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Chapter Two
Okay, I am not really being chased down my
street by some creep dressed all in black...
Despite her rational
mind's protests to the contrary, Genevieve Weist knew she was, indeed,
being chased down her street by a creep dressed all in black—a creep who,
she realized as she glanced over her shoulder, was gaining on her.
Her dog, Penny, perceived their faster pace as a challenge, and
bounded off ahead, nearly yanking Gen off her feet. It was hard to argue
with the brute strength of a rottweiler, so Genevieve dropped the leash,
figuring Penny knew where she was going anyway. The dog disappeared up the
front porch steps just as Gen neared the driveway.
Almost home, she thought, then cast a
glance over her shoulder. The figure was even closer now, and decimating
her lead at a stunning pace. Gen turned her gaze back toward her house and
pushed on, flying up the stairs.
Without hesitation or even a
quick glance behind, she threw open the front door and she and Penny dove
inside.
Genevieve slammed the door shut, locked it, and sank down
onto the floor, panting. Her heart pounded in her ears, and for a few
moments, that was all she could hear. That didn't just happen, did it? She
wasn't really just chased by some random man?
She felt hot, moist
breath on her cheek, and looked over to see Penny sitting at her side, the
dog's nose only inches from her face and eyes fixed on her.
"S'okay, girl," Gen whispered reassuringly, and reached out to pat
Penny's head. "We're okay now."
"Genevieve, what are you doing on
the floor?"
Gen looked up to see her mother standing in the
hallway, staring at her in confusion.
"Oh, nothing… Just running
for my life from some creepy man outside!"
Her mother's gaze
narrowed, and she let out a little, "Tsk," before rolling her eyes.
"Did you even leave the house? You know Penny needs lots of
exercise—"
"I'm serious!" Gen exclaimed. She stood and buckled a
little, her legs suddenly feeling as though they were made of rubber. "We
were walking, and there was this man and he started chasing me!"
"Why would someone be chasing you?" Rebecca said with skepticism.
"Uh, I didn't exactly stop to ask him! Jesus Christ, he was
probably some rapist or killer, and I could have ended up in a ditch—"
Her mother sighed and walked over, then moved Genevieve aside and
threw back the lock.
"Mom, don't!" Gen protested, but her mother
was already opening the door.
"Hello out there!" Rebecca called
out into the darkness. "Any scary men following my daughter?" She waited
expectantly then raised an eyebrow as she cast her gaze in Gen's
direction. "See? No one there."
"Come on, it's not like he's going
to answer!"
"If you were being followed, don't you think he'd be
hanging around the lawn? No one's there."
"Penny saw him too—"
Rebecca looked down at the dog, then back at Genevieve. "You
expect me to ask your dog for confirmation of this?"
"Jesus, Mom!
Penny was growling and freaking out too and—"
"Penny growls at
chipmunks."
"What, after all this crap over the years telling me
to be careful and to always tell you if I'm like molested or something,
some guy finally stalks me one night, and you tell me I'm crazy?"
"So now he molested you too?"
"No, but maybe I should ask
him to if that's the only way you'll believe me!"
With a roll of
her eyes—and without another word—her mother closed the front door and
returned to the living room.
Nice of her to be so
concerned. Sure, she tells her mom her English teacher
yelled at her and she flips out and prepares to call the school board, but
a man stalks her? Nope, she's just seeing things. Nice message to be
sending.
For a moment, she debated telling her dad. She wasn't
sure he'd do anything about it—Leo Weist, while caring, didn't always take
the serious things all that seriously.
Genevieve parted the
curtains in the window beside the door and gazed outside. Nothing. No sign
of anyone out there. So what had she seen? A casual jogger?
Penny
growled all of a sudden, and Gen glanced down to notice the dog's gaze was
fixed at the door. Genevieve took a wary step back, expecting
someone—possibly wielding an axe or chainsaw—to break in at any moment.
The minutes ticked by, but no one came.
She sighed. Okay, so she
was paranoid. No killers breaking in. Time to at least try to relax.
