Chapter Eight

Dark shadows, dancing on the walls. Taunting me.  I can sense that someone is nearby. I can sense their presence, following me, haunting me. I have to escape. I have to get out of here. Before it’s too late. Before he gets me.

I turn sharply, and there he is. Towering over me, his whole face hidden by darkness. He advances on me, and my chest hurts as my heart pounds furiously. He lashes out and-

Matt sat bolt upright in his bed, sweat pouring down his face. He was freezing. And there was a hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Holy…” he panted, not quite getting the second word of his curse out. He crawled out of bed and through to the living room. “What time is it?” he asked, not even bothering to check if she was there. She always seemed to be.

“About four twenty-five,” came the reply from over by the sofa. “Why you up?”

“I had a nightmare,” Matt replied, sitting next to her and taking the book she as reading out her hands to look at the cover.

“I got it out my room,” she told him when he frowned in confusion. She took it back and marked her place before putting it on the coffee table and turning to look at him. “So, you had a nightmare? And it begins…”

“I thought it had already begun.”

“Well, yeah. But this is the first sign that you’ve been targeted.” She stared at Matt thoughtfully, “Did you find out about the house?”

“Yeah, does that matter?”

She let out a long, suffering sigh- a sound Matt had never heard coming from the mouth of a teenager when they weren’t being overdramatic. “It’s a threat, if you get what I’m saying. Now you know about what happened, there’s a lesser chance that he’ll be able to shock you.”

“Did he shock you?”

“Why does everything you say seem to sound like a question?” she asked, sounding genuinely curious. “Yes, he shocked me. My father had some…associates, shall we say, over. And I never liked his work partners. Which was unfortunate, as they all seemed to love me…” She nodded as Matt raised a questioning eyebrow. “Yup. I was abused, sexually. And my father knew it. He didn’t do anything to stop it though… ‘Keep the partners happy.’ That was his motto…” She trailed off, looking pained. “And, boy, were they happy when they’d just forced themselves inside me…” She looked down at her lap, “Well, that’s a proper sob-story, isn’t it?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She looked up at him again, “I learnt a few years ago that you can’t let your past haunt you. If you do, it can stop you from living the present.” She smiled at him, “And it’s your present that we oughta be focusing on right now.” She adjusted herself on the sofa so she was more comfortable, “So, what was the dream?”

“I was here. In the house. And someone was chasing me through it. Male, I reckon. Though I couldn’t see his face. Tall, pretty broad-shouldered.”

She nodded thoughtfully, “That sounds like our man… I had that exact same dream…” She looked him straight in the eye with no hesitation, “A few days later, I was dead.”