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I sit down at a sidewalk café to immerse myself in the neighborhood even better and order a Chai Latte, enjoying the soft breeze that’s carrying the ever-so-slight scent of the ocean. My plan was to call Stacey and tell her I might have just found the perfect neighborhood for us to rent in, but then I just sort of got lost in daydreams as I watched life go on around me.
Julian really was way too quiet. I need this. I need life all around me. Maybe one day, when we’re old and gray, Brennon and I can move back to the country. But for now, this is where I’m staying.
Deciding to move to LA is definitely the best choice for me. And I already know that even though I haven’t even been here a week, so it must be true. I’ve spent too much time indoors and in my own head, alone with my fear for the past few years. Now it’s time to live my life.
My phone pings with a text, and a part of me is sure that it’s Brennon thinking the same thing I was thinking. Well, at least the part about how happy I am to be in LA.
But the text is from an unknown, hidden number, and before I even click to open it, my heart is already racing, and my hands are shaking.
The photo attached to the text is of a dog’s cage, rusty and dirty but with very thick bars. The kind they have at the vet, only this one isn’t even big enough to fit a dog the size of a golden retriever.
And the text reads:
You put me in a cage, so you’ll be in one next. I already got it for you. What do you think?
-K
The words are blurring in and out of focus, my hands are shaking so hard my teeth are chattering, and I’ve forgotten how to breathe. Forgotten how to not be terrified.
And while I’m still trying to process the first, a second text arrives:
You shouldn’t have run away from me. That wasn’t nice. And that guy you found . . . you can watch him die now. From the cage.
I very nearly throw up. All my best-laid plans of never letting Kevin mess with me again seem to have just gone up in smoke. He’s back under my skin, back in my mind, whispering scary things directly into my mind that I can’t escape.
I dial Brennon’s number, and he answers on the second ring. For the first few seconds, I can’t speak. I try to, but no words are coming out.
“What’s wrong, Luna?” he asks in a panicked voice. “Are you hurt?”
“Please come get me,” I manage to whisper and manage to give him the name of the café.
“I’ll be right there,” he says. “Stay on the line with me.”
I hear his bike rumble to life.
I try to speak more, but all that’s coming out is a jumbled mess that even I can’t quite understand. So it’s no surprise when he tells me to breathe deeply to try and calm down. I wish that were helping, but it isn’t. I wish I could find the anger I felt when I found the rabbit, but I can’t. And most of all, I wish my life wasn’t consumed by this fear of a psychopath that’s so fixated on me. He won’t stop hounding me until I’m dead. Or he is.
My black thoughts start to lift a little as I spot Brennon coming down the street and even more as he parks by the curb and rushes to me, wrapping his arms around me. I never felt as alive as I do in his arms, and that fact is helping now too.
“He sent me a text,” I mumble. “He wants to put me in a cage. Why won’t he just leave me alone? Why?”
I’ve asked that question so many times and gotten no answer. I’ve stopped asking it because it’s pointless. I know that. But . . .
“I never did anything to him,” I continue while Brennon leads me slowly to his bike. “I never led him on. I ended it with him cleanly. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Shhh,” he says. “I’m taking you home. You’ll be safe there.”
“Safe?” I ask in a shaky voice. “I’ll never be safe anywhere. You see how he can find me anywhere. And he just knows when I’m at my happiest . . . that’s when he strikes. He said he’ll kill you . . . and make me watch.”
I shudder at the thought, and Brennon hugs me tight.
“Don’t worry about me. I can take this guy any day of the week. And I’ll make sure he never comes near you again.”
He sounds like it’s a done deal.
I look up at him, at his hard yet glimmering eyes. “Can you do that?”
He nods. “For you, I can do anything.”
