AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My knees buckle, and my bones go limp like Jell-O. Someone yells my name.
“Kali, wake up!”
My eyes flutter open and I’m flat on the ground. Zoe pulls on my shoulders, placing me in a seated position.
“Put your knees up and put your head between your knees.”
I can barely follow her directions, but she helps.
“Take a deep breath. Now let it out.”
Uncontrollable tears fall as I tremble with fear. Zoe wraps her arms around me.
“It’s okay, babe. You passed out.”
No. It’s not okay.
He found me.
“I…I need to get inside,” I mutter, pushing off the cement, the envelope clutched in my trembling hands. My eyes dart in every direction, searching. I gasp in horror when I find him. Anger is the only thing keeping me on my feet.
A man stands alone off in the distance, too far for me to get a good look, but close enough for me to see his silhouette. He’s standing right outside the ring of light from the streetlight, wearing dark jeans and a black hoodie, his large, broad figure turned sideways with his face hidden in the shadow of his hood. “Hey!” I scream. My heart pounds against my chest. “You psychopath! If you want me, come and get me!”
I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.
But I’m way past being rational.
“Kali, who are you yelling at?”
“Did you see that guy?” I ask, pointing in the direction he was standing, but he’s no longer there. “The guy in the hoodie?”
She shakes her head. “I was picking up your purse. Sorry,” she adds when I wince and drop my head. I didn’t imagine him. He was there. “C’mon, let’s get inside. You’re freaking me out.”
Once inside, behind locked doors, I curl up into a ball on the couch. Zoe lays a blanket over me. I’ve crumbled the note up in my fist, biting the urge to light it on fire.
“What happened out there? What did that note say?”
I toss it at her and draw in a shaky breath. She glances at the ball of paper for a moment and looks at me with uncertainty. I could tell her not to look, but that’ll make her want to even more. She opens it.
“You don’t belong here. You belong in a box. It comes in three.” Her words are slow and steady, as if not wanting to read it wrong.
I flinch, hearing it out loud. As if the knives are sharper, going into my heart the second time.
“Who the hell is this from? And what does it mean?”
I fought to move past this, not live like a victim, and I haven’t talked about it with anyone. Now I wonder if I put Zoe in danger.
“Did you hear about the girl buried alive? Almost five months ago?”
“That happened close by. Of course I heard about it. But what does that…” Her words trail off mid-sentence, putting two and two together. Her eyes widen as she gasps, slapping her hand to her chest. “That was you?” she whispers.
I can imagine she’s trying to figure out how I survived, how long I was down there, and what it was like being trapped. She’s the first person I’ve told. All I can do is nod.
“Oh, Kali.” She runs over and wraps her arms around me. She pulls away, her eyes filled with concern. “We need to call the police.”
A knot tightens in my stomach, and I brace myself for the painful journey back into the nightmare I thought I had escaped. Finding my voice, I point to my purse. “I have a Texas Ranger’s number in my favorites.”
Minutes later, my small apartment swarms with police officers, and not long after, Martinez storms in. They brought in a K-9 unit, hearing that there was a possibility he was close by. I can’t help but think of Paxton and Riggs. We still haven’t talked. He tried to call, but I wasn’t ready. Our future is still questionable, but before we can find out, he needs to no longer be a suspect. The last time I talked with Martinez, they were still working on it. They had found nothing yet, but they were being thorough.
