Page 24 of Don't Watch Alone
Chapter eleven
Blaiz
Tony’scomingovertonight,so I get the tuna casserole started. I fill a pot with water, toss the noodles in, and set it on the burner. I’m standing there, zoning out—just staring at the coils like they might offer up some kind of answer—when a shout cracks through the hallway outside. It snaps me out of my thoughts.
I walk to the door and press my eye against the peephole. Just as I lean in, I catch someone slamming their door across the hall. But it’s not the door that messes with me. It’s the voice. Something about it hits a nerve buried deep in my memory, a sound I know but can’t place, and it turns my stomach in a way I don’t like at all.
Before I can even start digging through the mess of my thoughts to figure out where I’veheard it before, a finger covers the peephole from the other side.
Then, a knock.
I stumble backward like the floor just shifted beneath me.
From the kitchen, a violent hiss rises up—the pot boiling over.
“Shit!”
I rush to the stove, yank the pot off the burner, and water splashes onto the coils, spitting and snapping like it’s pissed off. The knocking doesn’t stop. It keeps going, louder now, like whoever’s out there isn’t planning on leaving until I open the door.
I slowly move back to the front door, keeping the chain latched, and crack it open.
Tony.
Relief rushes through me so hard I almost laugh. I shut the door just long enough to unhook the chain and pull it open again.
“Did I scare you?” he says, grinning like he already knowsthe answer.
“Yes, you fucking scared me,” I snap. “There was yelling right before you knocked. Did you hear or see anything?”
He shakes his head. “No. Didn’t hear or see shit.”
I turn back toward the kitchen. “The noodles boiled over,” I mutter, grabbing a towel and wiping up the mess like that’ll help calm me down. They’re cooked through anyway, so I dump them into a dish, mix in the rest, and shove it all into the oven.
Tony follows me into the living room, and we sit on the couch, but it doesn’t feel right. Doesn’t feel like us. There’s something thick in the air tonight, something heavy and wrong.
“You’ve been quiet lately,” he says. “What’s going on?”
“You know Mary from work?”
“Yeah.”
“She hasn’t shown up in days. She hasn’t called or anything. And it’s not like her at all. I’m starting to get worried.”
He watches me while I speak, and I can feel the tension building betweenus.
“Greg already replaced her… he hired Andy.”
His face changes immediately. “The guy that’s been stalking you?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ve got to quit.”
“I can’t, Tony. Rent’s due, I don’t have another job lined up, and Greg’s not exactly the type to offer references if I bail.”
“Did you tell Greg about Andy?”
I shake my head. “No. And I think he’s got something to do with Mary’s disappearance.”
