The Hunter's Prey

Chapter 3- Down in the rabbit hole

CASSIDY TYLER - The Boss' Angel

        I stared blankly at the eviction notice in my hand, the paper lightly flapping against the wind as I scanned the page for the sixth time. My breath shuddered under me as I walked down the sidewalk, my chest tightening with each step I took and each sentence I read until I was sure I'd temporarily lost the ability to assimilate. It was simple words like vacate, terminate, and seven days... that stuck in my subconscious like a Justin Bieber song.

       My eyes swooped past some of the pretty harsh phrases my landlord had used to describe his "greatest mistake" of offering me tenancy six months ago as I'd always been late on rent each month, I'd spent almost an hour this morning knocking on his door upstairs in a bid to persuade him to extend the eviction.
      Not only did the furious elderly bald-headed man insult me for interrupting his morning meditation but he also threatened to shorten the eviction time if I didn't leave immediately.

      I scrunched up the paper in my hand and threw it in my purse, my hands running through my hair as I loosened the strands so the cool breeze could filter into my clouded mind.

     I had no idea what to do.

    I'd lost my moderately paying job at the bar about two months ago, and several others since then. There was no way I could make enough money in time, and very few options of where to go.
     A tear trailed down my cheek and onto the edge of my lip, the salty taste bringing me back to life as my eyes unveiled to the multiple cars that were honking impatiently at me.
     I was stood in the middle of traffic and the lights were fucking green. Shit! I scurried over to the other end, apologetically waving toward the raging morning drivers.

        I pulled my buzzing phone from the pocket of my thick, furry jean jacket, the device flaring to life as I held it up and read the text on the screen.

Dad: You little bitch! You think you can hide from me?! I'll find you and make you eat shit!

       I heaved a sigh at the message before sending it straight to the archives with the rest of his threats this week, it happened so often that I'd developed a numbness toward it, and perhaps an expectation for it as well.

     My dad had always been a whack job, the nuts in his brain were now bolted even looser than before since the dead of my mom last year... I supposed it's always a titillating experience watching one's own father sorrowfully scream his lungs out at a funeral service for the woman he used to lay his hands on every day.

     I puffed out a breath, shaking my body slightly in an attempt to elude the growing thoughts of my father, and tilted my head backward as I attempted to suppress the water pooling in my eyes.

      I was already about an hour late for my psych class, I'd missed the only bus that morning that went straight to campus, and as if life wasn't doing enough of punishing me already, I'd rather head back home than have mascara leaking down my waterline like a crack whore in withdrawal on an early Monday morning.

    "Hello?" I put my phone to my ear and spoke as soon as it beeped. "Jackson?"

    A familiar dull and sleepy voice croaked on the other end of the phone, I could hear some words but none of it audible enough to make sense of.

"Hello? Jackson, are you okay?"

      After a pregnant pause and a low shuffling noise, someone answered, a slurring but seductive feminine voice "Hello sweetie."