After releasing Penny from her leash and finding her the promised
treat, Genevieve ran up the stairs to her room so she could continue with
her original after-dinner plan and not do homework. Besides, a new season
of T.V. shows had started, and she was a sucker for lame-ass sitcoms. She
still retained hope after all these years; one day, rather than the
standard fat, incompetent husband with a hot, intelligent wife, there
might actually be a fat wife and hot husband. Or two fat, incompetent husbands.
T.V. might one day be progressive.
Just as she reached her room,
the phone rang.
"Ya-huh?" she said as she picked up and flopped
down on her bed.
"What are you doing?"
Stephie. She loved
the girl, really—she was fun. But she was the type of person who would
call and ask her twenty times what she was doing and never actually talk
about anything.
"Just got in after being stalked. You?"
"Talking to Levi on MSN. He wants to talk to you too—come on?"
Oh yeah. She was supposed to call him, wasn't
she?
"I can talk to him at school tomorrow," Gen said.
"I
don't know if his sanity's going to last that long—he's completely hyped
up about tomorrow's game. Just come on MSN now."
"But the computer
is all the way downstairs and I just came from there."
"God,
you're so lazy—just a sec."
The phone clicked and there was
silence on the other line. She probably put the call on hold or
something—Stephie had better not forget about her like she did that other
time. Another five minutes, and she'd be hanging up.
A sudden
growl caused Genevieve to bolt upright and look around. Penny had wandered
into her room, and was now standing at the window, staring into the
darkness of the front lawn.
"Penny?" Gen called, but the dog
ignored her.
"'Kay, back," Stephie announced. "Got Levi on the
line too."
"Hey," Levi said. "Gen, you won't believe—"
"Just a minute," Gen interrupted as she stood and flipped off the
light. Penny continued her low growling, gaze fixed outside as Genevieve
started for the window.
Gen parted the curtains with caution to
peer outside.
"Is that Penny growling?" Stephie asked after a few seconds of
silence.
"Yeah."
"Penny doesn't growl at anyone," Levi
pointed out.
"I know..." Her gaze followed the lines of the houses
across the street, checking every corner for her pursuer. No one was
there. The trees similarly yielded nothing, but still, Penny stared and
growled. There didn't seem to be anyone there—
A flicker of
movement across the sidewalk caught her attention just as she was about to
step back. There, by the tree trunk, she saw a booted foot. Slowly her
gaze traveled up the leg of the person standing there, to the
three-quarters length black coat. At the top of the figure she could
barely make out a face in the shadows...
Her eyes focused on his
and the phone slipped from her grasp. Pure hatred met her gaze—hatred so
intense, Gen was sure she'd never witnessed anything quite like it. Her
heart thudded in her ears and everything else faded away as she stared at
him.
She couldn't be certain how long she stood there, just
watching him watch her. Periodically, thoughts entered her mind, reminding
her she could step back away from the window at any time, call for her
parents, yell at the creep and close the curtains...and yet she felt her
body weighed down suddenly, unable to move from its current position.
"Genevieve!" Stephie shouted over the phone.
Trembling,
Gen stooped and picked up the receiver, then sat gingerly on the end of
her bed.
"There's a man out there," she whispered, still unable to
take her eyes from the guy outside.
"What?" Levi asked.
"Man out where?" Stephie added.
"This guy—he was following
me when I was out with Penny, and she's been growling like she knows he's
there, and now he's just standing out there staring at me through the
window!"
"Are you naked?" Stephie asked. "That could be why he's
staring—"
"This is serious!" Gen exclaimed. "There's no nudity
involved here—just a creepy man, standing out there, watching me."
"Maybe it's Matt—he's creepy. I wouldn't put stalking past him."
"It's not Matt, Stephie," Gen said, irritated that her friends
seemed about as concerned as her mother had.
"How do you know?"
Stephie asked.
"'Cause I'm looking at the guy right now, and it's
not Matt!"
"Oh, you can see him?"
"Yes!"
