That’ll teach me not to embrace any false sense of security. But how could I not when for the first time in my life I had people around me. People who cared and stood by me. People who’d drop everything just to help me. People like my Teddy, like Autumn.
Dare.
I sighed and I couldn’t help the smile that crossed my lips.
I had a community here. Friends. Dare I even say, a family?
I didn’t want to leave here. I wanted to fight for my home. But how could I fight against an evil like Victor?
His face appeared right in front of me and my stomach clenched. I tried to shake him off, to think of anyone else but him but even in my mind he was as persistent as he was in real life.
Eventually he let go of me. And eventually I let go of consciousness too and sank deeper into the depths of my mind and the memories I’d tried to let go of.
When I opened my eyes again I felt heavy and groggy and I had no idea what time, day or year it was.
Lookah was still in bed with me, and he barely stirred when I reached for my phone.
My limbs were frozen, and my throat felt scratchy, but I coughed the discomfort away and breathed in.
As soon as the phone flashed back with the time I shot up, shocked that I had slept all night
Damn. Too fast.
I closed my eyes and steadied myself until everything stopped spinning. As I put my feet on the floor, Lookah jumped off the bed and went from zero to one hundred in a second.
“Good morning to you too, goofball.” I patted his head. “I bet you’re bursting for a pee, huh.”
His tail wagged faster as if he understood me and I tiptoed across the room and opened the door but any efforts of being quiet were futile when I had forty pounds of canine by my feet.
By the time we reached the door I was sure we’d woken Dare up. The pattering of Lookah’s toes alone was deafening in the dead silence of the early hours. Even so, I put my shoes on quietly and went out with Lookah. He found a bush to do his business on right away and I took in the fresh morning chill, using it to wake my body up and to shake off any residue of Victor from my mind.
I wasn’t going to let him control me even in his absence. I’d been doing so well for over a year now. I wasn’t going to let myself be a victim again.
I followed the dog down the path that led to the main road, and it was only when we walked back to the house that I realized Dare’s car was missing.
Which meant I was alone out here with no way into town. I didn’t know how to feel about that, so I decided not to linger on that.
I let us both back in and warmed up by the radiator for a few minutes before I even thought about taking my shoes off. Then it was my time to do my business and when I came back to the kitchen I found the note on the counter.
**“I’m out in the fields. Be back for lunch. Make yourself at home. Dare x. PS. Could you feed Lookah when you get up? Pouches are in the fridge.”
I focused on that “x” for far longer than I cared to admit and only stopped when my stomach grumbled.
“Right. Let’s see what’s there to eat, huh pal?”
Lookah was sitting by the fridge, clearly trying to get me to hurry up. I gave him a good pat before I opened the fridge and found his food.
As he wolfed that down, I checked the contents to find something for myself which wasn’t hard seeing as the fridge was full of unopened food. Had Dare gone shopping as I’d slept the previous day away?
“Agh. Why does he have to be so sweet?” I asked but Lookah didn’t even bother looking back at me.
I didn’t think that man realized the effect he had on people. The effect he had on me. A man like him should be illegal if he wasn’t available and willing to date.
I guessed he was the former, but the latter? Yeah, even I wouldn’t want me.
I tried to shake those pesky thoughts away and focused on breakfast. After I made omelets with cheese, tomatoes and Greek feta, I made myself a cup of coffee and tried to sit in the living room and read a book.
But my leg kept shaking, and my mind kept wandering. Rightfully so. It had been years since I’d read a book. I tried audiobooks on the way to and from work, but when the ride was less than ten minutes there wasn’t much progress that could be made, and I was usually too tired by the end of the day to stay up and read some more.
