Window Watcher
Page 8
Holy shit! I feel my hands shaking on the bottom of the window sill. I reach up and quickly lock it. I pull my hands away from it and put one of them over my chest. My heart is racing so fast I take a deep breath and try to calm myself down. I reach for the door to unlock it but then stop myself. I don’t know where he is. Is he still outside this window or has he climbed back in the bedroom window, waiting for me to come running out of the bathroom? I put my ear to the door. I don’t hear anything but can feel my heart pounding a million miles an hour. It sounds totally quiet. I gulp. What the hell should I do?
I try to gather my thoughts. It’s almost two o’clock, Icarus should be here any minute. Should I just stay here until then? I yelled out the window, I know people heard me. But will anyone actually call the police? Stories of people watching murders and doing nothing flash through my mind. I can’t count on people to call the police. And what if Icarus and his friends decide to grab a bite to eat or something after the bar? He might be back later than I think. I’m not sure what to do. My mind is racing. I put my ear to the door again. It is so quiet. Did I scare him off? Did the screaming for the police do it? I think maybe it did. I take another deep breath and sigh again. I put my hand over my heart and try to calm myself down so I can think straight.
I put my ear to the door again. It is dead silent. I really don’t think he’s out there. If he had any sense he would have taken off after I screamed at the top of my lungs for the police. He must be gone. Trust your instincts they say, so that’s what I’m going to do. I’m pretty sure he’s gone. I just need to get to my cell phone and call the police, I can’t count on my neighbors to do it.
I look over at the doorknob. I take a deep breath and reach for it. I feel the metal in my hand and hold the knob in my hand for a moment, and take another deep breath. I then slowly start to turn it. Please let him be gone. I feel like I’m on a roller coaster when it pauses for a moment at the top of the first hill. You hold your breath and wait to hear that click, because when you do you know what’s going to happen.
I take a deep breath and continue to turn the knob almost in slow motion. I hear the click. My heart races. I brace myself and take another deep breath. I feel my heart beating fast. I put my ear to the door. It is still quiet. I slowly turn the knob all the way and slowly push open the door just a crack. It’s dark so I can’t see much but my eyes have adjusted to the dark enough so I can see a little bit. It’s totally quiet and I don’t see anything. My heart is still pounding. I exhale and try to stay as calm as I can.
I nudge open the door a little bit more. I suddenly become paralyzed in fear that he is right behind the door, waiting for me. If it was just a little lighter I might be able to see him there through the crack where the door hinges to the door frame, but it is too dark to know for sure if he is there. I take another deep breath. I push the door open a little further, almost cringing in fear that I am going to feel the door push against something— or someone. I will know the instant the door meets resistance that he is there. I take another deep breath and push it open a little more. Nothing. The door is almost halfway open now and if he were hiding behind it there wouldn’t be much room left. I know the next little push will let me know for sure if he is there or not. I can feel my hand trembling on the door knob. Damn maybe I should just slam the door back shut, lock it and wait for the police or Icarus. Doubt starts to creep in that I am making a terrible mistake. The phrase “I’d turn back if I were you,” runs through my mind.
Just do it, I tell myself. Push the damn door all the way open and find out. He’s either there or he isn’t. I take another deep breath and push the door all the way open. It seems to happen in slow motion. I feel nothing. He’s not there. I sigh with relief. Then my eyes dart ahead of me through the kitchen and into my bedroom. I step out of the bathroom. It is so quiet. Almost too quiet. My eyes dart around suspiciously, looking for any possible movement, any possible shadow. I don’t see anything so I take another step, and then another into the kitchen. He’s gone, I tell myself, trying to calm down. He’d be stupid to still be here after I screamed out of the window for people to call for the police. If he’s smart, he’s not just gone from my place, but his place and the entire building as well.