"Is he
cute?"
That completely broke Genevieve's attention. Was he cute?
She rolled her eyes. He had been chasing her for Christ's sake—what the
hell kind of question was that!
"I bet he's a bible salesman or
something," Levi said. "I had one of those following me around once."
"I didn't see any bibles," Gen said, turning her gaze back toward
the window. Nope, no bibles—in fact, no person there at all. She absently
sighed as relief washed over her, and she sank back onto her bed. "He's
gone now."
"You sure?" Levi asked.
"Yeah..." Well, no, she
wasn't sure. Penny was still staring out the window. Had she not been
growling, Gen might have thought it was just a cat out there, but alas her
dog still seemed pretty freaked out about something. "I don't know.
Penny's acting weird. I don't suppose either of you want to come over and
do a stake out?"
"That's actually not a bad idea," Stephie said.
"She probably didn't mean a party stake out," Levi said. "But if
you need me, Gen, I can come over—"
"No, listen—you could go out
there and ask him what he’s doing, and—"
"No!"
"Why?"
"Um, because he's scary?" Gen said. Really, that kind of thing
would have been obvious to anyone but Stephie Meyers.
"You don't
know why he was chasing you—maybe you dropped something. Or maybe he's a
secret agent who needs your help to save the world."
"Or maybe
he's a serial killer!"
"She's right, Gen," Levi said. "You can't
just hide in your house—not if he's going to wait for you."
Though
highly reluctant, Genevieve knew damn well she wouldn't get any sleep all
night knowing someone was out there. Time to take her mother's advice—for
once—and be a little proactive.
Three hours later, when she was
certain her parents were in bed—and the prickles on the back of her neck
told her he was still out there—Gen dressed and made her way
outside.
Penny followed her and seemed hurt when her owner told
her to stay inside. Gen desperately wanted to bring the dog along—she felt
crazy to be going out there alone—but with an apologetic look, she closed
the front door, leaving Penny to whine at the window.
Turning to
face the night outside her house, Genevieve found the street looked
particularly foreboding. Though only eleven o'clock, people in this
neighbourhood tended to go to bed early. Most of the homes were owned by
middle class families with children who tended to be in the ten and under
age group, so the houses were dark and the street was quiet. After taking
a deep breath, she finally put one foot in front of the other and stepped
off the porch.
Dammit, she hated being proactive.
She
started with a regular walk, going her usual route. It wasn't that out of
character for her to go out walking without Penny; sometimes she liked to
wander and clear her head alone, so she hoped the guy didn't think
anything of it. Forgoing her usual jeans or skirts, she opted for straight
black track pants and a black hooded sweatshirt that she found at the
bottom of her closet. It was dull and really not her thing, but it helped
her blend in the shadows. That was what she needed right now.
No
more than five minutes had passed before she was certain she heard
footsteps somewhere behind her. The urge to send a quick glance over her
shoulder to check was strong, but every time she felt her head start to
turn, she forced it back. She had to play this cool...and try not to start
screaming.
Picking up the pace, Genevieve casually pretended to
shudder from the non-existent cold, and pulled the sweatshirt hood over
her head. Not too subtle, and she knew it, but it gave her a way to
disguise her long hair, which she'd tied into a braid to make it easier to
hide. While her heart raced and she was pretty sure she was near a faint
from the sheer terror of her situation, at the same time she couldn't help
but feel incredibly lame. Dressed all in black, trying to trick a person
who may—or may not—be following her? Attempting to be all cool and
stealthy? Oh, she'd laugh about this in the morning.
That is, if
she survived that long.
Certain he followed, Genevieve started to
jog, then pushed into a full run.
Keep moving, keep
moving...ignore the tightness in your chest, Gen—dammit, why did I always
skip Phys Ed?
She couldn't keep up running for long, but
it looked as though she wouldn't have to. Only a block ahead, there was a
bend in the road and the house on the corner had a huge hedge.
She'd make it there—she had to. No problem. He wasn't gaining
ground—he couldn't be. Of course, she could maybe just check...
