Maya
“What if that’s not Paul?” I was now talking to my cat.
Mocha had joined me and now had her front paws resting on the windowsill next to me. “He can’t be the only one who has a crap bumper.” My cat meowed like she was agreeing with me.
I turned and plopped down onto the bed. I might have been overreacting.
Wait, I didn’t fully inspect every inch of my house. I jumped up and made my way into the hallway to grab the straightening iron on the floor. Even if I was wrong, and no one was in my house, I still felt better holding the damn thing.
I checked my living room, made a circle in the carpet around my dining room table, and stepped on the other side of the small kitchen island. Nothing.
There was one more place I needed to look: the coat closet.
I took a couple of steps toward the door. Mocha meowed loudly. I screamed and threw my hand over my mouth. It was highly possible that my cat was trying to give me a heart attack.
“Mocha. Hush.” I shook my head and wrapped my fingers around the doorknob. Before I pulled the door open, I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. “Please don’t let anyone be there. Please don’t let anyone be there.” I slowly let out the breath I was holding and pulled the door open.
Two coats, an Instant Pot, and one box. That’s it. Nothing had been moved, no one was hiding in the small space.
I dropped to the floor and crossed my legs. Mocha pushed her head against my side and climbed onto my lap. “Are you the one who made all the creepy sounds that woke me up?” I rubbed my hand back and forth over her back. “Or was it all just a crazy dream?”
What movie did I watch before I went to bed? Oh, crap, I didn’t watch a movie because there was a new episode of FBI.
This had to all be a dream. The episode was scary. Someone had broken into a woman’s home and attacked her while she was sleeping.
I hopped up and ran back to my bedroom. If it was a dream, that car outside was probably not anything. My subconscious was most likely playing tricks on me.
Wait, the car’s gone.
No one was there.
It was wild because my dream felt so real, I could see the car, or so I thought.
I shook my head and laughed. Note to self, don’t watch intense or scary shows before I go to sleep. I climbed back into bed and snuggled under the covers. If I didn’t get a few hours of shut-eye, my day was going to be very unproductive.
Several hours later, my phone made a noise and woke me up. I glanced at the time on the lock screen. It was 10:00 am. “Shit, shit, shit.”
I should’ve set an alarm, but I never slept past 8:00.
Last night replayed in my mind. I rubbed my fingers over my eyes, stretched, and sat up. A part of me wondered if it all had been a dream. Then, I noticed my straightening iron on the floor in the middle of my room.
Mocha usually slept on the bed with me. I glanced around the room, trying to find her. “Mocha?” I called out her name three times. On the fourth attempt, something moved behind me, causing me to jump. She was sitting on the windowsill. “What are you doing up there?”
She meowed and started to clean her front paw.
Why was she up there and not on the bed with me?
A vision of the car with a messed-up bumper flashed through my mind. I sat up and turned to look out the window.
Wait, is that?
When I went back to sleep, the car was not there. Now it was back in the same spot. I could see it perfectly in the daylight, and I could see the driver perfectly, too.
“My phone. I need my phone.” I moved away from the window and stumbled back onto the bed.
It was my date from last night, and he was looking right at me.
AUTHOR NOTE:
Dreams are wild because they can feel so real. There have been moments in my life when I couldn’t tell if I was in a dream or reality. This time, it looks like someone was watching Maya. We’re about to circle back to chapter thirty-nine, and Maya’s best friend, Lola, will help her. The question I have is, do they know the cop who will help Maya, or will he be a new guy in town?