The glow intensifies as I wake my screen. And because the HimLock app is already open, I pop in a quick message.
Eris:
He’s inside.
The reply is so immediate I don’t have time to muffle the buzz.
Locke:
Don’t move.
We’re coming up.
They’re coming up? What the fuck does that mean?
Are they already here?
I shake my head and get back to business. The bottom drawer is home to a small pistol that I put here when the cameras in my apartment started filming my life without consent. It’s a new gun I bought for this very occasion.
There is only one name on the bullets in the mag.
I sit on the stool at the edge of my tub. It’s a little green thing I normally use to hold my towel or clothes, but now it’s my perch.
I chamber a round, slide the safety off, and stare at the door in anticipation.
Deliberate footsteps move down the hallway. He’s making sure I hear him invade my space, like he’s savoring his own delusion. The thud of his shoes pauses mere feet from me, with only a piece of wood between us. Pressure causes the door to creak, and I assume he’s leaning against it.
I could so easily shoot through the door, though there’s a chance of missing that I don’t want to risk.
I want him to look into my eyes while I pull the trigger.
“Come on, Anna,” Daniel coaxes, mouth to the door. “Don’t be dramatic. I just want to talk.”
I say nothing.
Do nothing.
But my finger rests confidently against the gun, a split-second from the trigger.
I’m not waiting for rescue.
I’m waiting for an opportunity.
There’s a loud bang at the front of my apartment that startles me. Then the sound of busted trim and splintered wood rings through the silence. The front door detonates as if someone struck it with a battering ram.
It’s not opened... It’s obliterated.
A shout follows. Daniel screams in outrage. The heavy crash of a body meeting drywall comes next… The bathroom floor vibrates beneath me. And the mirror in my entryway slams onto the hardwood, more shattered glass raining across my floor.
I raise a curious eyebrow at the closed door, but I don’t yet move.
I just listen, intrigued and wondering if they really got here this fast. Will they also be killing Daniel? Or will I have to find another time to do that?
I roll my eyes, lost in a mix of frustration and excitement and thinly veiled weariness. That’s where I stay for several minutes, even as I hear muffled sounds and words coming from the other side of the wall.
Until a voice cuts through the rioting emotions plaguing me.
A familiar voice that makes me roll my eyes a second time.