My cellphone is on the nightstand next to my bed. I take the last two steps out of the kitchen and pause as I look into my bedroom. It’s dark but I can walk this route with my eyes closed; I walk it when I get up to go to the bathroom and back at night. Just to my right is the wall with the window he came in, on the left is a narrow wall just before my closet. My heart rate is starting to return to normal, but I won’t feel relief until I call the police. I close my eyes for a moment and take several deep breaths. I try to collect myself. As I stand there I realize just how quiet it is. I suddenly feel a stab of fear because it really is too quiet. My eyes dart around, squinting in the darkness. Surely if he was here I would know it by now. What would he be waiting for?
I take a deep breath and prepare to walk into the bedroom and grab my cell. It’s only about five or six steps away. Just as I’m about to step into the bedroom, I freeze. I literally stop in my tracks and pull my leg back. If it wasn’t so quiet I might not have even noticed it. But I do. It is very faint, but unmistakable. I freeze in terror. What I can just barely hear chills me to the bone. I can hear someone breathing. Someone extremely close to me. Oh my god. He must be right around the corner, waiting for me. My heart is pounding and my legs feel almost numb; I am too afraid to move a muscle. What now? I take a deep breath.
“You’ve made a terrible mistake, my friend,” a voice whispers in the dark with a sinister tone.
A chill races through my body at the sound of it— I almost jump out of my skin.
“You should have stayed locked in the bathroom, but it’s too late now. I know you’ve been watching me and you know too much. I know what you took.”
The deep whispery voice makes me shudder. I feel hot in my face and a cold tingle on my arms at the same time. My heart races.
“Give me back the ring.”
“Why should I?” I manage to choke out, too scared to move, not knowing exactly where in the darkness he is. I have a general idea of where the voice is coming from, but don’t know exactly where he is.
“Give me the ring and I’ll let you live,” the voice says.
“Why should I believe you? Besides, I don’t even have it, Icarus…” I stop myself from saying anything else.
Why am I even talking to him? He’s going to kill me no matter what I do. I need to make a run for it. It’s now or never, I tell myself and take a deep breath. I bolt toward the front door. It’s only a few feet away. My eyes have adjusted to the dark and I can see a little better now although it’s still pretty dark. I get to it in an instant and I can feel my hand shaking as I unlock it and grab the door handle, but just then he grabs me from behind, one hand around my neck, choking me.
As I turn to knock his hand away, I see a raised knife in his other hand, coming down toward me. I gasp at the sight of it as flashes of blood and the knife stabbing me run through my mind. I can almost feel the cold blade slicing into my flesh. I cringe. I grab the hand with the knife with both of mine and slam it into the wall, knocking the knife out of his hand. It clangs to the hardwood floor and sounds like it lands somewhere near the end of the sofa.
He tries to grab me and I pull away and start to run, but he knocks me sideways into the bedroom and I fall into my desk. As I push back off of it, the light from the PC screen goes back on.
He tries to choke me again, this time with both hands, but I grab him by the wrists and we joust back and forth. It all is happening so fast but by the light of the PC screen I look at him and realize it is Thargold. I’ve never seen him up close and it is surreal. I realize looking at him from my window he almost didn’t seem real. It was like I was watching him in a movie, but now here he is in real life. He did see us looking and then saw me again tonight and knows we know he’s the killer.
>
A peculiar thought runs through my mind considering the circumstance I’m in. Even if he kills me, Icarus will know who did it. He won’t get away with this. This give me a strange sense of satisfaction even though I’m fighting for my life.
We fall to the floor fighting, with me basically trying to keep him from choking me. He is buff and stronger than me, and it seems the longer this battle goes on, the more he’ll have the advantage. I start to feel panicked.
He suddenly starts ripping his own t-shirt and I wonder what kind of nut is this? He rips it again and again, tearing it into strips. Then as he grabs my wrist, I realize what he’s trying to do. He’s using the strip of material to try to tie my hand to the sofa leg. Before I know it, he has done just that. With one hand tied, he now has a bigger advantage and just as quickly has my other hand tied to the other sofa leg.
