Page 102 of Mayhem and Minnie

After I pay the bill, the clerk stacks four boxes in my arms and I return to the car.

I barely open the trunk to deposit the boxes when I notice something is amiss.

Minnie is not in the car.

Panic flares in my chest. I slam the trunk shut and look around me.

“Minnie?” I call out, my voice loud enough that it makes everyone pause. “Minnie, where are you?”

She’s nowhere to be seen.

Did she… Has she left me?

Was my clumsy attempt at a gift such a turnoff that she decided to leave, once and for all?

But no, that can’t be.

Where could she go? Where would she sleep? She has no money, and her only possessions are the clothes on her back.

“Minnie!” I continue yelling as I run up and down the street.

My heart is racing, and my sight begins to cloud. Fear unlike I’ve ever known floods my insides, causing me nerve-wracking anxiety.

I bump into people right and left as I keep calling out her name.

Where is she? Where the hell is she?

She can’t have run away. No. I refuse to believe that.

People passing by become a blur in the background as I suddenly stop. I’m out of breath. My head is pounding, and my heart threatens to burst in my chest.

I bang my fist against my ribcage to alleviate the discomfort. But the mere thought that she might be lost to me has me hyperventilating.

What if she didn’t leave of her own volition? What if someone took her?

What if a man took her?

Her allure to the male species is a curse. Someone could have easily seen her through the window and become obsessed with her. A concept I might have laughed at not too long ago, but one that could be very much a reality now—a frightening reality.

Fucking hell!

What if she’s cold? She left her coat in the car. She’s only wearing a sweater.

What if she gets lost and doesn’t know how to reach me or how to get back home? She doesn’t have a phone—which I now realize to be an oversight on my part and something I mean to rectify as soon as possible.

The more she’ll wander around, the colder she’ll get. Then she’ll be hungry.

She can’t go hungry.

I gulp down hard and try to push those intrusive thoughts away. I’ll solve nothing if I let the fear overtake me.

What if something happens with Minnie? What if I never see her again?

My veins are about to pop at my temples, but I force myself to focus.

She can’t have walked far. I was only inside the shop for a few minutes.

I look around me again, trying to see my surroundings with a clearer mind. It takes me a couple of deep breaths to dispel the fog trying to lay claim over my mind.

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