The elderly man shouted something in response, but I’d turned up my music to drown it out. Now that Alan had suggested the boy might be a relative visiting from out of town, I realized how foolish it was to mention it. I couldn’t believe I didn’t think of that before. I was probably the only girl in the world that jumped right to murderous, stalking, serial killer. Anyone else would have assumed he was just visiting, but not me.
Nope; I was just abnormal like that.
Alan headed over to the next neighbor, and must not have gotten a response he liked, because he looked slightly troubled. I wondered if my first thoughts about the boy were right. He certainly didn’t look harmless; I could see him as a monster that liked to torture or kill people for his own pleasure.
Alan returned later, and I looked up when he knocked on my open door. “Hey, I talked to the neighbors. None of them have any male relatives staying with them, and we’ve gotten no new neighbors in some time–”
“Alan, I saw him!”
He put up his hands to stop me before I could go off on another of my defensive rants. “I know. So did the neighbors. They saw him watching our house earlier, and one of them even called to report him. That might be why he left when he did. Ronnie, if you see this boy again, I want you to call the police right away, understand?”
I nodded and he turned to leave. “Alan?” He looked at me again. “Thanks for believing me.”
He sighed. “You’re such a good kid, Ronnie. I’m sorry more people don’t see that. You’ve been given up on so many times, and it’s not fair to you. You deserve better than that.”
I was touched, because I didn’t think anyone had ever said something so nice to me before, at least, not since before my mom died. “Thank you,” I said, biting my lip to keep from crying. When he leaned over and kissed my forehead, I could feel my resolve to not cry breaking, and I ducked my head so he wouldn’t see.
“Goodnight, Ronnie.”
He closed the door behind him, and I turned off my bedside lamp, bathing my room in near total darkness. Two Socks climbed out from under the bed where he’d hidden when Alan came in, and jumped onto the bed next to me, curling up on my pillow. He chirped once, and I nuzzled his neck. “Don’t snore,” I told him, pulling the covers up over us both.
Then I slowly drifted off into a dreamless sleep, only to be awoken by growling some time later. When I opened my eyes, Two Socks was standing on my chest, his back was arched, and he was growling deep in his chest, almost like a wild animal.
When I looked up over Two Socks’ back, I froze with a scream building in my throat. His back was to me, but I could clearly see a large, muscular figure moving around my room, searching silently through my desk and drawers. When Two Socks started to growl louder, the boy’s entire body tensed, and he slowly turned to face my bed.
It was the boy that was watching me earlier, and half of his face was bathed in the moonlight, highlighting a square jaw and five o’clock shadow. That wasn’t what I noticed most though. His pale blue eyes were glowing in the darkness, almost as if his eyes were on fire. Then he hunched his shoulders, dropped down into a crouch, and growled like a dog.
I opened my mouth and screamed.
Chapter Three
For a second, nothing happened. He just stared at me, still growling, until my bedroom door slammed open. In the time it took Alan to look from me to the strange boy, he’d already thrown himself out the window and onto the oak tree. Alan rushed to the open window just as I heard a thud, and part of me hoped the strange boy was clumsy enough to fall out of the tree.
But somehow, I knew that wasn’t the case. He’d jumped. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but I did. That happened to me a lot–I’d get a strange feeling about something that couldn’t be explained–and I was almost always right. Right now my gut was telling me that he was no ordinary boy, and he wasn’t just searching through my things to steal my underwear. He was after something else, and I was sure he wouldn’t stop until he got it.
“Ronnie!” Alan shouted, obviously not for the first time. I snapped back to my room, and realized that I was clutching my blanket up to my chest, and Alan was looking worriedly at me. “Ronnie, are you alright? Did he hurt you?”
I shook my head slowly. “N-no, he d-didn’t,” I whispered, trying to even out my breathing. My heart was still racing with fright, and I saw both Jessica and Susan standing in my open doorway.
Jessica was clutching her stuffed bear, watching me with wide eyes, and sucking her thumb. Susan just watched me with a venomous stare that I automatically shrank away from. She blamed me for this, and she was probably right to. It couldn’t be a coincidence that he was watching my room, and then not even twelve hours later, he was breaking in and going through my things. She thought I put her family in danger.
And she didn’t consider me part of her family.
Alan came to my rescue and frowned. “Suzy, go call the police. Get them over here. Now,” he said more firmly when it was obvious she wasn’t going to move. “He might come back, and I don’t wanna risk Jessica getting caught in the middle of this.”
Susan picked up Jessica, set her on her hip, and trudged downstairs. When they were gone, Alan perched on the edge of my bed, and he looked at me. “Ronnie, are you gonna be alright for a minute? I wanna go downstairs and talk to Suzy, and then the police when they get here.”
“Two Socks can stay with me,” I whispered, too shocked to do much other than that. “He woke me up before that guy could…” I trailed off, because I had no idea what that boy would have done if I’d stayed asleep.
Alan nodded and scratched Two Socks behind the ear, causing him to chirp. “I figured this guy had a reason to keep coming around. Maybe after tonight we’ll have to make a home for him here.” Alan got up and paused at the doorway. “Ronnie? If you wanna wait downstairs with us, you can.”