No, no, she couldn't let him know she thought he was there. If
he'd truly been following her at night for at least a week or two, he was
definitely following her now, so there was little point in looking.
At the last minute, as she rounded the corner, Genevieve peeked
around her hood to take a millisecond-long glance over her shoulder.
He wasn't there.
Hidden by the hedges now, she stopped
dead on and slipped the stupid hood off her head. He had to be there—he
just had to be! She could have sworn she...she felt him there.
Which was
just plain crazy, and Genevieve rolled her eyes at the very thought. Sure,
everyone always says women have a sixth sense about things, but everyone
also always tells women to be wary of every man out at night because he's
likely a rapist or something, so maybe she felt like she was being stalked
because it's ingrained in her that she probably is—
Goddamn it
all, now her thoughts were babbling. This was insane. She was insane. And
so were Levi and Stephie for even telling her to be out here.
Still not quite prepared to start home, Genevieve pressed her back
up against the hedge and peered around the corner.
Nope, there was
still no one around.
It seemed Gen was almost a little
disappointed by that. Had someone been there, of course she might have
been in real trouble. It wasn't like she wanted that. But when the street
revealed no one had been following her, it turned out she was just insane,
which wasn't all that great either.
With a heavy sigh—and a quick
prayer of thanks that no one had been around to see this humiliating
display of paranoia—Gen started around the corner...
"Were you
going to try to surprise me?"
Genevieve froze. After a few
not-so-calming breaths, she spun around to face the source of the cold,
deep voice behind her. At that moment she was too startled to tremble,
run, or even respond in any coherent way. Instead, she stared back at the
man standing only two feet away. Though he couldn't have been more than an
inch taller than her, she felt dwarfed in his presence, and involuntarily
sank back against the hedges.
"Were you?" he asked, taking a
measured step forward.
All her will went into forcing a few words
from her dry throat while she mentally asked herself why she hadn't
thought to grab a kitchen knife or something.
"If you're the creep
who's been following me then yeah." Surprised at how calm her voice
sounded, a spark of strength came back to her She straightened her back
and crossed her arms at her chest, hoping the look she gave him showed her
displeasure rather than absolute terror. "Should I know you from
somewhere?"
"Yes." His voice, while low and quiet, came out with a
fierceness that was enough to shake the courage she had attempted to build
up again.
She forced back her fear long enough to study him and
see if she did, in fact, know him from somewhere. His age seemed
indeterminable; she might put him at mid-twenties, but there was nothing
youthful in the air about him. Short, unruly medium brown hair, a square,
stubble-free jaw, smooth pale skin, and dark brows launched into a frown
over a pair of glaring eyes. Shoulders were broad, though not huge, and
beyond the dark jacket, he wore a black shirt and dark jeans, which seemed
to help him blend into the night far better than her ensemble had. No
weapons, thankfully—at least not ones that she could see. While she
processed the face through her memory, she was certain she had never seen
him before in her life.
More importantly, however, she wasn't
interested in seeing him now.
"Well, I don't recognize you—I think
you're probably confused or something." Which might have happened when
you escaped from the mental ward, freak! "I'm pretty sure you don't
know me."
He took a step forward. She took one backward, only to
hit the hedge again.
"No, unfortunately, I do know who you are."
Another step forward on his part.
Gen inched backward, branches
scratching the back of her head and catching in her hair.
"Unfortunate for who? You?" she asked quickly, once again
surprised at how calm her voice sounded. "Because really, I'm not that
bad. I know rumours get around and stuff, but I swear, I'm actually pretty
great. In fact, even when I'm stalked, if the creepy guy lets me go, I
completely promise not to phone the cops or testify against him in court."
He continued stepping forward until they were half a foot apart.
"So yeah," she continued babbling, heart pounding and throat going
dry. "Yeah, just let me be on my way, and you can continue on yours, and
we'll forget all about this."
"I can't let you go," he said in
complete seriousness.
"Yes, you can, it's really, really easy.