“I’ve got you now, don’t try to fight it,” he says, looking me right in the eye.
I get a really weird feeling from the way he is looking at me. It’s a bizarre look considering he is trying to kill me. It looks like there is lust in his eyes. Suddenly, he leans down and puts his hand on the side of my head and kisses me.
“You have to be like the rest,” he tells me. “I always kiss them first.”
Oh god, I think to myself, he’s fucking crazy. The guy is a lunatic.
He reaches under the bed and grabs the knife and holds it above my chest.
“And with a kiss, you die,” he says.
This guy is so out of his mind. The way he said it was almost like he was reciting a line from a play or something. Doesn’t he realize this isn’t just acting? This is real life. I get a chilling feeling realizing how insane he is. He sounds like he has no grip on reality. You’d never know it to look at him, his outside package of good looks conceals a very ugly, twisted and dark person inside.
I see the knife coming at me in a blur. Everything has happened so fast it almost doesn’t seem real, but I know it is. I cringe at the thought of the blade plunging into my chest. I can almost see the blood. I suck in air as the fear consumes me. He’s going to kill me. This is it. My hands are tied, he’s stronger than me and has a knife. What chance do I have? Fearing death as an abstract is one thing, but to fear it in the present moment is another. I’m going to die. He’s going to stab me to death and then chop me up into pieces like the rest. They’ll find my bloody body parts in a trash can. The reality of that hits me hard. There’s no denying it.
I hear a bang and then another sound. What the hell was that? It is all happening so fast. My heart is racing and my mind is spinning. I’m confused for a moment, thinking the bang was something in my own head, a blood vessel in my brain popping or something. What the hell is going on? What was that sound?
I look up and see the knife raised above me, about to come down at me and slash me to bits. I cringe and realize this is the end. I just hope Icarus makes sure this maniac pays for it. I can imagine the cold metal blade slashing into me over and over, blood dripping from my body. I look up at the knife and know there’s nothing I can do as I see it thrusting down toward me. Just then I see hands grabbing his wrist, twisting it as it comes toward me until the knife falls out of his hand.
What the hell is happening? Have I already been stabbed and now I’m hallucinating?
“Mother fucker!” he yells out.
And then I see what is happening. Behind him, it’s Icarus!
He and the stranger battle back and forth, as I yank at ties around my wrists. I see Thargold reach down to the floor for the knife.
“Look out, Icarus, he’s reaching for the knife!”
Now an image of the stranger stabbing Icarus flashes in my head. Blood pouring out of him. The knife slashes down at him again and again. Blood is everywhere. I’m imagining the worst and I try to wipe these bad thoughts from my brain. I turn my body and try to kick him.
I see Thargold clutch the knife in his hand and he lunges toward Icarus with it. This sends me into a rage. I furiously yank at the ties around my wrists. I flail my legs wildly and manage to kick Thargold in the back of the leg. He buckles a bit and has to regain his balance. I yank even harder at the ties as he thrusts the knife toward Icarus. I kick him again and yank my hands as hard as I can and the right one comes loose! I kick him in the leg again as hard as I can and hurriedly tear my other hand free and jump up to my feet.
He has the knife raised above his head about to try and come at Icarus again. I grab his wrist with both hands and yank his hand back as hard as I can.
“You son of a bitch!” he yells, twirling around and knocking me backwards onto the floor, yanking his hand free from me. He raises the knife above his head again and lunges down at me with it. I see the knife coming toward me, just as I had imaged it earlier. Was it and all the blood a premonition? I grimace in fright. I try to gather myself to fight back but the knife is coming at me too fast. I scream bracing for the feel of the cold blade ripping into my flesh. I can picture the blood oozing out of my chest and the bloody blade going up and coming down at me, again and again. I can almost see the blood splashing all over. I grimace. I can see his face in the dim light contorting into a look of evil as the blade comes toward me.
