Save Me *Under major construction*

Chapter 6 - It's a Killer

Chapter 6 - It’s a Killer

I gaze at the other people on the beach. Everyone is having fun. Then my gaze fell on someone. He has blond hair and wearing sunglasses. He kind of reminds me of Matt but with blond hair. I freeze at the thought of him. Then, a few seconds later, a lady slips by his side. He puts his arm around her and walks further away from them. At some point, I am relieved that he’s not who I think he is, but he does look like him. I stare back at my friends, my son and to Adam and force myself to clear the thought away from my mind. Matt is not here, I say to myself.

It is getting dark now and we’re still on the road heading home. The trip way back is quiet. Lynn realizes it so she turns on the radio. There isn’t much to listen, really, but she just keeps on scanning for some good stations to listen to. Then, when she’s about to turn, she lands on a breaking news. The news says that a lady was found dead near the Wrightsville Beach just a couple of hours ago. She was stabbed by a knife. The victim was hit more than seven times. I cringe a little at the news considering it’s the same beach we were at just a few hours ago.

“That’s so terrible,” Lynn says. It looks like we are the only ones in the car though. Adam fell asleep in a flash right after the car started moving. Candice is just so tired, so she’s just staring at the road. It looks like she’s in her own world. And Max, well, just like Adam, he fell asleep.

I mean to say something when the reporter says something more. “The lady was found in the motel. Some witnesses say that she checked-in with a man. But they couldn’t tell how he looked like. They didn’t know both of them very well. It seemed like they were just having a vacation. They didn’t notice the man got out of the motel.”

I decide not to say anything anymore. It’s so awful what happened to the lady. I feel sorry for the people she had left behind because some psycho killed her without mercy. Finally, Lynn pulls to a stop. We arrive at nearly 8PM. When we get out of the car, Lynn takes her bike and head straight back home. Candice slouches on the couch and in just a few minutes she’s already sound asleep. Adam goes straight to the kitchen and makes coffee. I put Max to bed. I kiss him on the cheeks and go back to the kitchen to join Adam.

“You want coffee?” he asks.

“Yes, please,” I say as I sit down next to him. He prepares my coffee and added more creamers. He knows I like it creamier.

“I had fun,” I say. I stir my coffee a bit more before I take a sip. Tastes good. Adam has always been the better one in preparing coffee. Every time I make coffee, it doesn’t turn out really well.

“Me too,” he replies as he reaches for my hand. “But, being with you is always fun.”

I laugh at what he just said. Then, I remember all the things we’ve been through and the man I saw earlier on the beach. My smile disappears and my lips form into a straight line. And when I look at Adam, I can feel that he does know something’s wrong.

“What’s wrong?” he asks. He now shifts his chair to face me.

“Nothing,” I say, forcing a smile.

“You’re lying,” he senses. “You don’t trust me?” I can feel the hurt in his voice when he said those. Of course, I do trust him. I’m just scared.

“I trust you, Adam.”

“Then tell me what’s wrong.”

I sigh. “I think I saw Matt at the beach.”

He must be studying me from the look he’s giving me. He keeps on moving his eyebrows up and down. When I feel like he’s not being serious, I slump my shoulders down and sigh a little louder this time. “You don’t believe me?”

“Why would he be there and how?” his expression changes, now he’s being serious.

“I don’t know,” and then I snapped back to what I really saw. I never seen his face clearly and he was with someone and they looked so sweet. All this time, I’m not really sure that it’s even Matt. “Can we just forget it?”

“Christina, we can’t just let this go.”

“You know, I may have just mistaken that guy for Matt. He was with someone and I didn’t even seen him clearly. I may be just thinking too much,” I shot back. I don’t mean to raise my voice and when I see Adam’s face looks upset, I feel bad. “Adam, let’s just drop this, okay? I’m just….. tired,” I say in a soft voice.

“Alright,” he stands up and we get to bed. He kisses me on the lips before we lie down. I sit on the bed for a while and stare at the window. It takes a few minutes to register in my mind what I am looking at. Not far behind, just right beside a tree, there’s a man standing there. He looks like he’s smoking. I can’t see his face and his stature because he’s hiding on the shadow of the tree. But then I realize he’s also holding a beer. He steps out of the shadow. He’s wearing black all over. Why do I feel like I saw this man before? Then, I remember that day when Candice and I went out for Starbucks, the man who was sitting on one of the benches across the street. The man who was wearing sunglasses that I could feel was watching me. But before my mind goes wild again, I close my eyes. I am too tired at this moment to even think about it. In an instant, I fall asleep.

I wake up at the sound of something like someone’s trying to get in. I see Adam standing by the window looking outside.

“What was that?” I ask.

“Just probably a cat,” he says. But, I can tell from the way he moves that it’s not just probably a cat. He is so alert. He looks at me and for a second, he stands there trying of whether to go out or not. “I’ll check it out.”

In all honesty, I don’t want him to get out. It doesn’t feel right. I feel like something’s going to happen badly. But then, he is already outside the room. I follow him. He checks the back door but he found nothing. So he goes outside. But before he steps out, I hand him a knife. Alright, I’m going crazy, but it’s better to be safe. “You stay at the front door, when you hear a knock twice, it’s me, ok? Open it.” I nod at him.

I walk to the living room where Candice is sleeping. I realize she isn’t sleeping at all. Probably the noise woke her up as well. She’s still lying down when she sees me. I can feel that she’s scared. She seems like she saw a ghost and just can’t talk. When I stand next to the door, I look outside by the window next to it. No one is there. No cars passing. Nothing. It’s still dark and the only lights are the ones coming from the lamp posts. I hear a knock. Twice. It’s Adam. I open it and Adam enters. When I look at him, he just shrugs his shoulder, meaning he found no one, nothing. “I saw this though,” he says, showing me a broken bottle of beer. My memory flashes back to the man I saw before I went to sleep.

“Where’d you find this?” I ask.

“Right there, by the window on our bedroom.”

The man was watching us? A thief? But then again, I’m not really sure if that’s the man I saw. But who else? He must be some kind of a bad guy.

“There’s a man who was trying to get in,” Candice says. Adam and I look at her and she’s now sitting. She’s hugging her blanket so tight. She looks scared and worried.

“Before you two woke up, I looked outside because I heard something. I stood there at the door. I saw the man peeked over the window. I was scared, of course. I noticed the door was unlocked. I was glad I woke up that moment and locked it. Then, he went to the side. I think he tried to peek over the window on the bedroom. Then I guess he saw you waking up and he dropped that bottle of beer and ran,” she describes. She then looks at us. I sit beside her and hug her tight. Whoever that freak is, I hope he never comes back.

We find it hard to get to sleep after what happened. Adam watches a rerun of Friends while Candice starts packing up her things. Her flight back to LA is at 10 so she has to be at Raleigh at 9. I just stay at the bedroom with Max. Thinking about the man on the beach, the one she saw before she went to sleep and the man who was trying to get in. Were they all the same person? Was it Matt? When is this going to stop? When is he going to stop? Then I received a message: From unknown.

Unknown. 4.57AM. I will never stop until I have you! –R.