by J. L. Myers
This guy meant business—deadly business.
But who was he here to take out?
I looked up and down the hallway around me. I needed to get to the office or at least to a fire alarm so the university could be evacuated. Neither was in sight, and the office was a few buildings over. But mass murder at school was not happening here, not if I had anything to do about it. I might not have known a single student personally, but that didn’t matter. The culture here was good, and these people were here to learn, for the most part. Dying by bloody dagger at the hands of some maniac was not something I would wish on anyone, well, except maybe for the thing from my nightmares.
I spun back around and picked up the pace, deciding it was best to hightail it out of there before he could change direction and take after me.
Too late.
The moment I started power walking like that was just a normal thing I did (yeah, because I’m from the eighties, not!), Sexonlegs spun around and started after me. If he hadn’t been armed and dangerous, I might have taken a moment to admire the way his messy hair flung over his shoulders and the dark promise that loomed in his eyes. But, yeah…stalking a girl with a weapon will kill the, Could he be the one? out of any girl.
“Hey, wait up!”
And now I had my answer. Which made sense, since Stalker Guy had suddenly shown up in my class. This guy was after me. Orphan nobody me. What the Hell?! And what kind of accent was that? European, Australian, and something else all mixed up into a dialect I’d never heard before.
Now running, I considered throwing my laptop back at him. This guy had long legs and he knew how to use them. Damn, he was fast. But I couldn’t make myself do it. I may have been lucky enough to get a scholarship to the Three Rivers Community College through hard work, but having just aged out of the foster system, I was dead poor. It had taken all my part-time jobs to afford the equipment, and I would be damned if I was about to break my one chance at passing this year on some psycho. So I had to come up with something else.
Think, dammit!
“Calliope, stop. I only want to talk to you.”
Like hell. And how did he know my name? No one ever called me by my real name. Anyone alive on the face of the earth that knows of me only ever knew me as Calli.
Sexonlegs was close now, almost moving leisurely as he caught up to me. The dagger was nowhere in sight, but I wasn’t falling for any kind of false sense of security. Bloody five-foot-five. This guy was a few clicks over six foot.
And then I saw it as if my unasked prayer had been answered. A fire alarm. Ripping the jacket from around my waist, I flung it around my arm—hard to do when you’re clinging for dear life to a laptop—and smashed the glass over the panel. The sound was loud and glass shards rained down, hitting the linoleum and my worn-out sneakers. At least there were no holes in them, and my tight moss-colored jeans were full length, protecting my legs. Sexonlegs reached for me, about to snag my arm. And then the deed was done, my fingers catching hold to rip down the lever as my legs kept propelling my body onward.
The shrill wailing made me want to cover my ears. The fact that Sexonlegs stumbled and actually did cover his made me smile. And then came the noise, the sound of movement a heart-stopping second before students burst from their classrooms and spilled out into the hallway.
Sexonlegs was enveloped into the fray as I bolted, caught by the mass of guys and girls who shared expressions of mixed concern and celebration on their faces as they got out of class early. Towering over almost every girl and most of the guys, Stalker Guy locked eyes on me over the moving sea of heads as I looked back. His lips parted, mouthing words I didn’t need quiet to make out over the ruckus.
“See you soon, Princess.”
Chapter Three
I made it to the bus stop just as the bus was pulling up. And it was even the right bus. Talk about lucky! Breathing hard, I vaulted up the steps, buzzed my bus pass, and raced for the back seat, shoving a guy and two girls over in my haste as my eyes scanned out through the large windows. “Sorry!” I squeaked. One girl dropped her backpack, and I fell at once to pick it up. “I’m so sorry.”
The pretty blonde smiled and snatched the bag, rolling her eyes as she scooted into the seat beside her friend who wore a cheerleader costume.
Finally reaching the back of the bus without any further incidents, I stared out the long window, searching the campus grounds for my stalker. Students spilled out of the many buildings, filling the manicured lawns and undercover areas and pathways quickly. There was so much movement and so many faces, I kept going back and forth thinking I’d seen and then missed him.
