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“Thalia. Thalia.” I pounded on her door. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
The screaming abruptly stalled out with a gurgling kind of choke.
“Oh my God.” I reached for the doorknob. But I couldn’t get in. I was locked out. “Thalia!”
I knocked again. “Please, just answer me.” My voice began to shake. Hell, all my limbs were shaking. “What’s wrong?”
Through the door, I swear I could hear labored breathing, like a death rattle. I stepped closer. Something was being dragged across the floor, I swear. Or maybe she was crawling, trying to reach me.
“If you can’t talk, pound on the floor,” I tried. “Tap.Something! Just let me know that you can hear me. That you’re okay.”
Or play your damn music at full blast. Tell me I’m weird. Warn me away from your brother. Anything!
God, I just needed to know that she wasn’t dying in there.
But only a single thud followed as if she’d given up on trying to crawl and had simply collapsed fully on the floor.
And that was it for me; I was getting help.
I darted back to my room, flipped on the light, and found my phone. Ripping it from the charging cord on the nightstand, I hurried back toward Thalia’s door, opened the phone app on the way, and three buttons later, the line rang.
“911,” a female voice answered promptly. “What’s your emergency?”
“I…I think my roommate’s…” Dammit. I had no idea what had happened to my roommate. “Something’s wrong. She woke me from a dead sleep, screaming bloody murder. Like someone was hurting her. I think someone might have been with her; she was begging them to stop. And now she won’t answer. Her bedroom door’s locked, and I can’t get in. I…think something bad happened.”
“Okay, ma’am. What’s your address? We’ll get someone to you right away.”
“Uh…” Oh God. The address?
It took my brain a moment to function and remember where I freaking lived.
After I stuttered out what I think my correct location was, the dispatcher said, “Alright. Thank you. Could you give me a call-back number as well in case we get disconnected?”
I rattled off my cell phone number, and then the lady returned to my situation, asking more questions, getting some clarity on what exactly was happening.
Gripping my hair, I answered her and pressed my forehead to the door, slapping at it a few times in the hopes that Thalia would just answer. I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed she was okay.
“So you think someone might’ve been in the room with her?” the dispatcher asked, coming back around to that question. “Do you think they’re still in the house with younow?”
My eyes sprang open, and I jerked away from the door to glance both ways down the hall. Because, fuck, I’d been so worried about Thalia being alright that I hadn’t even thought about theintruder. I hadn’t heard anything else from anyoneelse, so it’d been easy for me to forget a possible third person being around.
But now…
Now, I freaked out.
When both directions on either side of me seemed to lead to dark, creepy ends, I hugged myself and started to breathe harder.
“I…I don’t know,” I admitted, backing into the wall opposite Thalia’s door as I kept glancing both ways down the hall, unable to stop. “I…I was so worried about Thalia I didn’t think to… Oh God. What if he’s still here? I don’t…I can’t check the apartment for anyone else. I just can’t. I’m too…”
Oh boy, I was starting to get light-headed. The fear was freezing my senses, and black spots were skulking in at the edges of my vision.
“That’s okay,” the dispatcher assured me in a calm, steady voice. “I’ll stay on the line with you until an officer arrives. Is there a lock to the room you’re in now?”
A room? What a good idea. Get to a damn room.
“Just a second,” I told the woman.
I focused on the beacon of light spilling from my open bedroom doorway and started to tremble. I couldn’t step toward it. It seemed so far away, and the darkness at the end of the hall down there led to the roof access—a perfect place for some home invader to hide out. But I couldn’t stayhereeither.
