Page 151 of Obsession

Shane asked me to go outside with him after his friends left with my destroyed belongings.

“You made the right choice by calling me. I’m pretty sure whoever did this thought you were going to call him. This is a message for Stone too, not just you.”

Without rubbing my temples, which boomed with pain, I nodded. I knew that, and I didn’t want to think about the panic that image would have caused in Harris, or what he would have been capable of afterward.

Shane came closer, almost whispering:

“And there’s a good chance someone’s watching us right now. Don’t flinch,” he added, just as I was about to do so.

I looked at him with wide eyes.

“Give me a hug,” he said, looking at me urgently. “Trust me, do it.”

I realized what he was up to. If anyone was really watching us, they were going to see me hugging a cop, one of Harris’ biggest enemies.

Embracing him felt weird, but I was afraid. The thought that the monster that had invaded my house had waited until my father had left. Maybe next time he wouldn’t.

Fear drove me to Shane, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. Immediately, he hesitantly encircled my waist.

“Your relationship is still too fresh, whoever’s behind it has to be convinced quickly that you gave up on Harris,” he whispered into my hair and I nodded.

I realized how frozen I was when Shane felt too warm next to me.

“It’s your choice whether you tell him or not, but it might make him do something rash. As long as you stay away from him, I’m sure it won’t happen again.”

Sighing, I pulled back and hoped the sick fuck who was watching us had seen enough. I tried not to think about how Harris would have reacted if he’d seen me hugging the man who was trying to put him in jail.

Shane stayed close to me and looked at me urgently.

“You’re smart and strong. You acted the way you should have and didn’t run to him crying. Not everyone could have swallowed that picture without freaking out. You’ll be okay, Kath.”

He gave me a reassuring smile and his trust in me helped. For a few seconds, my frightened heart began to beat faster with hope.

I had to be okay.

I had no other choice.

“Thank you,” I whispered, “for everything.”

He smiled briefly, then looked around inconspicuously. I did the same. It was quiet in my neighborhood. The lights wereon in some of the houses, and the darkness suddenly no longer offered me the same peace as before.

After he left, I called my father.

I wanted to know if he would come home tonight, as I didn’t feel able to spend the night alone at the moment.

He promised that he would be back in an hour, so I gathered up my courage and all the strength that had remained hidden in a corner of my mind and went up the stairs to my room.

I didn’t want to run away.

I didn’t want to hide or show whoever was toying with me that I was some kind of stupid puppet who was easily frightened.

I took all the cleaning supplies I could find in my house and a few bottles of bleach, swallowed two painkillers, and began scrubbing every surface in my room, disgusted by the thought that a psychopath had been in there, that he had touched my things. I threw a pile of clothes in the washing machine and looked for any traces he might have left, but everything was as I remembered it. Whoever had come in had done it quickly and had known exactly where to go. Maybe it hadn’t even been his first time in the house.

Shortly after Shane left, another van arrived, and an unfamiliar man brought me a new mattress. He didn’t say a word and wouldn’t tell me how much I owed him. He just said that Detective Walker had taken care of everything.

Great! I began to owe more and more to the man who had been hunting Harris for years.

That night I couldn’t sleep at all, and after my father fell asleep, I went into the living room and curled up on the couch, but terror followed me there too. I couldn’t sleep, so I spent my time writing in my diary. I filled two pages with pictures of green, dangerous eyes, hawks, snakes, drugs, fear, and blood.

---