Chapter 1
Madeline pulled back the corner of the curtain and cautiously peaked out once again. It was him! Even from seven floors up, she could not have mistaken that hypocritical baby face and that tight smug grin. He looked up and she flung herself back against the wall, out of view.
Impossible, he couldn’t know where he lived, how could he know? She sat down and put her head between her knees and breathed deeply through her mouth.
She began hoarsely whispering to herself “Just breathe. He’s not here for you. Twelve floors… nine apartments per floor… high percentage of students… the odds are so low that he knows you live here… breathe… it’s not….
Tap, tap, tap.
Madeline froze mid sentence. The door. She held her breathe and waited.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Bolder this time.
She crawled quietly into the kitchen, in line with the heavy wood apartment door. Fuck, it was unlocked. Stupid, careless girl. Sweep, her fluffy Persian ambled into the kitchen and rubbed up against her, purring. On instinct, she grabbed her and clutched her to her chest.
RAP. RAP. RAP. RAP. RAP. Insistent.
Madeline reviewed the situation and realized that opening the door and finding her curled on the kitchen floor hugging a fluff ball of a cat was in no way, in the least bit intimidating or powerful. She put down Sweep and ushered her to safety into the dining room. She stood up and approached the door – better to meet him head on. Her knee caps were shaking.
She reached the reinforced door without incident. She leaned up against it and rose up on her tiptoes to see out the peephole. He was just out of the line of sight, with her back to him. She could only see his right shoulder and arm and the edge of the clipboard he was holding. Clipboard?
She leaned her ear against the door, listening. Directly in front of her eyes sat the deadbolt. She imagined herself reaching up, engaging it (loudly, these deadbolts made the most atrocious rattle) and running full speed into her bedroom and diving under her duvet. But now that he knew where she lived, he’d be back. Her element of surprise would be gone and he’d know that she was scared.
She struggled to listen through the solid wood door. She heard static and muffled voices. A radio? Did he have back-up? It seemed excessive. What had she gotten herself into?
With her back to the door, Madeline took a deep breath. Working the situation through in her mind, she settled on going for a surprise attack. She would fling open the door and verbally intimidate the hell out of him. When he ran away, she would move immediately to a different city and change her name.
She peaked out through the peephole once again. Still with his back to her. She made herself still inside. Grasping the doorknob, she took a deep breath and swung the door open with all of her might.
“What do you want?!?!?!” she screamed forcefully at the man standing with his back to her.
The clipboard flew one way, the radio flew the other and the man in the navy uniform (who was most definitely NOT Aaron, the person she thought he was) screamed in a high pitched, girly tone as he spun around.
Madeline let out the air that she’d been holding in for the her next verbal assault. It came out in a blowing, raspberry type noise. The man turned his head in surprise and dismay as little droplets of her spittle hit his cheek.
“Miss Magar?” he said, once he had recovered slightly “I’m here to set up the cable upgrades you ordered.”
No comments:
Post a Comment