“Come on, come on, come on.” My knees bounced and my hands shook, clutched around my laptop. I quickly shoved the computer into my backpack before I dropped it. The bus continued to idle at the side of the road.
And then I saw him.
Long caramel hair blown back from his face, Sexonlegs moved through the crowd like they were specks in an ocean that reacted to a moving current, a current he commanded. His wild searching eyes only made the sneer across his face more severe as his head swung toward the coughing bus. I ducked down, but I was too slow. He zeroed in on me at the back of the bus, and as I peeked up through the window, I saw him stalking my way.
“Calliope!”
I cringed at his use of my real name. I hadn’t heard anyone call me that since the foster workers were trying to place me. My mom had been the last person I had alive, and after she died I would burst into tears anytime anyone used my full name. The women at child services quickly learned to call me Calli, and after that, it stuck…and I was able to pass a day without breaking down non-stop into a blubbering mess.
Now this psycho was after me and bringing the past back like a crashing wave. Tears burned my eyes, and I glared at him as I sat up straighter. What was he going to do? Stab me to death on a public bus? Feeling suddenly angry and full of rage that I sure as hell didn’t have the kahonas to back up, I stood up and waved him on with both hands. I mouthed, “Then come at me.” My smile was full of malice, but my eyes were already on task, eyeing out the emergency hammer that could be used to break the back window. Once he was on board and we were rolling, I’d smash the glass and leap for it.
And then my stupid fantasy came undone as the bus lurched to life.
“Calli, wait!”
“That guy want the bus?” The stocky man spinning the steering wheel laid off the gas.
“No!” I all but screamed out, fighting the jerky momentum to keep on my feet rather than sprawling down the aisle and into those two glaring girls. “Keep going.”
No one else on the bus knew him, keeping their frowns and raised brows set on me and what must have been my tomato red face and wild eyes. A half-full bus of students and even an old professor. Yay, two rounds of public torture in one epic day. How could today get any worse? Oh, right…how about if Sexonlegs suddenly morphed into the terminator and ran the bus down to kill me with an audience. Yeah, that would be the cherry on a seriously effed up day, week, year…life.
But the bus had picked up speed and Sexonlegs—why was I still calling him that?—was trailing behind more and more.
I let out a relieved breath, turning away from my avid audience to slump back into my seat. The bus ride wasn’t too long, but I was last on the line. I stared vacantly out the window, watching first the houses and then larger buildings and parking lots pass by as we veered onto West Main Street. But then we were nearing the river over the Yantic Bridge, and as we headed into the Norwich CBD, that same shiver returned to my bones, chilling me down to my marrow. After passing City Hall and another turn, the cemetery came up right on cue.
Her cemetery.
Even from this distance and with the lessening light of late afternoon, my eyes went straight to it. Mamma’s headstone. A grave marker only—because her body had vanished that night, long after her death when cops had been called to pick up a drenched little girl on the shores of the sleepy town
of Mystic…a town that was one full hour away by car.
I sniffed back my tears as the bus stopped to let those two giggling girls off. Rain started to patter outside, streaking down the big glass windows and blurring the view of headstones and distant tombs. I hated winter, and it was fast approaching. I shivered, goosebumps prickling up over my bare arms. I grabbed my balled-up jacket and shrugged it on—right as a shadow darted between tombs in the distance. “It’s all in your head. None of it is real. Not then. Not now.”
I repeated the chant under my breath, the bus radio adding enough noise to keep my public torture from a third round. But the words did nothing to remove my growing apprehension or the knot of dread in my stomach. I clenched my teeth, gulping my paranoia down.