“Nooooooooooooooooo!” I yell out. The blade continues to thrust toward me.
But in another instant I see a candy dish from the coffee table being slammed into the back of Thargold’s head. And then again. The knife flies out of his hand and clangs to the floor beside me. He falls face down to the floor with a loud thud. There is blood starting to drip from the side of his head.
Suddenly the flurry of activity crashes to a halt. Thargold is still and silent. More blood pours out of the side and back of his head. Icarus is standing above him, holding the candy dish Mom gave me after Gran died. Blood drips from the white, milk glass candy dish. It’s a bizarre sight to see the candy dish I associated with my youth and happy times dripping with blood. I look up at Icarus in disbelief. His chest is heaving as he is breathing deep. Everything happened so fast, my nerves are shot and my thoughts are racing. I sigh and take an extremely deep breath. He smiles down at me, looking a bit in shock himself.
“Are you ok, Heston?”
“Yeah, I am thanks to you, but I don’t know about him. Look at the blood— oh my God! Did you kill him?” I ask.
“I hope so!” Icarus says. “God damn maniac! He was going to kill you!”
I’ve certainly never seen this side of Icarus. Lord, he’s pretty damn tough and scary when he’s mad— and saving my life.
“Call the police!”
“I already called the police on my way in, I heard you screaming,” he says, totally out of breath.
“I was screaming?” I ask. “I don’t even remember yelling. Everything happened so fast.”
“Oh my God, you we’re screaming at the top of your lungs. It was crazy. I called 9-1-1 immediately.”
He reaches down and helps pull me to my feet and then gives me a kiss and a big hug. I walk over and turn on the light.
“Are you sure you’re ok?” he asks.
“Yeah, thanks to you. Wow, you’re my hero, Icarus,” I say with a big smile. “You saved my life!”
“I guess my instincts just took over, I wasn’t even afraid, just pissed.”
I somehow manage to laugh. “Yeah, I could tell. I’ve never seen you mad like that. You’re a little scary. Actually, a lot scary. But it sure came in handy. Now… what about him?”
He is still lying motionless on the floor. Icarus reaches down and puts his hand to his wrist.
“He’s alive, I feel a pulse. And he isn’t bleeding that much, it’s just a little wound. When you get a cut on your head there’s always a lot of blood, it’s not as bad as it looks. He’s probably just knocked out. Hopefully he’ll stay that way until the police get here.”
“Should we tie him up or something?” I suggest.
“Wow, kinky,” he says with a smile. “What did you have in my mind?”
“I know, I guess we should do something just in case to make sure he doesn’t come to and try to get away before the police get here.”
Just then, we hear sirens in the distance.
“Well, speak of the devil.”
“I think the devil is right here,” he says, looking down at Thargold. “We were right all along. I never should have left you here tonight just to go out. I’m sorry, Heston, he could have killed you. If he had I never would have forgiven myself.”
“It’s not your fault, Icarus, neither one of us knew exactly what to tell the police. All that matters is I’m ok and you’re ok. Hell, you saved my life. You have nothing to be sorry about.”
I cup my hand around the back of his neck and pull him close to me and kiss him.
“If it wasn’t for you…”
I then just start balling. I guess it’s a relief and I’m just letting it all out.
“What a mess,” I say.
He smiles and hugs me.
In a few minutes, the police arrive and it’s just in the nick of time as he starts to come to. Icarus was right, he just knocked him out. After they haul him off and leave with the ring Icarus gives them, I finally recover from the blur of what just happened.
“I’m surprised you called the police so fast. It’s almost like you were expecting it.”
“We actually left the bar about an hour ago and were hanging out at Jaxson’s place, but I had a bad feeling. I was telling them about the guy and what we saw and the more I thought about it, the more I was convinced he saw us looking up at him. I started to get a strong sense that he was going to come after you. I couldn’t fight the feeling, so I took an Uber over. It’s a good thing you finally gave me keys.”