23
REVISIT
KAT
God damn it.I cannot believe I have to go into the office after the night I’ve had. But the lead psychiatrist from Western State was adamant that I email over the psychological assessment immediately, so here I am. At half past eleven at night, driving out to my fucking office. Alone. In the rain. After Zayn had walked away from me. My eyelids blink back tears, and I try not to think about that last bit.
I whip my black Wagon into the empty parking lot, double parking in the two closest spots. I kill the engine. Dashing through the misty rain, I reach the front door of the office and quickly unlock it. Stepping inside the dark lobby, I close my umbrella and shake off the water from my black trench coat.
I walk through the dim and silent waiting area, and with a pang, my eyes fall upon the chair that Zayn first sat in at his intake appointment. When I had met him as “Joseph Dillon.” Before we were…us.
Hot tears that I thought were spent threaten to leak out of my eyes again. I fist my hands into balls and manage to hold them atbay at least for now. Once I am finally back home, with Bundy, warm and dry, I’ll allow them to spill back over. I’ll allow myself to fall apart again.
Weakly, I wonder if I’ll ever be able to be put back together.
Unlocking my private office door, I move into the clean, minimalist space and smell the familiar aroma of my office. I stride across the room to switch on the desk lamp. But it doesn’t turn on. I flick the switch on and off several times, just to be sure. Walking over to the standing lamp beside the sofa, I try that one as well.No dice.
Damn it, I think,just what I need, a fucking power outage.
I scan the darkened office and walk around my desk to unlock the top desk drawer to grab the emergency flashlight that sits there. Before my hand reaches the drawer, however, I pause.
Something is…. off.
Scanning the space, and I notice the letter opener that Zayn and I had put to such good use just days earlier is not where I left it. Instead of sitting perpendicular to the edge of the desk, it lays at an odd angle across a notebook that I definitely did not leave out.What in the hell?After thoroughly cleaning the opener, I had placed it neatly back where I always kept it. I was sure. And I am the only one with keys to this office.
My head snaps up, and I carefully look around. I slide up the flashlight on my phone, turning it on, and holding it up to shine across the four corners of the space. I see nothing else of note but keep looking anyway. I duck down and shine the light under my desk as well. Just to be sure. Nothing else seems to be out of place. But I cannot help the sense of dread and unease that clenches in my gut.
Striding over to the sofa, I kneel to inspect what almost looks like a faint footprint. Squinting and running my hand over the still damp mud, I realize that it is indeed a boot print, and a large one at that. My eyes flick over to the window to my right. BeforeI can move toward it to further inspect the situation, everything changes.
With a startling shatter of the silence around me, the old office intercom crackles to life. A man’s voice whispers into the dark space like a wisp of noxious gas on the wind.
“Testing, testing…” the voice rumbles overhead.
My heart jolts up out of my chest and into my throat. I dive behind the sofa and wedge myself into the narrow space between it, the ficus, and the wall. The intercom rumbles to life again, and a dark, feral laugh emits from the depths of the walls. Goosebumps rise up along my arms and across the back of my neck.
I know that laugh. Raising my hand to my mouth, I attempt to cover my now audibly ragged breathing.
“Oh, don’t be scared now,” the voice continues. “Come out, come out, wherever you are, little Doc,” the voice mock-whispers, menace dripping from every syllable. He laughs again.
My breath hitches in my throat, and I feel my stomach drop with an icy sense of foreboding. I peek out slowly from my hiding spot, and can see the outline of a tall, thin man in the doorway. He is backlit by the glow of the lights from outside the building.
The dark figure stands there and as I watch in horror, extends his pointer finger right at me and beckons me forward.
Immediately, I snap back into my shitty ass hiding place, weighing my options.It was him.And he had seen me. He already knows I’m here.
After a moment, I decide to stand, though my legs tremble. I reach my full height and lift my head. My eyes meet his. I swallow hard. He stares back at me with those cold, vacant eyes of his. And then, he smiles. That familiar, terrible smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.The smile I haven’t seen in over a year. The smile that’s haunted me in the dark nearly every night.
Eastman.
His voice breaks the silence. “Now, now, now, what are you up to in here all alone at this hour, Doc?”
My breath stutters as my heart hammers in my chest. I don’t answer his question. Instead, I press my lips together and try to take a steadying breath. I have the feeling that if I speak, I will cry and if I cry, I will scream and if I scream, I will never stop screaming.
How is he here? How did he know where to find me?
Suddenly, I realize my cell phone is still gripped tightly in my hand. Squeezing it subtly, I try not to draw attention to it. I wonder if I can manage to press the emergency call button before he lunges for me. I quickly glance down at the cell with my eyes, not moving my head. When I glance back up, Eastman has moved fully into the office and stands several feet closer to me.
It’s then that I see the glint of silver in his hand.Fuck.
