Flying Free (MAC Security 2.50)

I walk faster, my head swiveling around. My skin starts to get goosebumps and I hate the feeling that I get.

It doesn’t help that the campus is

completely dead, not one person walking around. I don’t know why I still put myself through this, I should ask for earlier shifts again or at least one’s where I’m not on my own.

I cross the road, practically jogging now and make a mad dash for my apartment building, pushing my key into the building door and slamming it closed behind me. I hide next to the door my hands flat against the wall as my breaths come in pants. Closing my eyes, I get myself under control and peer out.

After several minutes, I don’t see anyone or anything, so I start to move towards the stairs until something out the corner of my eye catches my attention.

I spin around, standing in the middle of the hallway, squinting into the darkness outside and trying to see what it is.

I can’t make out any details but my stomach flips as I see the shadow of someone standing across from the building in plain view... watching me.

I can feel their eyes on me and my stomach dips. I’m rooted to the spot for what feels like minutes but in reality, it’s mere seconds before I dash up the stairs and throw my apartment door open, putting the latch on after I’ve closed it and clutching my cell in my hand.

Closing my eyes, I lean against the door and try to catch my breath.

It could have been anyone; it could have just been a shadow. No... I definitely saw someone. Didn’t I?

What do I do now? I don’t want anyone to be worry about me, calling Charlie and telling him won’t serve any purpose but for him to worry. It’s probably just my imagination.

Yeah, that’s what it is, just my overactive imagination.

So I file it away in the back of my mind and make a cup of cocoa, then slip into bed after changing into a long t-shirt and try to tell myself that it was nothing.

Friday morning, I couldn’t bear stepping outside; I could still feel the goosebumps that prickled my skin from the night before. I hated missing classes but walking out of my bedroom was hard enough at the moment.

Then Friday night came and went, I was meant to meet Jackson at the bar but aside from not wanting to go out of the apartment, I didn’t want to see Corey again. The tension in the air when he dropped me off after pancakes the other day was unmistakable. I thought about asking him what was going on, whether it was just me thinking too much into things or whether he felt it too.

In the end, I decided to leave it.

Saturday, my cell started to ring constantly and there would be no one on the other end of the line when I answered. Jess came back to the apartment at some stage and I could hear her and Scott talking, that just made me feel even worse.

Going out there wasn’t an option when he was here so I stayed in my bedroom. No matter how much Jess knocked on my bedroom door, calling my name, I still didn’t go out.

I wasn’t going to open that door so I pretended to be asleep and listened for every little sound until they went back out of the apartment.

When my cell rings for probably the hundredth time today, I press the answer button and don’t say anything, deciding to give them a dose of their own medicine.

If I caught them off guard, they don’t show it and after a couple of what feels like minutes of nothing, I hear the chilling voice through the speaker. “Home all alone?” I shiver at how it sounds with the voice distorter.

“W-what?”

“Tell me, dear little Ava. Would anyone notice if you weren’t there?”

My breathing starts to come in pants and I drop the call, running over to my bedroom door and sitting with my back to it.

Why is this happening to me?

My eyes scan the room and I notice a bottle of vodka that Jess left in here last week when I was doing her hair and makeup. I’ve never been a drinker but right now all I can think of is to drink as much of it as I can to drown out this helpless feeling inside of me.

Crawling over to the table, I grab the bottle and then sit back by the door, unscrewing the cap and taking a swig. The liquid burns the back of my throat as it goes down and I wince, shaking my head.

Ugh, how does she drink this stuff? It tastes horrible, but it doesn’t stop me from taking another swig.

My whole body starts to hum the more I drink and I feel the warmth spread through me.

I crawl over to the edge of the bed and sit against it; picking up my cell. Swiping to my messages, I see a new one from Jackson, asking if I’m coming to the bar tonight.