My mom’s body had vanished that day. Disappeared like a volunteer in a magic show. That was a fact not even the cops could argue. But she didn’t get sucked down into the puddle of oil. No way. That would be crazy, and impossible…or so the social worker shrinks told me. And even at age four, I learned that the truth, or at least what you thought was the truth, was not always the best option. Only lying got me out of that sterile environment and into the doors of one after another foster home. Those people didn’t actually want kids. Though they had many. No. They wanted a paycheck. And with notice for house inspections and child check-ins, it was easy for them to make it look like they provided clean, safe, and loving homes for wayward children like me. Maybe the psychiatric ward would have been better? Now I guess I’ll never know.
The bus finally rolled onward—and a figure darted into my peripheral vision.
My head cranked sideways. “No effing way.” There he was, sexy as ever and not even breaking a sweat. Who the hell was this guy and how the hell did he get here? Running was impossible. He would never have made it that fast. And there were no other buses that could have dropped him off. Only cars whizzed by, one honking as the bus pulled out and cut a Ford Chevy off.
Sexonlegs smiled, hiking his brows as he crossed his arms over his chest. I blinked, shaking my head…and he disappeared.
Okay, wow! I tried to control my breathing, but it was no use. Rain pelted down harder, slicking the roads as we veered onto Oak Street, before hooking left and continuing along the back roads of suburbia. I was losing my ever-loving mind. That had to be it. That guy, his big bloody dagger, and his ability to appear at will was a figment of my imagination…because it was the anniversary of my mother’s death. Her murder, I added without words. I laughed to keep myself from crying, and the guy I’d bumped into earlier frowned at me as he zipped up his football jacket and stood.
The bus stopped again, and then I was the last person left.
Sexonlegs was nowhere in sight, and I made myself breathe normally as we finally made it out of the burbs and back onto North Main. But unlike the other afternoons when I caught my usual bus, this one didn’t turn left up to the main drag. My regular driver, Larry, was so kind and always drove me past all the warehouse and industrial buildings to get me as close to home as possible. Said he didn’t want me walking the back alleys alone.
But I guess I was out of luck today as the bus screeched to a halt outside the Public Utilities shop that lay across the road from Johnny’s Clam Shack. I loved seafood and my stomach grumbled, but eating was the last thing on my mind. “Last stop.” The man with balding hair and a tired face looked at me in the rearview mirror. His expression softened for a moment. “Unless you want to loop back toward the depot?”
I got up and slung my backpack over my shoulder. At least the cheap bag was vinyl. It would protect my laptop as I ran for cover. “I’m fine. Thanks.” I scoped out through the windows as I stomped toward the exit. No shadows, not stalkers waiting in the rain. I climbed down the steps. “See ya.”
The bus doors clapped shut, and the engine roared as it trundled away down the road. I started off quickly down Main Street, my old sneakers kicking up water and collecting even more of it through the cracks in the wannabe leather. Rain continued to beat down, drenching me from the crown of my head and down through my shoulders. I continued onward, heading past a yard with scrap cars. Being here in this weather reminded me too much of the night I lost my mom. My pulse kicked up a notch and the nausea in my stomach intensified. Puddles grew like living things, the pattering sound that should have been tranquil heightening my need to bolt faster than I knew I could.
I cut left down a back street. I was close now, only two more streets to pass—but then I heard it.
Shoes slapping wet puddles.
In my mind, I saw the monster crawl up out of the ground like it was coming through a door in the asphalt. Yet I knew that wasn’t what I was hearing. “It’s not real.”
But the person behind me was.
I spun around, needing to confirm my hearing right—and there he was. I kept stepping backward, glad he was only walking after me. “What the hell do you want from me? Don’t you ever give up?”
“When I’m dealing with something life-altering, no, I never give up.” His answer wasn’t what I expected, but despite the appeal of his deep husky voice, the life-altering part kicked my brain into gear. Because it was my life that he was ready to alter…with my death.
