Page 71 of Darkness

I don’t mind eating off your sexy body. I can finish early.

Autumn-Rose

No, I mean I want to get dressed up, and go for a meal, or go to the movies.

I don’t get a reply from Cain straight away, so I get back to making up the window display. I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about the window display. It’s an idea which I believe is something new and fresh as I’ve not seen anyone do it around here.

Katy finishes with the customer, and I see her walking back over to me. “This is for you,” she hands me a box. “It’s not from Cain, so who else have you been talking to?” She tilts her hand, and I shake my head at her. I don't have time to talk to anyone else, and if I did, or if any guy came to talk to me, I’m sure Katy would be the first one to tell Cain about it.

I take the card out of the ribbon and place it to the side as I pull the ribbon open. Lifting the lid, I take a peek inside and my whole body freezes for a moment, then trembles.

He’s found me. I glance around, seeing if I can see him anywhere.

“Autumn, what’s wrong?” I hear Katy ask me, as I stand up and look at the window, then look at the card.

Mr. Yang.

Taking my cell out of my pocket, I call Cain, he’ll know what to do. “He’s… Cain… He’s found me.” The words escape with a shakiness, how can he have found me? Cain promised me the cell calls to my parents weren’t traceable. There was no way to get past his system. He was so sure it couldn’t happen.

“What?” Cain asks.

“He’s found me.” I can feel my body tremble from the fear which is rushing through me, and I try to listen to Cain’s voice, but I can’t hear anything as I scan the street trying to find him.

“Autumn!” Cain shouts my name. “I’m on my way, is Katy there?”

“Yes.” I turn to face Katy, she looks as if she is scared for me.

“Give her the cell.” I hand her the cell and look back outside. How did he find me? What did I do wrong?

“Yes, I’m doing it now. Promise.” I turn back to Katy locking the front door, and putting the, ‘be back in ten minutes’ sign on the door. “Cain is on his way, he said get out of sight.” Katy takes my hand and pulls me away from the window, and to the back of the office. “Sit down, I’ll make you some tea.” I look over at the door, giving her a nod.

She’s going to have so many questions, maybe I should have told her from the start about Rowen, she would have understood everything. Because I feared anyone knowing, I was scared someone would tell him so I hid it from her.

“Here,” Katy places the teacup on the table, and I can’t take my eyes off the door, waiting for Cain to come through it. I just need him to let me know it’s not really him, and he hasn’t found me.

I’m so happy with my performance today, I didn’t put a step wrong. Every second of the music was aligned perfectly with my moves.

“Autumn-Rose,” my body tenses up at the sound of his voice.

Why is he still here? I don’t even know how to complain anymore, the police keep saying they have my complaints, but then a few days later I go again, and the report is missing. I know he’s the one who’s shredding them. He’s trying to make me go crazy, well it’s working. He is everywhere all the time, I come out of practice, he's there. I go out for a meal with friends, he’s there. No matter what I do, he is always there.

“You did amazing, the last-”

“Why are you here?” I cut Rowan off and see my dad power walking over to us.

“There is nothing stopping me from being here, you’ll never be able to stop me being close to you.” He takes a step closer to me, but stops when my dad slams his hand into his chest hard enough for him to cough out in pain.

“Dad,” I place my hand on his arm. The last time my dad confronted him, Rowan, being an asshole, locked him up for a few hours just to prove a point that he had the upper hand.

“Sir, all I want is your daughter to go on a date with me, again-”

“No!” I scream in his face. This has been going on for a year now. He's stalking me, and no one is helping me.

“I got you this.” He hands me a gift bag. “Open it,” he says with a smile, as I try to give it back to him. “I. Said. Open. It.” My eyes snap to him when he pushes my dad out the way.

I know he’s crazy, and I know one day he will get me. I have no idea why he hasn’t done so already. The asshole knows no one believes me. I go to different police stations, but he will always get rid of my report one way or the other.

Taking the box out of the gift bag, I look at the box. Fucking hell, how many of these does he think I need? Plus does he really think I keep them?

---