Stalked to the Sengoku

Chapter Two

She awoke in a different place, and at first, her heart began pumping as she blinked her eyes open. She quickly realized where she was and how she had got there, but in those few seconds, before she did, she felt as if she had run a marathon. She was trying to keep her reaction to herself, but Sasuke who was already in his lab coat and walking down the hall could read the panic written all over her. He tried to smile to ease her mind but the fact way she now knew this was her reality, she was going to have this reaction probably for the rest of her life knowing that he was still there like a shadow in the background just lurking always waiting. There had never been a rhyme or reason to when he struck, she had talked to a few other survivors before and they all suggested that it was always some event in their lives that had set their stalkers off, with her she had flat out refused to date so it couldn't be that, she worked hard but never reacted to promotions, she lived alone and never went out with friends, so in the cold reality it hit her a long time ago that he struck whenever he felt like it, it had been so random that she at times would begin to feel normal and then the low blow of a taped message, house break-in, or one of the gifts.

They weren't real gifts. They had been the reason she had stood in a courtroom before a judge pleading with him to help protect her, she had been humiliated and broken in that room, but in the end, the judge had agreed and placed a ten-year restraining order in place. She remembered right afterward a woman walking right up to her and saying, "Congrats. You now have a piece of paper to stop him. Get a gun they work better."

She had been taken back from a complete stranger saying that but now she understood why it was a piece of paper in the end and most people even police didn't care about its existence. He certainly didn't. The woman who had come up to her had a haunted look in her eyes that she knew well, it was the same look of tiredness and paranoia that she could see reflected in the mirror now. She looked up at Sasuke as he looked like he wanted to say something and raised her brows as if prompting him to speak, "Maybe you should stay here today?", he asked cautiously.

"I thought about that. I don't think it would be smart to be alone all day.", she said, and he was thinking again.

"Possibly.", he said.

"Sasuke, the threat isn't just from him but now myself as well.", She started to explain," Everything sets my nerves off. A small sound from the back of the house can give me a panic attack. When I am on  high alert, it gets dangerous just go around me."

"I doubt you're dangerous, but I do understand. Then instead of staying home why don't we take my car and put yours in the garage, so it's not in the open?", he suggested.

"That wouldn't be a bad idea.", she said. "As far as I know, he can't get into the building, so if my car isn't there, he might think I went underground."

"It's horrible that you have even to think this way.", Sasuke muttered under his breath.

"I know it is. Give me five minutes, and I'll be ready to leave.", she said as she hopped up and headed back to his guest room where her things were located.

"Take your time!", he yelled at the back of the house.

She thought to herself how lucky she really was to have the friends she did have. People, when they listened to her story, found it a work of fiction or she must be exaggerating the parts of it. Her friends the few and far between knew the full account and did everything they could to help her. Sasuke was no different. He had offered her a place to stay many times before, but she had never taken him up on it, this time she had no choice. Most of her friends were tired of it, the whole situation and sometimes acted like she must have skipped some steps in trying to make him stop, she had thought to herself in the beginning there really needs to be a manual on how to rid yourself of stalkers and crazy ex-boyfriends but there wasn't and the sad fact was no one really believed her anymore. She didn't bring it up to people, she covered her late-night terror rather well, but people still made the comments. Sasuke never did. In this, at least right now, he was willing to help her, and she would jump on the offer and let him share in the burden of what she really dealt with every day. At least someone else would be able to speak for her if something happened. That was the cold reality of her life.