Christmas sucks.
When Emily Shepherd's boss boyfriend cheats on her with her best friend, she loses everything in one night-love, friendships, job, and home. In a weird fit of desperation (or some deep-rooted need to punish herself even more) she m...
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Was it crazy to search the entire house twice before bed? Was it crazy to lock the bedroom door and wedge one of the kitchen chairs under the knob for extra security? Was it crazy to keep the largest of her kitchen knife set beside the bed? If so, then she was crazy, because she did all of that.
What was really crazy was that she had actually been able to fall asleep before 9 pm. There was something to be said for stress overload, lack of sleep, and emotional exhaustion.
She was not even surprised when she heard the footsteps outside her bedroom door. Her eyes snapped open, out of a shallow, restless sleep, and scanned the room. It was empty, but she could hear them walking and whispering outside the room.
"Stop!" she shouted, although that was yet another crazy thing to do. But hey, she was apparently crazy now. She was hearing thing and seeing things and experiencing things...
How else could she explain it? Either she was crazy and imagining all of this—she locked herself out, she imagined the footsteps, she forgot she moved the stained glass—or her house was haunted, which was also pretty crazy.
The footsteps stopped. That comforted her and unnerved her at the same time. She took two breaths to calm herself. And then the whispering started.
"No!" she shouted, using all the authority she could manage. "No more talking. Just stop it. You're making me crazy."
They stopped. And somehow the quiet made her less sure she had heard the things she knew she had heard. Her heartrate slowed to a resting state, despite her brain telling it to stay alert. She had almost relaxed when her phone buzzed with a text.
It was Leo. "How's it going?"
What should she say? I'm crazy and I'm hearing things again? Come over and search my house for people who aren't there? That would be one way to start a conversation. She smiled and texted back, "Good. You?"
He responded right away, "Just finished rehearsal. Headed home."
She was starting to forget about the panic she was feeling just three minutes ago. What was that about? "It's almost ten. Must be some pageant."
"It's a musical extravaganza," She could almost see his smile as he sent that. "You should come."
She didn't give him a straight response. "I'm sure it's the highlight of the season."
There was no response for several minutes, then he texted. "Okay. Well, I was just making sure you didn't lock yourself outside again."
She sent him the angry face emoji, the laughing emoji, and then the crying emoji. That just about summed it up.
He didn't respond to that, but she felt comforted, safer. It was weird the way he could do that. She'd only known him a short time and yet, he had a way of making her feel like everything was going to be okay. She wasn't sure she'd ever had that feeling before Leo.
