The Boot: A Tim Bradford love story

Chapter 4 ~ Scared

(Hey guys, just a little TRIGGER WARNING for this next chapter as it kind of kicks off the mental health events of the story. It isn't too bad today but I still want to put a trigger warning. If this is something that triggers you then please don't continue to read. I will not be hurt. Thats it, just wanted to pop in, but if you are going to keep reading, enjoy!)

It was the night after Elsie and Tim were shot at. Elsie got to her apartment around nine o'clock that evening. She set her keys down in the little starfish shaped ceramic dish she was gifted for her birthday last year. She set her bag on the kicthen counter and took off her shoes, placed them by the door, and flopped herself onto her couch. Craving a meatball sub, Elsie took out her phone and opened doordash to place an order. Finding the nearest sub shop with decent shipping charges, the hungry girl orderd two regular sized subs.

Once she payed for them and begun to wait, she decided to open up her laptop and start looking at new cars. Did she need a new car? no, but Elsie belived every once in a while it was good to treat yourself. red jeep read across the search bar. She clicked on the first link, the jeep manfacturing site. She selectedn the make and model she wanted and watied the unreasonable seven minutes for it to load, just for her to close the tab when she saw the prices. Maybe in four years. Elsie decided to keep busy by watching funny cat videos.

thirty minutes pass of just her sitting on her couch, audibly laughing every two-ish minutes, until after what felt like ages, there was a knock at her front door. Elsie let out a squel of exitment before jumping off the couch and racing to the door. As she opened the door and saw the bag sitting on the carpet she couldn't help but feel a tear escape her tear duct. She quickly wiped it away as she grabbed the bag and closed her front door, carefuly made her way to the kitchen counter setting the bag down.

_

Halfway done with the first sub, Elsie decied to save the rest for later and save the other sub for leftovers. As she wrapped them up in foil and placed them in her messy fridge she heard a knock at her front door. "Coming!" she yelled as she closed the fridge door and walked over to her front door. When she opened it a look of confusion washed over her face. nobody was there. The young girl sighed as she closed the door and locked it for the night. 'Must be teenagers playing tricks' she thought to herself.

As she layed in bed after doing her night routine, scrolling on her phone she noticed in her periferal vision a tall human shaped shadow. Elsie instantly jerked her head to face the shadow but there was nothing there. She instantly got up and turned on the light in her bedroom and began searching for the shadow. Her breathing became heavy and her palms started to get sweaty.

One of Elsie's biggest fear was somebody breaking into her house. She was so scared of what would happen if somebody did infact break into her apartment. She quickly opened every curtain in her room, followed by her closet. Swifting through hangers and shoe boxes. Nothing. Elsie took a deep breath and then walked to her bathroom and splashes her face with cold water.

As she ran her hands down her face, when she opened her eyes she saw the same shadow. With a shreik of fear she jerked herself around only to see her blue-greyish wall staring back at her. Elsie was so scared. She didn't know was was going on. With a creak, she used her skaking hand to open the mirror-cabinet above her sink and grabed the pill bottle she hated so much.

Elsie hated having to open that bottle. Ever sinse she was diagnosed with anixiety she hated knowing that she would have to admit she needed help. If she could she would do everything by herself.

Cupping one hand with water and the small pill in the other she took it with a groan of anger, Slowly walked back to her bedroom and flopped down on her full sized matress. As her mind still raced with fear about whatever that shadow was, she tried all different things to calm her mind down, reading a book, play more candy-crush on her phone, and she even tried painting her nails an ugly shade of red. Finally she had the amazing idea of watching youtube on her phone. She cliked the first nonsense video that poped up and placed her phone on her nightstand and tried to close her eyes, only to see that damn shadow. Still paranoid she decided to just keep her eyes open.