Chapter Twenty: Last Call
Lucinda
I was back in my apartment on a Wednesday night, as we would pack my things over the next two days since I would be working a long shift. I would be moving in with Chalk and Sarah.
As I imagined what this would be like, living together as a family again, I was reheating pasta leftovers. The whirring of the microwave continued as I stared off into space, waiting for the machine to beep at me. Being that it was after seven, except for the light buzzing in my apartment it was quiet.
Too quiet.
The microwave signaled me with its beeping urgency as I pulled the plate out. I took a fork out of the cutlery drawer and stirred the contents. Then I stopped suddenly.
Footsteps were shuffling around out in the hall beyond my apartment.
Delicately, I put the plate down on the counter, hoping I didn’t hear what I thought I heard. Echoing voices giggled in the hallway and my heart stilled as I listened.
Paranoia is setting in. The quicker you get to Chalk’s house the better.
I sighed as I picked up where I left again, but this time I watched the door.
A shadow.
Did I see that? Or did just imagine it? Shadowy footsteps walking in front of my door.
My body realized the truth before I did… my fingers were unable to hold onto the plate any longer. I had to set it down as my pulse doubled up. I tried to open my kitchen drawers a few times so as to deter the person near the door. Someone was there. I could feel their presence. A darkness lurking on the other side of the door. The alarm wasn’t on because I was in the house. I only turned it on when I left, more for burglary than someone who was blatantly trying to break in like now. But I’d heard the women laughing on the other side. Wouldn’t they have called out to the person? I couldn’t look away now, even though my heart was in my mouth and my tongue was stuck, swollen in place.
The feet shuffling sounded again.
My phone. I had to get to my phone. Chalk. My phone. Panic alarms went off in my head as I gulped down the large lump in my throat. I saw the door shake. Whoever was on the other side of the door wanted to get in. I located my phone, it was in the charger where I left it on the coffee table. I scrambled to it as the door handle visibly twisted.
“Get away from the door. I called the cops!” I screamed.
Still, the violent shaking of the door continued.
I watched on in horror as they kept going. There were cameras in the building, but that wouldn’t help me. The intruder was attempting to break in right now.
Thumbing a message to Chalk as fast as I could, I chastised myself in frustration, as it looked like a bunch of scrawled up letters.
Oh, my god. Please. Get away from my door.
I screamed out again, “Get away from the door! I’ve called the cops.”
A large banging sounded now. Harder. Harder on the door like with the strength of a man. No woman would bang on the door like that with such blunt force.
I called Chalk instead as my fingers weren’t cooperating.
Please Chalk. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up.
Chalk picked up on the first ring. He was on high alert. “What is it?”
I tried to speak and coughed instead, my throat was clogged. “I – there’s somebody here, Chalk. Come. Please. T-they’re playing with the lock. Chalk— get over here.”
“I’m on the way. Keep talking to me, Lucy! Tell me what’s going on.”
“They’re banging on the door and they keep trying to force the lock. I told them to get away from the door, but they don’t speak. Chalk, hurry.” I didn’t recognize my own voice. It sounded like a small, timid little girl. One that didn’t know what to do. I wanted to know what to do, but I didn’t. Holbeck wasn’t that big, and anywhere you needed to get to was at most, only 20 minutes away. From Chalk’s house to mine was a five minute drive, give or take.
Chalk was talking and I was speaking to him on auto-pilot as the person who I assumed to be a man on the other side fiddled with the door.
“Get away from my door now!” I screamed.