It was late Friday afternoon when there was a knock at my door. A shiver of nerves rocked through me, but I forced them down, refusing the insecurities that kept trying to creep back into my consciousness.
I crossed the living room and peered into the peephole, frowning when I could only make out the arm of a man wearing a dress shirt.
Warily, I unlocked the door and cracked it open, a crest of unease washing over me.
Unease that hadn’t been in vain.
I should have listened to my gut.
Just like my gramma had always told me.
I tried to slam the door shut when I saw the angry, twisted features of the man looming on the other side.
It was the same second I hit a wall of fear.
Or maybe I toppled headfirst into a vat of it.
Because it swallowed me. Saturating every inch. Every cell. Every fiber.
Screaming, I turned my back to the door and planted my feet against the floor. I pushed back as hard as I could.
“I already called the police. They’re on their way.”
Lies. Lies I prayed would break through his derangement. Because I’d been right. Timothy Roth was insane. Just in an entirely different way than I’d ever imagined.
Blood sloshed in my ears and terror slogged through my veins.
A steadythwump, thwump, thwump.
Liquid metal.
Heavy.
Too much.
Panic and fear.
No. No. No.
The threat did nothing to deter him. The door banged open an inch before I was bearing down again. With all my might. With all the fight I had in me. The latch so close to catching.
His voice seeped like venom through the crack he made. “You fucking bitch. You fucking bitch whore. I’ll kill you for what you did. I know it was you. You ruined my life, you stupid bitch, and you are going to pay.”
Fingers were in the frame, forcing it open.
Adrenaline and anguish. I screamed with them as I shifted a fraction. I rammed into the door with my shoulder.
I gave it everything I had.
The pain of it nearly split me in two.
But sometimes wills and physical strength were two different things.
Because he kicked the door, sending it crashing against the interior wall.
I flew to the floor.
Tim pushed his way inside, a menace that cast a shadow on my grandmother’s house as he stepped toward me. I slid back across the floor, the bare skin of my thigh chaffing against the carpet.
