“HiTracy, it’s Amber. Just wanted to see what you were up to tonight.If you get this message at a half decent time, call me. Maybe wecan watch a movie or something. Okay, good-bye,” Amber said and washappy the nervousness in her voice did not show.
She hung up thephone. Her voice did sound oddly loud in the quiet house and Ambersighed. She tapped the phone against her leg lightly for a fewminutes before placing it back into the receiver and hiding in theblankets again. The wind whispered outside and Amber could swear itwas telling her to stay out of the house tonight. Amber wonderedwhere that feeling had come from and shivered in her warmcocoon.
Shadows playedin the corners of the room and Amber cowered deeper into herblanket. She pulled the phone in beside her and wished she hadsomeone to keep her company. She wondered briefly if her neighbourswere home and shook her head at the thought. They would think shewas insane if she asked them over for coffee the night beforeValentine’s Day. Amber sighed and listened to the noises in thehouse.
Nothing but theregular creeks and groans came to her ears and she muttered at herown unfounded fears before pulling herself from the covers. Shechecked the locks on all the windows and doors before finallymaking her way up to her bedroom. On a paranoid second thought, shedrew an old steel baseball bat from the hallway closet and set itagainst her bedside table.
Amber changedinto a nightgown and settled into bed with her overhead light on.She had closed her bedroom door, a habit she had never done andwished it had a lock on it. She tried to read but the wordsblurred. Even her favorite chocolates tasted bitter in her mouthand she sighed. She noted the time to be merely 8PM and snuggledinto her bed regardless.
After a fewweary thoughts, she tried calling Tracy again but got only theanswering machine. She did not leave a message this time anddecided that she was going to leave the bedroom light on, just fortonight. If Greg happened to sneak in before she could turn it offin the morning she could explain how afraid she had felt and maybethat would convince them to get a large frightening dog.
With thatthought in mind, she turned over and closed her eyes. She knew hersleep would be restless because of her thoughts and the light butshe could nap tomorrow once she knew whether or not Greg would behome. If he wasn’t home, she would stay over at Tracy’s tomorrownight. Maybe then she would feel better and not be so paranoid.After a brief struggle with her own mind, she fell into a lightsleep.
Part 5:February 14th, Valentine’s Day
Amber twitchedand sighed heavily. Something felt very wrong to her but she couldnot place why. She slowly opened her eyes and noted that she waslying on one side, facing the en suite bathroom with the window ather back. She squinted wearily and knew something looked wrong.
It came to herin a mere instant of clarity: there was not enough light in theroom. Only sunlight streamed through the window and the overheadlight she had left on had been turned off. Mixed feelings shotthrough her then and she struggled with them.
Her firstfeeling was happiness. With the overhead light off, Greg must havereturned home and turned off the light before waking her. Thesecond feeling was of deep foreboding. She had no reason to suspectthe one who turned the light off was anyone but Greg and yet herintestines were tying themselves in knots.
She noticed theshadow spilling over her covers and it dawned on her that it wasthe shadow of a man. This should have made her joyful because itshould have kicked the feeling of foreboding to the preverbal curb.Unfortunately the shape of the shadow was all wrong. The man wastoo tall and too slim to be Greg.
Greg was onlyfive feet and ten inches tall, average sized. They were actuallythe same height and she remarked to him all the time that thenumbers for her meant she was above average while for him he wouldforever be average. He took this with a smile or a laugh.
Despite hisaverage height, Greg had broad shoulders and a thick back. Hiswaist tapered to his hips and he did have a bit of a pouchbeginning now but the rest of his body was built more muscular thanwhat the shadow spilling across her form was revealing to her.
Amber heard thebreathing then. It was light and fast, Amber could tell that thestranger standing next to her bed behind her was excited. Amberknew she could not reach the baseball bat if it was still againstthe dresser. The stranger had probably moved it and even if he hadnot, there would be no time for her to turn, throw off the coversand grab the handle before he grabbed her.
Or worse:before he grabbed the baseballbat and beat her with it. Amber swallowed thickly and wished shehad hidden the baseball bat underneath the covers. At least thenshe would have a bit better chance of fending off the unknown manbehind her.
A smellpermeated her nostrils finally and she blinked at it. It smelledlike old copper pennies and if she had not been a nurse, she wascertain she would have smelled it quicker. Being a nurse made herused to this particular smell and she almost cursed her own lack ofattention. The figure behind her was either bleeding or covered inblood. If Amber strained to listen, she could hear the bloodpattering on the area rug that the man was standing on behindher.
She wonderedbriefly what would cause that amount of blood to be on a person andknew that the man either had to be bleeding from the throat orwould have had to cut someone across the throat. Bleeding from thethroat would mean she could just wait him out as he would die inless than five minutes. If he had cut someone across the throatthen he could stand there forever. Eventually he would
