𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 {𝐵𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛}

Chapter : 20

A relief.

The plan worked. It surely did. You were inhaling air rapidly as you drove through the city's crowded road. The safe place. Everyone were around you . It was obvious you tricked them. The sport car won't find you in this many cars. Plus they didn't knew where you were heading to.

After driving for some minutes more your eyes finally could see the apartment.

The apartment complex had only few buildings around it. All the roads emptied by then. Any person's shadow wasn't even showing up. The place had different vibe than the crowded roads you just overcame. It was quiet. And the moon was hiding in dark clouds. Some streetlights were barely flickering.

Only the car's headlights were helping you to go forward. Apartment complex's entrance was open wide. There wasn't any Watchman. Strange. You felt adrenaline ran through your whole skin when you saw the building didn't have any lights outside.

"What the hell? What happened to the electricity here? Whole complex is filled with darkness. I can't even walk properly if I don't have any flash with me. Oh dear my luck- great I'm in horror movie?"

You whispered as you drove the car passing the wide entrance gate and moving it to park somewhere. You slammed the door shut slowly walking front of car. A light hit your eyes when you looked through the direction it was coming from inside of building. The building's doors were open. The elevator and The stairs beside it. Starring right back at you.

As you moved your heels towards the elevator suddenly you stopped walking. You had a feeling that you were getting watched by someone. You felt this might be the side effects of getting followed. But it wasn't just side effects. You looked over your right shoulder scanning the Complex's big main gate but there wasn't anybody. It was empty.

"Okay enough overthinking Y/n. Stop feeling too negative for once. There aren't anybody except me. So just screw it and get inside of elevator. Even if I feel someone is watching me I will not stare back at them just ignore it. There's no way I'll actually take out my flash and investigate the whole complex to find this imaginary person in my head-"

You were giving advice to yourself but a whistle had interrupted.

Your eyes snapped open as your body froze on the spot. For a moment you thought the whistle was imaginary just like the person. But it wasn't.

The whistle came from left. You bite the lower lip and forcefully looked over the left parking lot.

The moon finally got out of dark Clouds and gave you enough view. The same sport car parked over there. A man was right front of it with crossed arms over his chest. His face was hidden in the darkness. But the eyes were on your movements. Too much focused.

No no no. How is this possible? How he can be here? You tricked him. You manipulated him. You managed to get lost in the many cars. While driving you kept checking in the side view mirror each second for his car's appearance but it didn't appear. You checked all the way here. No car was following you. All you. all by yourself. all alone.

You couldn't move your body further. Just stared right back at him with open mouth. Too shocked to make a decision.

"No no no. This can't be happening nah uh. This can't be. I made sure no one could follow me here but how the hell he came? There's no way he would know the location. He actually came before me. He was waiting for me here. So that means I didn't manipulate him...he manipulated me"

"I don't know how he manipulated me but I shouldn't just stand here and give him the opportunity to get closer. I can't waste any longer. I have to get inside of Miraki's apartment oh wait the elevator-"

Your wondering thoughts had disappeared and replaced with how to escape from this man. It wasn't the time of thinking it was the time of escaping.

Without wasting another second you moved your sneakers and ran towards the empty elevator. He didn't wait either he also started to walk fast towards you. His footsteps were loud. You didn't care about anything around you just ran faster. Now he stopped walking. He ran behind you.

You almost screamed after realising how near he was. You passed the Building's entrance door and only stopped when you were inside of elevator. Your trembling hand pressed the 6th floor's button. Shivers ran through your entire skin.

He was getting closer and closer towards the elevator.

You prayed rapidly for the doors of elevator get close real soon. But somehow the doors weren't moving an inch. You pressed the 6th floor's button again and again. Thrice. The door wasn't moving. You mentally screamed. You were at the edge of crying. You closed the eyes thinking it was the end. You couldn't escape him.

He was almost about to get inside the elevator but right then the doors closed quickly and it started to moving up.

You slowly opened eyes scanning the entire elevator for the man's presence but you were alone. But that didn't mean you escaped. You heard him cursed and taking the stairs instead.

The elevator was moving too faster than usual. It opened with a sound. During stepping out of elevator in the rush of running accidently you slipped on the floor. Luckily you covered your mouth tightly to not to make any painful hiss.

Your eyes snapped open again when you heard the footsteps were getting closer. He was coming at 6th floor. You couldn't just run at Miraki's apartment door and unlock it he would saw you by then or even stand behind you. You needed to hide.

You spotted a large grey dustbin and it was perfect. You quickly crawled and hid beside the other side of it. If anybody stood near the stairs and looked at the place they won't find you because the dustbin was covering you completely. So he won't also.

He was there. Front of the stairs which was leading towards 7th floor. He took a quick glance at the whole place. You held you mouth and stopped breathing. Silent. All you need was pure silence. Couldn't make any noise or else it was over. But he moved his legs to 7th floor's stairs.

You slowly glanced behind and saw it was clear. You stood up. Ran front of the Miraki's apartment door. It was locked ofcourse. The keys were under the doormat. You bent down and tossed the mat aside and grabbed the key which was attached with keychain No. Shit. It. Had. 5. Different. Keys.

Obviously you didn't know which was the right key. The time was running out each second. He probably checked rest of the floors by now and he would be coming down soon.

Your hands were trembling too much. It was hard to even hold the key. You kept glancing behind over and over. You tried few keys but it wasn't working. Only two keys were left. And  footsteps came again. He was returning.

You couldn't even breathe properly. You were panicking lot. You placed the 4th key inside the lock and before you could process anything... another whistle. He spotted you. You gasped loudly. You didn't had time to look behind this time. Your only focus was on the keys.

Aggressively you yanked out the 4th key and replaced last key inside of lock again. Until then he chuckled softly and ran towards you.

You were twisting the keys left and right aggressively. The moment felt too intense. You hissed in panic. He was about to ran into you right then the door unlocked pulling you inside of the very same Miraki's apartment and closed the door shut with loud noise.

.......

Heartbeat.

Only one thing was heard in the entire flat was sound of your heartbeat. Your legs felt numb. Slowly you leaned against the closed door and sat down on the floor. You didn't realize you weren't blinking or breathing properly. You were just listening to own heartbeats.

TO BE CONTINUE...