Page 50 of Creep

I had stayed up for most of the night since the moment I felt his arms around me.

He stayed for most of it, and a part of me wasn't fully convinced he didn’t know I was awake.

He didn’t do anything to me except hold me, but that was enough.

I shivered in disgust and looked down at my body. I was still in the same clothes I wore to bed last night, and I didn’t feel any different.

But he had touched me.

His arms had been around my middle, spooning me.

Saliva built in my mouth, and the urge to vomit took over.

I didn’t know when he left.

I tried to stay awake. I really did. And I managed that for most of the night, but fatigue finally caught up to me sometime after three o’clock in the morning, and I fell into a restless slumber. Which was so incredibly stupid.

He could have done anything to me while I was asleep.

He could have done anything to me while I was awake. It wasn’t like I could physically go head-to-head with him, but at least I would be aware of that.

I closed my eyes.

I was tired and confused and lost.

I didn’t know what to do anymore.

I was just beginning to feel safe. I had half convinced myself the man would really leave me alone, but he was just toying with me. Giving me a false sense of safety right before he quickly pulled the rug right out from under me.

I wanted to stay in and hole up in my own self-pity.

But the last thing I wanted to do now was stay in this apartment.

I flung the blanket off my body and got ready for work on autopilot.

* * *

We werebusy enough at work that for five blissful hours, I managed not to think too much about all that had happened the night before.

It all came crashing down the moment the bell on the door rang, and Mael’s huge form took up the space.

I looked at him, feeling my heart plummet straight down to my stomach.

His eyes found mine right away, and he smiled that charming smile that should have brought me the excitement and nervousness of a girl who had just gone on a first date with a boy she really liked.

Instead, I wondered if I should even pursue this further and bring him into my mess. He certainly didn’t sign up to date someone who was being stalked.

I quickly looked away from him and got to work, letting Sophia take his order and Emily make his Americano. I knew he was trying to catch my eye the entire time, but I couldn’t even look at him without feeling like bursting into tears.

I couldn’t do this, could I?

How was this my life?

I could go to the cops and tell them the man was back. I still had the card Officer Stevens had given me, but there was no proof, and I didn’t know how they would catch him.

What could they do?

And was I making the right choice by keeping this to myself?

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