and if I run, I could probably get to them in-
"So, how've you been?" He asked, striking up an otherwise relaxed conversation and stopping my getaway plan.
"How about you tell me about yourself?" I suggested, already over the trivialities "like maybe start off with your name? Also, what's  with the trench coat? I don't think that's hardly necessary."
He snickered, and after removing his hat, glasses, and trench coat, he spoke.
"I'm Kane," He stuck out his hand, "Kane Stonewell."
I took a moment to observe him. It had been the first time I had a real look at his face and features. He had red hair, blue eyes, and lots of freckles; freckles I hadn't noticed before when he showed up unannounced in my hospital room. I shook his hand wearily and began to squeeze more information out of him.
"Why are you so.. peculiar?" I asked.
Frankly, I had no other way of putting it. He was definitely strange and I was quite uncomfortable around him.
He laughed. I mean, really laughed. He laughed and didn't stop until his face turned as red as his hair. I felt my face subconsciously contort. Why is this so hilarious to him?
"I should be asking you the same question." He finally responded after composing himself.
"Excuse me?" I uttered, appalled.
"You came here!" He exclaimed, "You followed instructions from an unidentified note and came here, completely setting yourself up to be brutally harmed..... again." He added the last word darkly, but then put on a smile again.
I shuddered as I digested the accuracy of his statement.
"Aw, well I'm not gonna hurt ya," he announced, reading my uneasiness, "I'm here to help."
He reached for a picnic basket that had been lying in the grass below him. He got out two salami sandwiches.
"Want one?" He offered.
"Are you crazy?" I asked, completely baffled, "how do I know you didn't poison one of the sandwiches?"
He looked at me, a smug expression on his face. "Really? What would I gain from that? And, with all these people around?" He gestured with his hand to the populated park. "If I wanted to poison you, I'd do it a lot more inconspicuously."
I made a move to stand up.
"Chill," he said, dragging out the l sound. "Jeez." He muttered under his breath.
I hesitantly settled back into place.
"Okay, shall we get down to business?" He bit off a piece of his sandwich.