based on
Excerpts from e-mail to my cyber lover
Prologue
***As I walk pass you in the crowded streets, I brush against you, My hands lingering a moment on your rear, giving a slight squeeze before I disappear into the crowd***
A casual brush against a stranger in a crowd may turn into being followed by the stranger, or being stalked. You may turn into the prey of a hungry predator, hunting you down to satisfy some primal urge.
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Chapter One
It's the first day of a short vacation, a few days off from work. This first day was spent window shopping, just wandering the crowded streets looking in store windows and daydreaming about the outfits you'd buy if your next pay check was a little bigger. As you walk through the crowed streets, a man brushes against you, which isn't that odd, after all it is a Crowded street. His hand lingers a moment too long on your rear, giving a slight squeeze. Quickly, you spin around to slap the little pervert, but he has already disappeared into the crowd. And the little incident is quickly forgotten as you continue your day.
When you've had enough of window shopping, you decide to take a short cut home. You turn down a quiet alley way, away from the busy street. The sounds of the crowd diminish as you get farther down the alley, until the only sound you hear is that of your heels clicking on the pavement.
After a while you notice another sound, and then another. The first is the soft sound of boots stepping lightly on the pavement somewhere behind you. The second is the sound of your own heart beating as you realize your not alone in the alley.
You turn to see what's behind you and you see, about 15 yards behind you, a man in a black trench coat. You can tell he's wearing sunglasses and boots, but you can't tell much more than that, the alley is dimly lit, and his image is silhouetted by the lights on the bright main street that you left behind.
His gait doesn't waiver when you turn to look at him. He shows no acknowledgment that you have seen him, he just keeps walking, toward you. Your fear takes control and you start to run. With out looking back, you reach the corner and turn and keep running. After a while of running, you take a quick glance behind you. There's none to be seen. Full of adrenaline, you find the energy to run all the way home.
When you get to your front door, you take a good look around as you fumble with your keys. There's no one in sight, and no sounds except your own heart pounding in your chest. Once you get in your house, and lock the door behind you, you might chuckle nervously to yourself, rationalizing the he was probably someone else who decided to use the same shortcut as you, and wasn't after you at all.
Your still a bit uneasy, and still breathing a bit hard, from the run home, till a lone car drives by, and then your breath stops in a slight gasp. It wasn't the car that caused this, but it's headlights, because as it drove by, it momentarily lit up the street. In this brief flash of light, you noticed through the slit in your curtains, a man standing across the street. It looked like the same man as in the alley. He was just standing, facing your house.
Being a rational person, you reach for the phone to report to the police. You've already started dialing before you realize that there's no dial tone.
Chapter Two
Panic fills you. With no phone, there's no way to call for help. You can't run for help, because he might be waiting just out side for you. He could be waiting for you to fall asleep, so he could sneak in and...you stop the thought there, not wanting to think about what he might do.
You rationalize that the best thing would be just to wait till morning, and in the daylight you could run to a neighbor's house for help. All the doors are locked, and if he breaks in, you should hear him and be able to leave the house through another door. You get a large carving knife from the kitchen and sit in a chair half way between the front door and the back door, so if he comes in one, you can go out the other.
It's late, and your already tired from all that running. As you sit there, your head tips a bit. You nod off for just a moment. You awake with a start, and shake your head trying to drive away the sleepiness. You decide that some coffee might help keep you awake till daylight. You go into the kitchen and put some water in the coffee maker. After you put the coffee in, you sit down to wait for it to perk. Looking around the room, something seems odd, but you can't quite put your finger on it.
The coffee maker is gurgling. The clock on the microwave is silently ticking away the minutes. You didn't realize before how late you'd stayed out tonight. But everything seems normal, there's nothing out of place. Every dish is put away(you washed the dishes before you went out tonight), and every cup is in the right spot. In the right spot... you now realize that the knife you took out is now back in the knife rack. You had forgotten about it when you had nodded off.