Maya
12 hours earlier…
Creak…
My eyes flew open, and I sat up in bed.
I heard a sound in my apartment. I couldn’t discern exactly what it was, but my instincts told me it could be someone walking on the hardwood flooring.
After several internal arguments about whether I should get up to check if someone was in the house, I decided to sit on my bed a little longer. That felt like the safer option.
Every suspense movie I’ve watched flashed through my mind. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the person who got up seemed to die or get attacked in some horrible way.
Yup, I liked sitting right here, snuggled under the covers.
I lifted my body and turned toward the window, trying to see if maybe someone was outside. Nothing. Then, my eyes caught sight of a very familiar car. It was still too early to see it clearly, but the streetlight did help with visibility.
I thought about my date last night with a guy I met on a dating app. His car had several problems, one being the bumper. The right side of the bumper was dented and bent down.
Paul had dropped me off at 8:00 pm last night. Everything seemed fine then.
At the time, I was on the fence about whether I wanted to go on another date with him. He seemed nice. He was easy to talk to, and he made me laugh. Nothing felt weird.
Until now.
Why was his car in my apartment complex parking lot?
I dropped back onto the bed. Is that the sound that woke me up? Well, more like, did he wake me up?
Suddenly, I realized sitting on my bed was not the best option.
I glanced around my room, trying to find a heavy object to carry with me if I was really going to leave the comfort of my room. My eyes caught sight of my straightening iron. That felt like a good choice. It was that, or the crazy-high heels in my closet.
The straightener was closer. I grabbed it and pulled it against my chest. My right foot attempted to move forward, but then I stopped. Should I leave a message with my best friend, Lola, just in case something happens?
“You’re overreacting, Maya,” I whispered to myself and took the first few steps out of my bedroom.
My apartment was not huge; it was only about 900 square feet. I had a bedroom with an attached bathroom. Then, you went down a short hallway to an open space where the living room, dining room, and kitchen were located. One of the reasons I chose the place was for the gorgeous hardwood floors. They were so beautiful, and I knew they would be easy to clean.
After today, I had another reason to like them. The creaking sounds. They were helpful, especially if anyone was attempting to sneak around. There was no way to go undetected in my house.
I stopped in the middle of the hallway and raised my right arm higher. My fingertips were white from the death grip I had on the straightening iron. One more step and I would be in the open space. If someone were here, I might finally see them.
Creak…
My body stopped moving. Every bone in me shook. The first sound I heard was most definitely not a dream.
Click…
I closed my eyes and counted to ten. I needed to move my damn body forward and catch the person invading my space.
You can do this, Maya. That was the mantra I repeated over and over since leaving my bedroom.
Could I do it, though? Fear was starting to overtake me.
The last step out of the hallway felt too hard.
What if I rounded the corner and came face-to-face with the mystery person? What if it was Paul?
Could I defend myself with just a straightening iron?
I did do yoga daily, but I had a funny feeling that balancing on one leg or going down into the crow pose wouldn’t save me.
Anger slowly rose up inside of me.
My apartment was supposed to be the place where I could go to get away from it all. My sanctuary. I suddenly felt violated.
What if the mystery person in my apartment did end up being the date from last night? I would delete all the apps on my phone. Finding a man was not that important. Lola had been telling me for months to just let my forever happen naturally.
Why did I have to be so impatient?
I felt a tap against my shin.
What the?
Everything happened so quickly…
Something tapped my shin. I screamed like a baby and jumped so high up in the air. The straightening iron fell out of my hand, and my body slammed against the wall.
When I could finally think clearly, I noticed my cat sitting perfectly a few feet away. “Mocha, seriously?” I let out a heavy sigh and took a few steps forward. I was in my living room. “Shit.” I glanced around before bending down to be closer to my cat. “Was it you making all that noise?” My heart rate had increased. I took a breath in and let it out slowly. I did that several times, trying to quiet my racing heart.
Something felt weird, out of place, but I couldn’t see anything odd from the angle where I was kneeling.
I kissed the top of Mocha’s head and stood. A part of me wanted to walk around and see if I noticed anything unusual. The other part of me needed to know if the car I saw earlier was still here.
I ran into my bedroom and climbed onto the bed to carefully peer out of a small section of the blinds. My breath hitched. It was still here, and this time, someone was sitting in the driver’s seat.
AUTHOR NOTE:
Well, I decided to add some suspense in the serial. It feels right to shake things up a bit. Here’s my question for YOU: Will she go back into the living room and find a note on the front door (a creepy message), or will it turn out to be just the cat who made all that noise? Maybe the guy never entered her house, and he was in his car the whole time?