He’s a strange man.
Often quiet and straight to the point, there's something cold about him that puts a lot of people off.
I hear them discuss in hushed whispers about how disconnected he seems to be, how cold he is with people and abrupt when things aren’t going his way.
But I see how highly his patients speak of him, how he treats them and involves himself in their care afterward.
There’s warmth in him, and I glimpsed it yesterday when he thanked me for dinner.
Replaying that moment over in my mind draws me into a warm dream that’s immediately interrupted by another flurry of banging.
“Caleb!” I yell with my eyes closed, hoping that will make him stop.
What the fuck is he doing?
Lifting my head, I blearily check my phone to see it’s just after eleven in the morning.
Not too early, but considering I didn’t get home until four, I’ve barely slept.
Each bang amplifies my fury until I’m out of bed and dragging on jeans so fast that they burn my thighs.
Storming out into the apartment, I pause in the kitchen and glance around.
“Caleb, what the fuck are you doing?”
No answer.
The living room is as empty as the kitchen.
Did I dream it?
Am I that sleep-deprived that I just dreamed up?—
BANG-BANG-BANG!
The terrible noise rises from the front door and my heart jumps into my throat.
If he locked himself out again, I’m going to leave him there. I’m sure I have earplugs somewhere in my room.
“Who is it?” I call as I approach the front door.
“That you, Caleb?” calls a gruff, unrecognizable noise.
Great. Someone looking for Caleb can’t be good news.
Sighing and fighting a yawn, I open the door but as soon as the latch slips free, the door is kicked open with such force I’m flung back against the coat rack.
“What the—what are you doing?”
Someone’s on me, a man with curly hair and a thick beard that grinds against my cheek from how hard he’s pressing against me.
Fatigue vanishes in an instant, replaced by terror as the man seals a bony hand around my neck and presses so hard that my tongue jerks in my mouth.
“Where the fuck is Caleb?” the man barks, his foul breath washing over me and further restricting my limited breathing.
“I—” My head pounds suddenly, my heart racing, and my nails claw at the bony wrist as the man presses harder and harder. “I d-don’t know?—”
A shadow moves past the thin man as my vision blurs.
