Page 125 of Creep

Mael wasn’t just a stalker.

He was a killer.

What had I gotten myself into?

I backed away even more, no longer wanting to see how Mael dealt with the man. I didn’t care that they had hurt me and that they might even deserve it. I didn’t care about anything except just getting away from there.

I stood up on shaky legs when my back hit the wall. I turned slowly and walked toward the bedroom, going faster when the man’s screams got louder, and faster still until I was in the room, and the door was closed and locked behind me. The man’s screams continued. Tears streamed down my face. My legs gave out, and I fell to the floor, my back against the door as I closed my eyes and pressed my hands against my ears, hoping that would block everything out.

It didn’t work.

The scream reached its peak before it was swiftly cut off.

I flinched from the sudden silence, more tears running down my cheeks. I didn’t know which was worse: the scream in agony or the pure, unadulterated silence that followed, cutting through the air like a sharp knife.

I bit my lip to keep from crying out, knowing there was nothing I could do.

I tried to focus on my breathing.

Just breathe. It’s okay.

It’s okay.

It’s okay.

It’snotokay.

Footsteps sounded over the hardwood floor, approaching the door to the room I was currently in. The doorknob turned gently, but I had already locked it. I didn’t think it would stop Mael… I knew it wouldn’t.

He didn’t try to break in.

“Lia.”

I shook my head at the sound of his voice.

“Open the door for me.”

“S-So you can k-kill me too?” I asked.

A small thud hit against the wooden door. He didn’t say anything for a long second. Then, “Do you really believe I could do that? That I would even be capable of it?”

I didn’t know what to believe anymore.

For a brief moment, when I realized Mael was here and that those two men wouldn’t be able to hurt me again, I was relieved. But this?

Was this the price that needed to be paid for him to save me?

Two lives?

Besides my mom, I had never seen someone die before.

I had never seen someone be killed.

“I couldn’t hurt you,” he breathed out, but I didn’t know if I believed him. Because watching him with those men? I knew it wasn’t the fact that he killed them, but that I couldn’t believe he wouldn’t do the same thing to me… someone he had held in his arms so softly before.

“Just leave me alone,” I begged. “Leave me alone.”

I raised my fists and pounded them against the floor.

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