I stopped suddenly—and so did he. I knew exactly where I was. Being in this rough part of the city, with the abandoned four-story asylum that was full of druggies behind me, I knew how to protect myself in my own home. I just had to get there first. But if I could shake him off…
Staring at me and equally drenched in jeans and a black leather jacket, Sexonlegs looked me over like he had earlier. His full lips parted as his eyes traveled up from my T-shirt that clung to my breasts before settling on my face. His eyes narrowed with his exploration as if he were trying to figure out a puzzle and my face was the missing piece. But I didn’t care what his game was or how damn sexy he looked standing in the rain needing to be stripped and dried off.
I bared my teeth. “This pixie has fangs, and I bite. You want me?” My words seemed to stun him, and I darted down the alley to my left. “Gonna have to catch me first!” I called back.
Running full pelt, I veered onto the train tracks and didn’t stop. I knew this route, and this wasn’t my first run from danger rodeo. Paranoia was a bitch.
A glance back made me smile. The space between track sleepers was perfect for my gait, but Stalker Guy was losing ground as his long strides hit a sleeper, then overshot to gravelly rocks. Darkness enveloped me as I put space between us, the overhanging trees acting like a cocoon that threatened to swallow me and my screams without escape if I tripped like I had when I was four. Plus I was heading straight for my secret hideaway.
Not a great idea. I had to lose him first.
I cut left, darting through a slim break in the thick trees and found myself in an empty parking lot before I shot down a back alley. I leaped over puddles, trash, and stray milk crates. Stalker guy was running too and gaining on me now, a smile across his lips—arrogant jerk! My arm flung out as I skimmed around a leaning stack of packing crates, tugging them down after me. A crash of splintering wood was met with a curse.
With my head start, I got a bit further away from him and cut between two close-knit buildings. Rats scampered near an old rubbish can, and I barely blinked. I normally didn’t like rodents, but I had bigger rats to fry. A quick look over my shoulder revealed him gaining on me. A door was coming up near the end of the buildings, and then it was only one last turn before I was home free…where I’d have to get armed and fight for my life since I hadn’t shaken my shadow. Yay for today! But I wasn’t going down without a fight. My mother never gave up, and until my last breath, neither would I.
“Calliope, just hear me out.” He reached for me, fingers so close to snagging my wet flailing hair. “Just stop!”
“No way.” I caught the door handle and tugged. The metal barrier opened as I knew it would. Like many of the others, this building was abandoned and rundown.
Crack!
> The metal barrier slammed into my stalker’s face, knocking him back onto his ass. Blood gushed from his nose, and I hesitated as I spun to make the last running leap to deliver me around the bend and onto the home stretch. I’d just injured some guy, badly by the dazed look across his face. Granted he was stalking me and had scared the fear of death into me, but really, what harm had he done? If I hadn’t seen the dagger, which was still glaringly absent, would any of this have happened? Would he be okay?
I’d heard the slogan; one punch can kill. What if breaking his nose stabbed bone up into his skull? What if I left him here in this dingy alley and he died?
I began to creep forward, hands out as if placating a rabid dog. Something inside of me screamed for me to turn and run, but my legs refused to obey. “Are…are you okay?”
Sexonlegs frowned up at me, blinking as if being woken by the rising sun…or eclipsed by it. Except I was the sun and he was—getting up right in front of me. “You’re worried you hurt me?”
“Oh shit!” My reaching hands fell, and I stepped back as my stalker used his forearm to smear the blood from his face. “No. I mean, yes. Stop, don’t move.”
Except he didn’t listen. With a dangerous look back on his face, he stalked forward. “You are making this harder than it needs to be, Calliope. Stop running.”
Almost at the bend, I shot a glance at my destination over the bridge. I’d never make it. My voice shook, betraying the fear I felt. “Then stop chasing me!”
Sexonlegs looked from the warehouse I’d glanced at and back at me with a smirk. He went to snatch at the hand I pushed at the air with, and I jerked it back and spun. With my feet hammering the asphalt, I made it to the bend, only to glance back when I didn’t hear the splash of his running boots. His smile was sardonic. “You can’t escape this any more than I can. Until we meet again, Princess.”