I was in the guestroom relaxing on the bed, trying to get some courage up to fall asleep, but it wasn’t coming for me yet. I was wide awake. I was still so scared. I had to control myself and my emotions.
After about twenty minutes I made peace with the fact that I would not find sleep that night. So, I called my best friend Chelsea. She had no idea any of this had happened. She listened calmly as I went over the story.
“Oh, my God! I… no… how? Are you sure you are ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll be fine, rather.” I told her about Bill and how he was taking care of me.
“Be careful. You don’t know this guy either. He might be a real nut job. It seems a bit much too soon, doesn’t it?”
“No, I think he is just trying to do the right thing to help me. He’s been great.”
“Ok, well… if you know what you are doing. I hope it all goes ok for you. Do you really think the cops will find these guys?”
“Sure.” I paused a moment. “Well, I hope so anyway.”
“Right,” she said. “I’m sure they will, too.”
“Thanks for saying that. I wish you were here with me, but I don’t want to get you involved. It’s better if I just stay away from everyone for the moment. I don’t know how much these guys might know about me.”
“So, you are going to isolate yourself? Is that wise? Did the cops advise you to do this?”
“No. I’m advising me to do this. It’s just what I have to do.”
“Ok,” she said. “You know what you’re doing. So, tell me more about this Bill character. Is he hot at least?”
I laughed. Leave it to Chelsea to lighten the mood. “He is actually. But I’m not really thinking about that right now.”
“Oh, right. Shit. I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry. I was just trying to be funny.”
“It’s ok. It was funny. But I’m just not in the mood to think about much. This thing is really dominating my life right now.”
“Well, I know you will get through this.”
“Thank you,” I said. “It means a lot that I can just talk with you.”
“Always. I’m always here for you no matter what you need.”
“Thanks. I’ll call you tomorrow,” I said.
“Ok. Sleep well. Just get some damn rest.”
I ended the call and I laid back down in the bed. I did feel much better. I wasn’t sure why, but it just helped being able to vent things to someone.
I closed my eyes and tried to calm down enough to sleep. I had Bill down the hall and a cop outside the house. I was fine. I just had to keep telling myself that.
I woke up in a cold sweat.
The air around me was hot and heavy. I was lying on top of the covers which were now covered in sweat. And I was shivering for some reason despite being so hot.
Something had woken me up. What was it? It wasn’t something I’d imagined. I was sure of it. I had heard something real. What was going on?
I quickly got dressed and tiptoed out into the hallway. I made my way down to Bill’s room. The second I got there, he stepped out into the hall. He was shirtless wearing only a pair of athletic shorts. He looked alert and ready for action.
“Stay here,” he said.
I didn’t want to stay behind. Mostly because I was afraid of what might happen to me to be alone anywhere, and I felt like this was my fight. I wasn’t going to stand idly by while someone else put their life on the line. I had to go into the fire as well. I’ve always been stubborn and extremely hard-headed that way.
I began to walk along with Bill. He gave me a widened stare. “Stay back.”
I shook my head. “No. I’m going.”
He rolled his eyes and continued on down the hallway. I figured we were going to go to the back door or even the front door and get out of here or see what was going on, but instead we turned a corner and Bill opened a doorway heading downstairs to what turned out to be a nicely finished basement. I hadn’t even known this was down here.
We made our way to the basement and then down a hallway. Bill moved quickly now, almost jogging along. He sat down in front of a large computer monitor and pulled up a live feed. It was from outside. There was the police unit. Everything seemed fine, but then I saw the officer was actually jogging back to his car and then picking up his radio. Something had happened.
“I’m going to roll it back,” Bill said.
He rewound the security feed and then played it. I saw a car in the distance. It pulled up and then two men got out. They walked slowly towards Bill’s house, sneaking around behind the police car. They crept slowly towards us, one by the window on the far end of the house and the other one approaching the back door.