Take a step back and I'll slip by you, and that's it! I'm out of your life
forever!" Genevieve's eyes pleaded with him, though she knew right away
there'd be no swaying this guy, whoever he was.
Think, act calmly, be
smart—scream, kick to the balls, run like hell...it'll be fine, you can do
this Gen...
He shook his head. "I'd like nothing
better, believe me, but that won't be happening."
"You know, I
always tested well with logic, so maybe you can tell me why you can't let
me go, and then we can talk it through and come up with some other doable
solution—"
"That isn't possible," he said.
"You sure?
'Cause—"
"I know it isn't, because you're going to die."
"No, I'm not," she replied, hoping against all rationality that
maybe he might just buy that and leave her alone.
"You are," he
said instead, his tone matter of fact. His steady gaze hadn't let up yet,
and she felt herself weighted down by the sheer force of it. "You're going
to die, now—"
She launched herself forward, palms ahead of her to
push him away, and then she bolted around him.
He caught her arm
and twisted it, pinning it behind her back and pulling her against him in
one swift movement.
Genevieve cried out and struggled against his
tightening grip. A sharp pain tore through her arm and up her shoulder as
he twisted it further, preventing her from wrenching it free.
She
wasn't ready to give in yet, though. Stomping back randomly with her heel,
she hoped to catch his foot, or perhaps to kick his shin in the process,
but she was having trouble judging the space and seemed to keep missing.
"Let me go!" she shouted, reaching around with her free hand to
claw at his hand. "Let me—"
Genevieve froze as the slim, silver
blade of a knife entered her view. The detailed hilt was clutched in his
hand, and he held the weapon near her throat. A single tear burned a path
down her cheek as she ceased her struggle and stared at the blade. It slid
nearer to her throat, and in moments she felt the cool metal threatening
the skin over her jugular.
"Don't do this," she whispered. While
he did lower the knife, he didn't put it away.
"Listen to me," he
breathed into her ear.
"Okay, absolutely—listening intently now, I
swear!" she cried, letting her arm go slack to show she wasn't putting up
a struggle. Maybe then he'd loosen his hold on her and she could get away
without breaking her arm. He hadn't hurt her yet—that must mean he didn't
want to, not right now, and not right there on the sidewalk. She had to
calm down, and get through this...
"You're in trouble, aren't you
little girl?"
No shit, weirdo!, she felt like shouting, but
refrained as he hadn't let her go yet.
"I'm—" His words broke off
as Genevieve felt herself pushed forward. The man let go of her arm
suddenly, muttering under his breath. She spun around and back-pedalled
out of reach, should he try to grab her again.
A second figure—one
she recognized—appeared behind her attacker, and tried to shove the man
away.
Levi!
Her stalker immediately stepped out of the
way, bringing his arm up to elbow Levi in the face. He took another step
to the side and swung around to watch as Levi ran to stand next to Gen.
The man's eyes went from Levi to Gen, then back to Levi again, as
he seemed to be reassessing the situation.
She nearly elbowed Levi
in the side for taking so long, but she decided that wasn't appropriate
considering he had probably just saved her from being raped and murdered.
Not to mention he'd been smacked in the face, and that probably hurt.
"Leave her alone." Levi wrapped a protective arm around her
shoulder. "Or the next time you bug Gen, you'll have the entire Newhaven
junior boys’ basketball team beating the shit out of you with baseball
bats."
Without waiting for the guy to reply, the two turned and
walked briskly around the corner, back towards Genevieve's house.
Gen glanced over her shoulder a few times as they went, ensuring
they weren't being followed. Apparently Levi had managed to scare the guy
off, because he was nowhere to be found.
Satisfied they were out
of danger, Gen halted a few houses away from hers and turned to Levi.
"You see I'm not just paranoid now? That guy has been following me
for at least a week!"
"Fuck, Genevieve—you told me you were going
to surprise him over on Water Street!" Levi said, his voice shaking with
anger.
