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Before I could even finish the word, she warned, “Shh...”
Her face appeared in front of me, and she looked scared shitless.
“He’s…in…the house,” she whispered, trembling uncontrollably as her gaze slid to my bedroom door.
I opened my mouth to ask what the hell she was talking about, but then I heard it. The wooden floorboards of the hallway creaked as if someone was sneaking past my damn door.
“Hide.Now,” Thalia commanded, her voice no longer quiet or guarded. “No fucking way is this prick doing to you what he did to me.”
Wait.What!?
Before I could ask if she meant what I thought she meant, she shoved at my sheets, and I felt the pressure as if she’d physically pushed me.
“Go!”
So I went. Without question.
I rolled off the side of the bed and landed with a silent thud on all fours on the carpet. My heart was racing so fast, it rushed through my ears, making it impossible to hear anything else.
And yet I still managed to make out Thalia’s voice when she told me, “Under the bed. Roll.Roll!”
I rolled, and the bed skirt brushed my face as I made my way under the mattress.
Once I was flattened on my stomach in my secure spot, I lifted my face enough to see the closed door that led into the hall. My breathing was so hard it sounded as if a tornado was approaching.
“Shh...” Thalia advised. I glanced over to find her lying on her stomach next to me, hiding as well. “Maybe he’ll think you’re not here and leave. Just breathe. Nice, even breaths.”
I opened my mouth to ask her who was in the hall when I heard the latch to my door click.
Attention zooming around, I watched in horror as my bedroom door silently creaked open. It paused briefly as if to make sure the sound didn’t wake me, then it continued until a boot stepped into the room, with dark pants covering the leg.
“Through your nose,” Thalia assured me. “Slow, quiet breaths.”
I went dizzy from how hard I concentrated on breathing silently through my nose.
“You’re doing great.”
I glanced at her, unable to stop shaking and wishing I could ask what the hell was happening and who was currently sneaking into my room.
The boots approached and halted inches from my face.
I held my breath, trying not to whimper.
Above me, the bed jerked as the blankets hanging down shifted abruptly as if maybe my guest had just whipped off the sheets and stabbed...the mattress.
A whispered curse followed.
The boots shifted as if he were looking around the room, searching the darkened corners for me.
“Phone, purse, and car are still here,” he mumbled in a strange guttural voice. “Meaning,you’restill here, aren’t you, little mouse? Just hiding from the cat in some hole in the wall, I bet. Let’s see… Are you…?” He moved away from the bed and finished with, “In the closet?” at the same moment he ripped the closet door open.
But I wasn’t in the closet, asshole. Try again.
Except he did try again. In the bathroom.
While he was in there, Thalia warned me, “He’s going to look under the bed next. Get ready to crawl out the other end and run, okay? I’ll try to distract him.”
“No, wait...” I hissed, reaching for her. “Don’t leave me. Thal...”
