Page 90 of EverGreene
“What was Shelby mad about?”
The snow began to pick up even more and was sticking to the grassy surfaces, while out the windshield, the snowfall coupled with the car’s headlights made it look like Caroline’s car was going into hyperdrive.
“Shelby has always been into the bad boys, or the ones with the bad boy persona. Loche, being aloof with basically everyone in the office, and with his history, was something of an infatuation for her. She tried to catch his attention, but he never took the bait. Then when you came along and she saw how he reacted to you, her ego took a hit. She sat up front pouting for months.”
“She never acted like she didn’t care for me.”
“Yeah, that’s Shelby. I know she may be your friend now, but you have to watch your back with her.”
“Noted.”
That must be why she always seemed so interested in everything I told her.
Caroline pulled into my driveway and popped the trunk so that I could grab my suitcase. I waved at her, thanking her for the ride home as I trudged up the path toward my front porch. From the outside, the house looked eerily dark aside from the glow of the television Katy had left on for Vinny.
I turned the key and pushed the door open, turning on a light and setting my suitcase and my tote bag down on the floor next to the door before removing my coat and hanging it up. Exhausted from the drive, I moved to shut off the television and make my way to Vinny, who crawled off the rock she was on when she saw me, poking her head out of the water. She stared up at me, expecting food to come raining down from the heavens with the appearance of my face, like I was some turtle deity.
“Don’t look so disappointed to see me and not him. I know he’s your favorite, even though I literally saved your ass from becoming one with the pavement.” I grabbed Vinny’s container of flies and sprinkled a few into her aquarium, watching as she chased after their corpses in the water.
After closing the lid to the aquarium, I turned around, catching sight of the package that Katy had found sitting at my front door. It was a small, plain box, curiously lacking any kind of postage or an address label. Who delivered it? I didn’t know because I hadn’t checked the surveillance footage today. When I picked it up, I was surprised to find it virtually weightless in my hand, and I carried it to the kitchen to open it.
The sharp blade of the scissors slid down the packing tape, and I set them aside to open the box, at first finding nothing but a bunch of tissue paper, until something caught my eye at the bottom of the box.
What the hell is that?
I reached inside and pulled out a small, gold chain, innocuous at first until a charm, lodged under my fingertips, slipped down the chain into view.
“It can’t be.” I shrieked, trembling hands dropping the necklace on the counter—a charm with a lone letter “T”—staring me in the face. It was the necklace Travis had given to me with the instruction to never take it off. In the beginning, my innocent naivety had thought it was sweet, not understanding his request wasn’t a request at all but an order, and that I had been nothing more than property to him. This necklace had been his way of branding me. When I left him and went into hiding right after he was arrested, I took it off and set it on his pillow, attached to a note telling him what an absolute dickwad he was and that I’d faked every single orgasm he thought he’d given me.
Blood turned to ice water in my veins as my entire body shook, forcing me to cling to the counter just to keep myself upright. If Travis had that necklace, then how did it end up here? I hadn’t received a call from victim services telling me he was about to be paroled. Where’s my phone? I had to find my phone. I walked into the living room, finding my tote bag where I’d set it next to my suitcase, and retrieved my phone from it.
“Come on. Come on,” I coaxed it as it slowly powered on.
Behind me in the hallway, the floor creaked. In my hand, my phone shook, and I hesitantly began to turn around, but a familiar voice, one I’d never wanted to hear again during my lifetime, beat me to it before I could face the person standing in the hall.
“Hello, Eliza.”
A tear ran down my cheek, and I let out a shaky breath, turning to face the dark, masked figure standing in my hallway. Dressed all in black, he blended in with the darknesssurrounding him, with the only part of him that stood out being the solid white mask he wore. Blank aside from the eye holes, it gave the illusion that his head was floating.
“Or should I say… Ever? You know, if you were going to change your name, you could have been more original and not have used your middle name and a family name. It’s not like I couldn’t have figured out your last name could be Moore. The combination would have been in my top ten if I’d had to guess. Honestly, I’m a tad disappointed in your lack of inspiration.”
I took a step back, taking a mental inventory of all the knives I had hidden in the room and which one I could get to first.
“What? Don’t like the mask? I thought that was your new thing now, fucking masked strangers without knowing who they are. I thought you’d like this.” He reached up with a gloved hand and took off the mask, revealing the long, weasel-like face of the man who’d taken pleasure in inflicting pain on me. “Is this better?”
“No,” I said. “The mask you’re wearing now is even more grotesque.” From the corner of my eye, I caught headlights pulling into my driveway. Was it Loche? Did it really matter at this point? It couldn’t be worse than what was in front of me. I took another step back, trying not to let Travis know that someone was here.
“You’ve gotten feisty, haven’t you? A little independence and a new boyfriend in your life, and you think you’re really something now.”
“I’ve always been something. You just felt threatened because you weren’t man enough to handle me.” A dark figure walked across the yard to the front porch. If I was going to make a break for it, I needed to do it now.
“You fucking cunt.” Travis lunged at me, missing me as I dove out of the way. He crashed into my end table, which wasthankfully so cheap it broke apart and collapsed to the floor under his weight. Armed with a few-second head start, I ran to the front door and threw it open, prepared to meet Loche on the other side. But instead of a large, tattooed, lying asshole who-I-was-definitely-still-angry-at-but-would-still-have-been- happy-to-see-regardless, I ran tits first into literally the opposite of all of that.
“Shelby,” I said, confusion returning to fear-induced adrenaline as I reached out and grabbed her arm. “Travis is out of prison and in my house. We have to get to your car.”
The hustle was not with Shelby. She latched onto my arm with hers, pulling me back and anchoring me beside her.
“Didn’t you understand me?” I looked behind my back to see Travis getting back up to his feet. “My ex, the one I told you about, is inside and coming after me. We need to run.”
