He was running late, but I knew he would show. After what we’d shared last night, he’d at least send a text.
Two hours later,there was no text, and I was too mortified to send him a reminder.
How could he forget?
I had completely lost my appetite, so I packed all the food in the fridge and moved to the couch with my phone. I didn’t even pretend to not be waiting. I was fully expecting him to either show up or reach out, but he did none of those things.
There was just silence.
I had too much pride to text him. He had obviously forgotten about me. Which was deeply mortifying, considering what we had shared together last night.
I waited until ten, and then Bandit and I climbed into Axel’s bed. I didn’t want to sleep through Axel coming home and leaving without giving me a single word in explanation. Sleeping in his bed was a guarantee that he wouldn’t be able to avoid me.
A part of me just wanted to ask him to his face why he ghosted me.
But the other part of me felt rejected and sad. For some reason, crawling into his bed and clutching his pillow seemed to take the sting out of it all.
I woke up,disoriented, to the sound of Bandit’s low growl. He was standing over me, and the noise coming from his chest was so low and faint only I could hear it.
Instantly, a wave of fear rolled over me.
“What is it, Bandit?” I whispered, looking at the closed bedroom door.
I sat up in the dark room and listened. I thought I heard a bang, but it was so faint I wasn’t sure.
I grabbed my phone.
It was just after 10:30 p.m. I quickly texted the guard.
Me: Is everything okay out there? I thought I heard a noise
His response usually came within seconds, but no texts came back to me.
Bandit’s growl became louder. I put my arm around his neck and became even more scared when I realized that his entire body was trembling with fear.
I whispered in his ear, “Quiet, boy.”
He whimpered softly, but as if he knew what I was asking, he quieted down. I told myself that it was probably Axel coming home, but Bandit had never growled at Axel. He knew all the people who came in and out of the house.
Grabbing my cell, I slid out of bed and crept across the room before pressing my ear against the door. Bandit moved alongside me, pressing himself against my thigh. He was still shaking, but he was also alert and listening. I didn’t hear anything. I looked behind me at the windows that surrounded the room. Rain lashed against the glass panes with every gust. Maybe the wind had banged something and woken up Bandit.
I inched open the door of Axel’s bedroom. The upper landing and below were completely dark. I crept out into the hallway, my eyes adjusting to the darkness.
A dark shadow came out of my bedroom.
For a split second I thought it was Axel, but Bandit lost his mind and went into an attack stance, barking with a ferocity I hadn’t seen before. The shadow across from me wasn’t Axel. It was someone dressed in black and wearing a balaclava.
I didn’t remember moving. One moment I was standing on the landing, and the next moment I was halfway down the stairs,clinging to the railing as I pounded my way down. It was only once my bare feet hit the cool tile of the front foyer that I knew I was on solid ground, and then I was running, across the foyer, down the dark hallway, past the kitchen island, past the kitchen table.
Bandit had stopped barking and followed me so closely that I could feel his fur brush against my legs as I ran blindly through the house toward the back door.
I needed to get to the guard.
A horrible, warbled noise of mind numbing fear bubbled out of me as I fumbled in the dark to unlock the patio door.
I could hear his footsteps coming up behind me, and then the sound of him running into one of the barstools.
Beside me, Bandit whimpered in fear.