The second Alan was gone and I was alone again, I huddled up into a ball at the edge of my bed, hung my head in my hands, and burst into silent tears. I’d perfected the art of silent crying years ago, after my mom died, and it was a good thing I did, because I hated it when people saw me cry.
It made me feel weak, and that wasn’t how I wanted people to think of me. So I composed myself before the police showed up moments later. I dried my eyes, took deep breaths to steady myself, and headed downstairs to where I could hear raised voices. When I reached the living room, I saw two tired looking police officers talking with Alan and Susan, and she didn’t look happy to still be up.
Apparently my safety wasn’t an issue for her.
Alan looked up and noticed me hanging in the living room entryway. He motioned for me to join them, and I crossed my arms over my chest and stepped up beside him. Alan wrapped an arm protectively around my shoulder. “Are you up to answering a few of these officer’s questions?”
I nodded. “Sure.”
The first officer was holding a small notebook and a pen, and he looked at me. “Miss Fredrickson–”
“Her name is Parker, not Fredrickson,” Susan snapped, stroking Jessica’s hair.
The officer looked baffled for a second, before nodding once. “I apologize, ma’am.” He looked back at me. “Miss Parker, can you tell me exactly what happened today? Any detail you can remember, no matter how little, will be of great help in catching this guy.”
I thought back to when I first saw him. “He was just standing in front of the house across the street, like he didn’t care if anyone saw him or not. And he was watching my window, nothing more. I don’t know how long he stood there, but I looked away for a minute, and when I looked back again, he was gone. Alan asked the neighbors if any of them had relatives staying, and they all said no.
“I went to sleep later, and something woke me up,” I said, glancing at Alan. I wasn’t sure if he’d told Susan about Two Socks, and I didn’t want to risk getting him in trouble if he hadn’t. “When I opened my eyes, his back was to me, and he was digging around my desk and drawers, almost l
ike he was searching for something. Then he turned around, and he and I just stared at each other for a second. Then I found my voice, screamed, and Alan came running in. The boy jumped out the window, climbed down my oak tree, and took off.”
The officer nodded. “Alright, what did this boy look like?”
“He was at least six feet tall and really, really, really muscular. His hair was dark and kind of long, and his eyes were a really light blue color. I think he might have been wearing contacts though.”
The officer raised an eyebrow. “Why is that?”
“Because it looked like they were glowing, and I know that’s not possible naturally. But I know a girl in my class that has red colored contacts to look like a vampire, and I know someone else that has yellow ones. So I just figured he was wearing freaky contacts, probably to scare someone.”
The officer jotted down what I said, and he looked at me again. “Could you make out any scars or tattoos? Maybe a piercing? Any distinguishable marks that could help us to identify him?”
“Not that I saw, but he was fully clothed.”
The officer nodded again. “Let us know if you remember anything else. For now, I suggest you shut and lock all windows and doors. There’s no telling if this guy might be planning to come back or not. Better to be safe than be sorry.”
Alan shook the officer’s hands. “Thank you for coming out here.”
The officers left, and Susan shot me a hard stare. I knew she blamed me, and that didn’t seem fair. It wasn’t like I’d asked some random stranger to break into our home and search through my things like a pervert. She probably thought I did, just for the attention it would get me. Susan thought the worst of me.
Always.
When I got back to my room, the first thing I did was slam the window shut, and twist the lock at the top. Then I pulled Two Socks closer, curled up on my bed, and tried to get some sleep, even though I was sure sleep would be impossible. After what happened, I doubted I’d ever sleep again.
It was only three o’clock, so I had about five hours before school, and I doubted Susan would let me stay home just because of one perverted possibly homicidal burglar. I might be able to talk Alan into letting me stay home, but the thought of staying home all day with Susan was not a pleasant one. I’d rather suffer through an entire school day worrying about a possible stalker than sit around at home with Susan.
I spent the rest of the night thinking, and in the morning, I got up and got ready for school. Susan didn’t look up when I left the house, and for a minute I was tempted to go back inside and beg to stay home, just to annoy her. I hated being ignored and that was all Susan seemed to do.
There were four cats waiting for me on the porch, and I stepped over their sleeping forms. A brown one lifted its head and looked sleepily at me with yellow eyes. He yawned and stretched his back, looking lazy in the process. As I reached the mailbox, I looked behind me, and saw the brown cat trotting down the porch steps after me. A white and black one, a gray one, and a striped one followed him. Two Socks watched me from my bedroom window.
I quickened my pace, hoping to lose the four cats following me before I reached the school. When I turned the corner, the school came into view and I looked over my shoulder again. Instead of four cats, there were nine, and they were all trotting after me like I was the Pied Piper of Hamelin and they were my rats. I just wished I knew what my magical flute was that drew these animals to me, and then I could get rid of it, and ditch the cats.
When I reached the front door of the school, I shut it quickly behind me, keeping the nine cats out in the front of the building. They meowed and scratched at the door, and people gave me snarky smiles. It was mostly guys, and I knew what they thought about the cats. “Hey fishy,” one boy called. He sniffed, and one of his friends laughed. “Don’t you shower?”
