“That’s none of your business.” He released me and gave me my phone back. I didn’t waste time to put some distance between us. “You can believe me or not, I don’t give a fuck. Now, go home and stay there.”
I wanted to tell him that he couldn’t order me around, but the last few minutes left me too emotionally drained to do that. I just wanted to go home and curl up in my bed.
I scanned our surroundings once again, but I couldn’t see anyone. Hayden’s expression didn’t give me any answers, like always, so there was no way for me to know if he was lying. If he was telling the truth, then this twisted situation had just become even more serious.
If this was someone else, hiding, playing mercilessly with my mind, who could hurt me in the most dreadful and unimaginable way... The terror rushed through my veins.
I dashed away from Hayden, the dire thoughts swarming my mind.
I reached my home, still contemplating whether Hayden was lying or not, when a new message from the hidden number arrived. I opened it, shaking and on the verge of a breakdown.
“It was fun seeing you accuse him. You really are stupid. You got off the hook this evening, but you won’t be that lucky next time.”
Chapter 22
THAT MESSAGE ON MONDAY night was the last straw that sent me to the police. I let my mother know about the messages, but she wasn’t so optimistic that they would help me against this unknown sender.
I hated involving her. She was already drunk and lost in her thoughts when I returned home, so I couldn’t count on her to go with me to the police. Once again, she failed me, and what pained me the most was that our conversation felt like we were discussing bad weather. Her reaction when she heard someone was threatening me was disappointing. It was as if I weren’t her daughter.
“That kind of things happen, Sarah. That’s life. You’ll get to my age, and then guys will try to get into your panties,” she said and downed the bourbon in her glass in two large gulps.
I watched her in disgust, wishing for the umpteenth time she weren’t my mother. She was treating these messages like they were an ordinary part of life, which sickened me to the core.
“Just don’t let it get to you. You’ll have to endure much worse things in life than that teenage bullshit.”
Seriously? She called it a “teenage bullshit”?
That was when I lost it and screamed at her, telling her she was living the kind of life she herself had chosen. We almost had another huge row, when I decided it would be best to just leave and go straight to the police. Alone.
I didn’t have much to back up my claim, so reporting this case felt like another failure. The inspector agreed that those messages were worrisome, but they didn’t exactly feel like a potential killer was after my head. He assured me they would try to find the sender, and that was it.
What if Hayden sent those messages after all? If he was pretending last night, he was even more unstable than I’d thought.
Today’s computer science class didn’t help matters, because it brought another moment that added to Hayden’s resentment. Ms. Clare asked us about the outline of our project, but we hadn’t started it. We didn’t even have a theme of our website. I begged him to work with me on the project, but it fell on deaf ears.
Ms. Clare reminded us we had only one week left to send her the outline, but Hayden acted like he couldn’t care less about it, and the fear of failing her class got the best of me. I decided on our theme alone and told her we were making an art blog, which caused Hayden to blow his top.
However, she left him no room to complain, accepting my theme. I could barely focus during the rest of the class, expecting him to retaliate any moment, but he didn’t do anything.
Somehow, I found it hard to believe he was letting this slide, puzzling over it even after I arrived home.
It was close to seven when I finished a drawing I was going to send as a part of my college application portfolio. I didn’t have time to admire the perspective and depth I nailed in this one, because the doorbell rang and I had to go down and open the door since my mother wasn’t home.
I went downstairs, hoping this wasn’t something about her. Was she all right? She had her episodes from time to time when she got too drunk and made a mess, so the police or her “friends” from bars had to intervene, coming to our house to notify me about her latest fiasco.
I was close to the door when the doorbell rang again. I approached it and looked through the peephole, expecting to see a police officer who had some news about my mother, but I could see only someone’s shoulder.
They rang the doorbell once more. I sighed and cracked the door open, but then I was pushed backward when they shoved the door wide open. I stumbled, barely managing to catch my balance.
I shrieked when I saw Hayden step inside and lock the door behind him. I couldn’t believe him!
“What are you doing in my house, Hayden?!”
This was bad. No matter how much he’d tormented me, he’d never ever set foot in my house. What was he going to do now?
“You wanted to work with me on that stupid computer project, so here I am.”
Is he serious? I observed him carefully, looking for any trace of drunkenness or madness, but there was none.
“You entered my house without permission, and I absolutely don’t want you here. Get out!”
His eyes hooded, his step forbidding as he advanced toward me. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Damn it. I needed to get him out of here. He was intruding, and that was a crime. My quick inspection of the hallway told me there was no object I could use as a protection. “I’ll call the police.”
He curled the corner of his lip in disdain. “You won’t call shit. It’s up to you whether you’ll play nice or not, but if you choose to make this difficult for me, you’re going to regret it.”
I didn’t care. I darted to the living room to reach the phone and call the cops, but he easily outran me and grabbed me, snaking his arms around me. I started kicking, hoping to break his grip and escape him, but he was too strong.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he growled in my ear, further reducing me to nothing but helplessness and anxiety.
He couldn’t get away with this. He just couldn’t. If I couldn’t call the cops, then I had to save myself some other way. He couldn’t terrorize me in my own home! This was too much!
“Let me go!”
“I won’t.”
“LET ME GO!”
I screamed and kicked wildly, my heart pounding a mile a minute. He clamped his hand over my mouth, muffling all sounds. “Enough, idiot. As I said, I’m not going anywhere. It’s in your best interest to cooperate. That is, if you want us to complete this project successfully.”
I didn’t trust him. He couldn’t expect me to let him stay in my house after everything. I couldn’t let him.
Then again, we needed to finish our project. I didn’t know if he really came here to work on it, but I couldn’t be picky. I had to brace myself and go through this.
I went motionless, and he removed his hand from my mouth. “All right. We’ll work together. Can you let me go now?”
He released me at last, and I scurried away from him, breathing more easily now that there was some distance between us. “Wait here. I’m just going to my room to get my laptop and notebook.”