Page 21 of Date Night

I shake my head, gasping for air, trying to pull myself back from the edge of something deep and dark. Crying won’t fix this. Panic won’t fix this.

I squeeze my hands into fists, digging my nails into my palms, grounding myself in the pain.

I will not let this break me.

But I can’t ignore it, either.

I reach for my phone with shaking hands and dial Sheriff Alden. My breath is still ragged when he picks up.

“There was a break-in,” I say, voice barely above a whisper. “I—I think someone was in my house last night.”

A beat of silence. Then his voice, sharp, steady. “I’m on my way.”

I hang up, my pulse still racing, my body still trembling.

I don’t know who did this.

But I know one thing for sure.

They’ll be back. What I don't understand is why. I'm praying this doesn't all have to do with the documentary I'm doing but it's the only thing that makes sense.

Someone is trying to scare me away and as much as I don't want to admit it, it's working.

The tears still flow down my cheeks but I do a quick walk through of the house just to make sure that nothing is out of place but to my surprise I can't even tell there was anyone here last night.

I run my hands over my body just to make sure I truly am okay. Finally I press my thighs together tightly just to make sure that nothing I can't see was done to me. I don't feel any different down there. I guess I should be grateful for that.

Whoever was here last night could have done much worse than just paint my body with lipstick. They could've killed me.

I squeal loudly when my phone rings but quickly calm myself down. When I look down I see it's Liora calling me. I hesitate for only a second. What if she was the one who did this to me. I don't want to believe it but I can't rule her out right now. She's a little too excited about everything we've got going on with the documentary.

My mind switches to the guys I saw outside on the corner the other night. The first victims brother. It could be him too. Hemade it clear that he didn't want me digging around in this mess. Maybe this was his way of making sure that I did what he asked.

Shaking the thoughts from my head I quickly answer the phone.

"Hey, I thought we were going to the next location today?" Liora questions, her voice chipper and unaware of the turmoil swirling around me right now.

"Uh, yeah... about that, I'm going to be a little late. There was a break in at my place last night. I have to wait for the sheriff to get here."

She gasps, "Oh my god. Are you okay? Do you need me to come over? Do you know who it was?"

A slight twinge of suspiscion pings in my mind. Right along with her questions of concern she asks about the identity of my would be attacker. I don't know if she's doing that because she wants to know or if because she's worried someone might have found her out.

"I can't really talk about it right now Liora. I'll call back when I know something else." I hang up the phone not really wanting to think about what could be a possibility there.

The next sound I hear is the sound of a car pulling up in the driveway. I nearly collapse in relief when I see the sheriff getting out of the car.

He's wearing his uniform and his sheriff's hat. Looking the entire part.

Quickly I walk over to the front door and pull it open for him.

"Ma'am." Sheriff Alden tips his hat in my direction.

"Starla." I correct him and step aside so he can come in.

"Starla." He parrots back to me. That's the extent of his politeness. "So you want to tell me what's going on?"

Taking a deep breath, I ready myself for what I'm about to say. The last thing I want right now is for him to think I'm overly emotional or something like that. What happened last night wasextreme but I don't want it to be the reason he tells me we have to stop shooting the documentary.

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