Page 27 of Like A Moth To A Flame

I hadn’t gotten as much done today as I would have liked, but that’s okay. I had, as Tammy had said, ‘a couple of months’ to get it all done, anyway.

I hurriedly stuffed the sandwich into my mouth, chewing and swallowing as fast as I possibly could. Damn, I didn’t realize I was so hungry. Reaching into my pocket, I grabbed my phone and thumbed it on, only to realize I had fifteen unread texts from Barrett and four from Amelia.

Whoops.

Barrett was wondering if I still wanted him to come over and then dissolved into telling me he hoped everything was okay and if I didn’t answer, he’d be over bright and early in the morning. Good old Barrett. Amelia was just sending me funny memes and asking what I was up to.

“Oh, just confusion,” I muttered, clicking my phone off and shoving it back into my pocket. Downing the last swallow of my sandwich, I just so happened to look up through the kitchen window, and a wave of nausea spiked through me.

There was a shadow beneath the old elm tree in the front yard, and it was unmistakably human. How long had it been there? Had they been watching me reading all day?

It was him, wasn’t it? The stalker?

With the sun setting behind them, their face was a mass of darkness.

A pulse of anger chased away my fear, and I marched across the kitchen and into the foyer, reaching into my waistband, my shaking fingers grabbing Dad’s pistol and ripping it out. I tore the front door open and jumped out onto the porch, the pistol raised. Even so, the figure stood stark still.

“Hey, asshole!” I screamed, jumping down from the porch and landing my bare feet in the jagged rocks lining the gravel driveway. “Get the fuck out of here!”

Still, they stood just as still as they had been, and a tiny voice in the back of my mind began to wonder if it was a person at all.

Was the darkness playing tricks on me?

Was I just some crazy lady waving a gun at shadows?

Still, I couldn’t let him see me hesitate.

“Answer me!” I screamed, marching across the lawn, the cold, dark grass licking my feet and sending shivers up my legs.

Finally, when I was less than ten feet away, the shadow moved, head cocking to one side as if listening.

What if it wasn’t human? What if it was some monster from the forest that would come take me and—

I stopped, hesitating, and within seconds, the figure closed the gap between us. My arm trembled as panic consumed me, pistol in hand, ready to fire.

“D-don’t move!” I screamed, bringing up my free hand to cup the one holding the gun. Still, he kept coming.

My brain was going a million miles an hour, my hands shaking and my stomach twisting in painful knots.

“I mean it!”

He kept coming.

I did the only thing I knew to do—I squeezed that trigger.

C L I C K

A dull thunk sounded around me, and tears sprung up in my eyes.

No, no, what?! It waseasy. Point and squeeze! Why wasn’t it—

With all the speed of a viper, he reached out, wrapping his fingers around my wrist, and yanked me forward. I spun, and his free arm wound around my waist, crushing me to his chest. His free hand gently pulled the gun from between my fingers and tossed it unceremoniously to the grass at my feet.

Again, I heard that same chuckle that I’d heard over the phone, and the tears I’d been fighting won the battle. They raced down my cheeks, my vision swimming and blurring, and my throat burning and prickling.

Fuck.

Fuck, I was going to die.

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