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There it was again, so I wasn’t imagining it. I shook my head to clear the fog-filled sleepiness so I could figure out where the sound had come from. When I heard it again I realized it was just outside my window somewhere. While I might be on the second floor that didn’t make me feel much safer.
It certainly wouldn’t stop Thad if he’d found me.
Scrambling out of bed, I grabbed my cell off the bedside table and ran to the closet. Shutting myself in, I hid behind the clothes hanging there and stared at the bright light on the screen of my phone. With shaky hands, I pulled up my contacts but then hesitated to call anyone after looking at the time and realizing it was three in the morning. I was probably freaking myself out over nothing so it wouldn’t be right to wake anyone so dang early.
Every rapid breath pounded out in the silent closet, echoing around me as my pulse and heart thumped in an erratic rhythm with it. My mind flashed back to the past and my hand went to my throat, clawing at the invisible hands that choked me, cutting off all my oxygen.
It is not real.
I tried reminding myself that over and over. My vision blurred and tears slipped down my cheeks as I fumbled with the phone again deciding I desperately needed someone. With trembling hands, I scrolled to find the right number. But when the voice came through the line, I was frozen in fear and couldn’t speak.
“Teal, honey. What is wrong? Are you okay?” Kace’s concerned voice brought a new wave of tears.
I could hear rustling through the phone but didn’t know what he was doing. Then I heard a door slam through the line and I jumped.
“Come on, sweetheart, talk to me.” It sounded like he was running as he spoke and I wondered where he would be going. “Teal, I’m here. Come open your door.” His voice was soft and soothing as he pleaded for me to open up.
“I can’t m-move,” I stammered. “He might b-be outside.”
“Honey, nobody is going to hurt you. You can make it to the door and I will be waiting right here for you. You just have to open it for me.”
I couldn’t stop the sob that broke free. But I got myself to a standing position and on shaky legs, I moved. “I’m c-coming.”
“That’s good, baby. One step at a time. Listen to my voice and come to me,” he said.
And with his calm voice talking to me every step of the way, I made it to the door. Then I froze up again. Not long ago I had turned a knob and walked away from evil, but what if this time I was opening the door and letting it in. What if it was a trick?
In the back of my head, I knew Kace was there and had been talking to me, but my brain was conjuring up so many scenarios that told me something different. Then the smooth as butter voice echoed through the phone and also the wooden door I was standing in front of.
“I can hear you breathing, honey. I know you’re scared, but it’s just me. Look out your peephole and you will see.”
My body trembled, my legs felt like jelly and fear raced through me as I went up on tiptoes to do as he asked. When I looked out all the air swooshed from my lungs and I dropped back to my feet.
“It’s really y-you.”
“Yeah, sweetheart, it’s me. Now open the door and let me in.”
It was three in the morning and I had woken him. I was acting like a scared little rabbit and had made him stand outside forever as I got myself to even get to the front door. And yet he didn’t sound mad at all. How was that possible?
I wasn’t sure but the sincerity in his voice had me turning the deadbolt and then pressing my hand to the knob and turning the last lock. He didn’t shove his way in even though I was sure he heard them disengage.
“That’s it, Teal, you are almost there,” he coaxed. “Just open the door and you will be safe.”
Safe.
Would I ever be safe? One day I hoped to feel that forever, but right now just feeling it for a little while sounded nice. So, I twisted the knob and pulled open the door as my heart pounded out of my chest and I waited to see what was on the other side. Would it truly be who I saw when I looked out? Was it going to be Kace, the man I had been mysteriously drawn to since I laid eyes on him? The guy that with just one glance had given me a tiny sense of safety and peace?
God, I hoped so.
Then standing there not moving a muscle, Kace’s whiskey-brown eyes took me in and assessed me from a distance. He scanned me up and down making sure I wasn’t harmed and then brought his eyes back to mine.
The urge to run into his embrace and let him hold me was intense. And before I knew it, I couldn’t stop myself. I ran straight for him and threw myself at him, letting him catch me against him, and then I buried my face in his chest and broke down. Sobs wracked my body, but he didn’t let go.
We stood in the hall like that for I don’t know how long, while he let me cry all over him, and much to my dismay, as I covered his soft navy-blue shirt with snot. As my body settled and my cries slowed down, I realized what I had done. Everything inside me shifted at the notion that I had willingly let myself be held and comforted by Kace.
And it felt good.
But now what did I do?
