Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
“Jesus, Lilah,” my downstairs neighbor, Lester, says, “you are going to give me a heart attack.” He puts his hands to his chest.
“I’m so sorry,” I apologize to him as I bend to collect my things. “I wasn’t watching where I was going. Are you okay?”
“I’m better than you are.” He laughs. “Have a good day.” He walks around me, probably trying to get as far as he can from my crazy.
I shake my head and walk to my apartment door, slipping my key into the lock and unlocking it. I’m still shaking my head when I step inside and stop in my tracks. The window is open yet again, but I know I closed it this time. I have been making sure I double-check it each time. I take a couple more steps into the apartment and see that some of my pictures look like they’ve been moved. Pictures of my parents and me on graduation, another picture of me and my horse. I can’t stop the hammering of my heart as I walk to my bedroom and see my drawers have all been pulled out. I walk over and see nothing has been touched, just looks like it’s been pushed around.
I don’t touch anything until I walk into the bathroom and see the mirror to the medicine cabinet half open. I pull my phone out of my pocket and call the one person I think of off the top of my head. The phone rings three times before he answers it. “Hey,” he says, his voice chipper, and I hear Billy whining in the background, with other voices also.
“Charlie,” I say, trying not to freak out, but my voice quivers.
“Lilah,” he says, and I hear the frantic way he says it, “what’s the matter?”
“I don’t know, maybe it’s nothing.” I look around, second-guessing myself. “I got home, and I saw someone strange walking down the steps.” I try to calm the way my hand starts to shake like a leaf. “But then I came into my apartment, and things look all out of sorts.”
“Get out of the apartment now,” he instructs, and I can hear him running. “Don’t touch anything.” I move as fast as I can toward the door. “I’m on my way.”
“Should I call the sheriff?” I ask and then look down at my phone, seeing he’s already disconnected. I walk out of the apartment and sit down on the landing before my legs give out from under me.
I close my eyes and rest my head against the side of the apartment building, right next to the door. I’m just getting my hands to stop shaking when I hear the sound of two doors slamming. I’m almost to my feet when I look down the staircase and see Emmett racing up, two steps at a time, before I see Charlie following him.
“Are you in-fucking-sane?” Charlie hisses at his back. “I didn’t even have the truck stopped, and you jumped out.” Both of them reach the landing seconds apart. Emmett’s eyes fly to me, and I don’t even feel the tears running down my face.
“What happened?” He takes two steps to me as I get to my feet. His eyes roam my face, and he looks over my shoulder at my apartment door.
“I don’t know.” I shake my head. “It might be nothing. Maybe I’m overreacting.” I put my hand on my stomach.
“Why don’t you start at the beginning?” Charlie urges, looking around.
“Last week, I got home, and my kitchen window was open, which I found strange since I don’t normally open it, but I thought I forgot or something. Then, a couple of days ago, I got home and my bedside drawer looked like it was opened and not closed. It was just little things like that. Today when I got home, I saw a guy walking down the steps. I didn’t see his face; he was turning by the time I spotted him.”
“Pull up your Ring cam,” Emmett says, and I look over at him, my eyebrows pinched together.
“What Ring cam?” I ask. “Why would I have a Ring cam?”
“So you can see if anyone is lurking around your house,” he growls, his teeth clenched together.
Charlie puts his hand on Emmett’s shoulder. “Why don’t you relax a little bit,” Charlie tells him, then looks at me. “What about today?” he asks, and I tell him about everything I noticed with the apartment. “Let’s go inside.”
I stop them. “Shouldn’t we, I don’t know, call the sheriff?”
“Now you think of that?” Emmett snaps. “You should have thought of that when you came home two weeks ago.”
“Emmett,” Charlie says, “this isn’t helping.”
“Yeah,” I agree with Charlie, “this isn’t helping. It’s just freaking me out even more.” His eyes search mine, and I’m the one who breaks the eye contact.