I whirled on him. “Cat’s don’t follow me because I smell like tuna, or any other kind of fish! Why do you guys have to be so fucking disgusting?” I couldn’t believe people could be so crude and disgusting that they would insinuate that cats followed me because a certain part of me smelled like fish.
Teenage boys are so disgusting…
From the moment is set foot into the school, like usual, things just got worse and worse. People stared, and they whispered, and they watched me as I walked through the halls. They all knew I was the crazy cat lady, and they all knew that right now there were probably a dozen or so cats waiting for me outside the school.
I suffered through my first three classes, but by lunch I was so angry that I was in danger of doing something stupid, like punching the next person that mentioned a fishy odor or my mental health. So I packed up my stuff and then skipped lunch and the rest of my classes.
When I slipped out the front door, there were only three cats waiting for me, but they were not alone. The strange boy with the pale blue eyes was waiting on a bench across the street. His arms were folded over his chest, making him look just a little scary, and I noticed a few straggling students giving him a wide berth. He didn’t seem to notice them though, because he was too busy staring at me.
Our eyes met and the corners of his lips turned up into the barest of smirks. He got to his feet and walked toward me with angry, purposeful strides, intent on reaching me.
Chapter Four
I wanted to run, but something kept me rooted to the spot, and I could do nothing but watch as the strange boy approached me. He crossed the street without bothering to look for traffic, and a truck slammed on its brakes and honked at him. He tensed, but didn’t stop walking. When he reached the sidewalk about five yards in front of me, I got the intense urge to panic, scream, and flee, but my feet were glued to the cement.
Then he was standing right in front of me and I could see the rippling muscle on his body, and I could smell the faint musky scent that reminded me of the woods. More than that though, was the fact that this close up, he seemed like the largest person I’d ever met, even though I knew he technically wasn’t. There was just something about the stranger’s presence that made him look larger and more powerful than he was, though he definitely wasn’t a weakling.
I stared unflinchingly up into his pale blue eyes, even though I wanted nothing more than to turn around and run away screaming. Something about this guy scared me, and I wasn’t sure what it was. It might have been the creepy bodybuilder quality he possessed, or his creepy pale blue eyes that seemed to glow even in the daylight, or the fact that his dark hair was longer than typically suitable on a guy, nearly brushing his shoulders.
People were watching us, and I wanted to call out and scream for help but his eyes were so entrancing that I couldn’t look away, couldn’t move, and couldn’t do anything. He just stared down at me, and I felt a shiver go down my spine as the urge to cross my arms over my chest built up. The strange boy was trouble, and now that I’d gotten a closer look at him, I realized he was less of a boy and more of a man–probably about twenty years old, compared to my fifteen and a half.
His intense gaze was broken only when the cats waiting by the front door started to hiss and spit at him. He glared down at the cats, which settled at my feet, and his entire body started to tremble with barely repressed rage so intense I automatically took a step back.
“W-what do you w-want from m-me?” I stuttered, looking anywhere but his intensely pale blue eyes. They gave me the creeps, and I didn’t want to look at them any longer than I had to.
“I know what you are,” he snarled. “And don’t play stupid, because I know you know it too!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, feeling a sudden chill settle over my as I noticed the last of the lunch goers heading back inside. I was left alone with a possible rapist or murderer. “Who are you and what do you want with me?” I nearly screamed.
He paused for a second, cocking his head to the side. “Don’t play stupid,” he warned again, sounding menacing and dangerous. “I don’t like games, and even if I did, I don’t h
ave time to fool around. Now, who are you working with?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, getting more scared than I already was. Not only was he a stalker and possible rapist, he was delusional! The danger level of the situation sky-rocketed and I didn’t know how to defuse it.
“Who are you working for?” he ground out tightly. “And don’t fucking play with me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I shouted, causing the cats to growl dangerously at my feet. Their closeness comforted me a bit, and I got the courage to look him in the eyes again. “I’m not working with anyone, and I don’t know what you mean when you say you know what I am. What the hell do you think I am, stupid?”
His hands clenched into dangerous fists, and I gave an involuntary shudder. “I know what you are. I wasn’t sure until just now when I saw the cats. They follow you everywhere, and they beg for your attention, and you and I both know why.” I just stared at him blankly, and after a minute of tense silence, he deflated a bit. When he wasn’t glaring at something, namely me, he looked much nicer and even a little sane. “You don’t know.” He sounded so surprised, like the thought of it hadn’t even crossed his mind. “I don’t believe it. You have no idea what I’m talking about.”
“Of course not! You sound like a murderous raving lunatic! Of course the cats follow me; I’m nice to them,” I said, even though I was positive that wasn’t why they did it. “And I don’t know what you think I am, and I’m not working with anyone, and I think you need to back the hell off and leave me alone before I call the police and have you arrested!”
He just stared at me for a minute, before laughing. “I don’t believe this.” He turned around and started pacing, rubbing his face angrily. “I can’t believe they were so fucking wrong about something like this. They wasted my valuable time!”
Dark Heritage Trilogy Page 2