"But there was that hedge thing, and Water's only a block
away. I figured you would have seen—"
"Yeah, I saw you right when
he grabbed you! What if he had like a van or something there? Or a
weapon?"
A weapon? "But..." she began, then paused. Levi had been
standing behind the guy—he hadn't seen the knife, and since he was so
pissed off at the moment, she elected to let that bit of information slide
by.
"But it's no big deal because he didn't?! What if—" His
ranting ceased and he took in and let out a deep breath to help calm down.
"Sorry. You're just so fucking careless sometimes—"
"Hey, I wanted
to hide inside like a sane person," she reminded him. "You're the one who
thought I should go out and confront him while you played stake-out boy
and kept watch in case things got scary and violent. I'm the smart one—not
you."
Levi muttered something, but unable to argue with her about
that point, they started walking again.
"We should have just
called the police," she continued.
"Right, because the Newhaven
police department is so helpful. You know Bernie's Milk downtown got
robbed last week when Andrew was working there? Took the cops twenty
minutes to respond to the alarm, and they're like three blocks away.
They'd just give you a stack of paperwork to fill out and you wouldn't
hear from them again. Besides, you're welcome for coming to your rescue."
"Oh, Levi Greene!" Genevieve declared with a dreamy sigh. "You're
my hero!" She threw her arms over him and gave an intentionally girly
squeal. "I'm going to hang a poster of you over my bed, and bake you
cookies every day, and promise to have your many babies!"
"My many
babies, you say?" he said, raising a brow suggestively.
"Yes,
because your heroic, manly seed will produce many offspring." Unable to
keep up the joke, Gen burst into laughter, and Levi joined her.
"Do me a favour," he said.
"Anything," she replied.
"Never
say 'heroic, manly seed' again, okay?"
"No promises. So where'd
you park?"
"Across the street from you," he replied just as
Genevieve noticed Hayden's beat up Toyota. They paused in front of her
house. "You see that guy hanging around here again, and you phone me, all
right?"
"Why—you can't possibly expect me to think that the
Phoenixes will really show up at my door to defend me." She knew Levi's
jock friends—they didn't like her, and she didn't like them. Well, that
was actually more one sided; most of them probably didn't know she
existed, but those that did often went out of their way to be mean to her.
For that reason, she had decided she didn't like any of them.
"Of
course they will."
"Right, they'll be happy to help out your
'stupid dyke friend' with her male stalker troubles."
"Okay, Chris
said that one time, so you've got to drop it
now."
"Whatever," she muttered, annoyed that he'd defend the guy.
True, she knew that when Chris had said it last year during Phys. Ed.,
Levi whacked the guy over the head with his badminton racket and both were
suspended over it, so it wasn't like Levi didn't care. It's just that she
held a grudge, while he apparently forgot the seething rage brought on by
a derogatory slur towards his best friend.
"I'm serious. You are
completely T.V. lesbian hot, so they'll come here if I ask them to. You
might have to make out with a girl in front of them as payment, but..."
"Hey, you find me a hot and willing girl, and I gladly will," she
said with a wink.
"I promise you, I'll get right on that," he
swore.
"Yeah, I bet."
"I mean it, Gen," he said as she
started down the driveway towards her house. "You see him, you call me.
Whatever time."
"I will." She was all seriousness as she looked
back at him and gave him a genuine smile. "Thanks, Lev."
"No
problem."
She slipped back in her house as silently as she could,
and found Penny still waiting for her at the door. As she knelt down to
pet the dog and reassure her she was home for good—or at least until
school the next day—she still couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't
over yet. No one stalks a girl, attacks her, and threatens her, just to be
scared off by some teenage boy and his vague threats. And what if next
time she had no warning? If Levi's promise of baseball bat armed Phoenixes
wasn't enough, if the guy broke into her home...?
There were too
many what-if's, and Gen knew she wouldn't be sleeping that
night.
© 2006 Skyla Dawn Cameron
Reader discretion advised.
At some point there will be sex, violence, coarse language, and mature themes (if there hasn't been already).
Not for readers under 18.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.
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