Surprise
Rachel had always been happy with her life. She didn't have the desire for an insane adventure or any craziness therefore involved with one. Her everyday life was excitement enough. So she wasn't ready to deal with the following events when they changed her life.
Rachel was 25, single, and had a good job (after spending 7 years in college she should!). She still lived paycheck to paycheck because of student loan payments, rent, etc. and the occasional splurge that she just couldn't help on CD's and living irresponsibly. She was quite independent in her thinking and doing which probably made her a less than desirable employee because she often butted heads with her boss. They needed her at work and she did a good job even if it wasn't done the way everyone was required to do it. But it was often mentioned by her co-workers, whom she honestly cared for and were her friends, that she was so 'feisty' because she wasn't married and had no stability in her life. She felt very stable however, and the freedom to go wherever and do whatever she wanted with no one to gainsay her, allowed her to enjoy life. She truly was happy. Yes, romance would have been nice and having someone to share the things she discovered and saw would have been nice. But she had friends in a lot of places and most were only a phone call away. It wasn't the same as them being there but it was what she had.
Years of being single had made her self reliant. She did what she could by herself and if she couldn't she would find a way to do it anyhow. She never took a self defense class but figured that if a situation arose she could manage. It was a poor case of denial. For while naïve at times she wasn't a complete idiot and deep down knew that if it came down to muscles between her and an attacker she would surely be the loser. But her naïveté allowed her to walk alone at night, live alone and manage just fine. The fact that she had two big dogs of course, probably kept her fairly safe! But every so often the desire to be protected and safe would well up, like when waking from a nightmare and you're too afraid to breathe because between that moment of sleep and wake the nightmare might be real. But if you hold very still the nightmare will go away. In those moments, it would cause Rachel to wish for someone to tell her everything would be okay, hold her, and stay with her until she fell back asleep. It would also be nice to have someone else mow the lawn, change the oil in her truck, fix the sink, defrost frozen pipes and hang Christmas lights!
So when one night, during a particularly magnificent thunder storm, her french doors blew open and the dogs started barking she tried to pretend it was her imagination. A voice like whispered silk caressed her cheek, and suddenly the dogs were quiet. Now Rachel might be afraid for herself but if it came to protecting the ones she loved the maternal instinct in her came out in force. She grabbed her pistol from under the bed (see, not a complete idiot) and came up yelling with the gun pointed towards the drapes.
"Get the hell out of my house right now while you can still walk!" The dogs came barreling over to the bed and hid beside the edge. They weren't even growling but cowered. "Some guard critters you are." She muttered fondly.
"So, Rachel, are you coming?" An amused voice drifted over to her. The panic that arose was overwhelming, for the fact the attacker new her name was too intimate and made the fear much more real. "Get out of my house or I will shoot you!" she quavered, pulling the hammer back on the pistol. "How can you shoot, what you cannot see." The voice came from her left and she whirled in the bed to point the gun toward the voice but no one was there. The drapes continued to flutter in the breeze as the rain began to puddle on her hardwood floor. She tried to listen for the attacker's breathing to gauge his location. Oh it was definitely a him; no woman could have a voice of smooth velvet that sensually promised darker secrets of pain or pleasure. Unfortunately the pounding of her heart in response to the adrenaline rush was too loud in her ears. The vulnerability was unbearable as she sat in the middle of her bed in sleeveless cotton pajamas. There is something about being nearly naked that does not make one feel safe at all. The breeze caressed her brown hair as to reassure her, that she didn't have to be so afraid and to stand-down her defense.
A flash of lightening gave her the chance she needed though. It highlighted a human shaped figure lounging on her settee and she fired the gun.
Rachel had always been happy with her life. She didn't have the desire for an insane adventure or any craziness therefore involved with one. Her everyday life was excitement enough. So she wasn't ready to deal with the following events when they changed her life.
Rachel was 25, single, and had a good job (after spending 7 years in college she should!). She still lived paycheck to paycheck because of student loan payments, rent, etc. and the occasional splurge that she just couldn't help on CD's and living irresponsibly. She was quite independent in her thinking and doing which probably made her a less than desirable employee because she often butted heads with her boss. They needed her at work and she did a good job even if it wasn't done the way everyone was required to do it. But it was often mentioned by her co-workers, whom she honestly cared for and were her friends, that she was so 'feisty' because she wasn't married and had no stability in her life. She felt very stable however, and the freedom to go wherever and do whatever she wanted with no one to gainsay her, allowed her to enjoy life. She truly was happy. Yes, romance would have been nice and having someone to share the things she discovered and saw would have been nice. But she had friends in a lot of places and most were only a phone call away. It wasn't the same as them being there but it was what she had.
Years of being single had made her self reliant. She did what she could by herself and if she couldn't she would find a way to do it anyhow. She never took a self defense class but figured that if a situation arose she could manage. It was a poor case of denial. For while naïve at times she wasn't a complete idiot and deep down knew that if it came down to muscles between her and an attacker she would surely be the loser. But her naïveté allowed her to walk alone at night, live alone and manage just fine. The fact that she had two big dogs of course, probably kept her fairly safe! But every so often the desire to be protected and safe would well up, like when waking from a nightmare and you're too afraid to breathe because between that moment of sleep and wake the nightmare might be real. But if you hold very still the nightmare will go away. In those moments, it would cause Rachel to wish for someone to tell her everything would be okay, hold her, and stay with her until she fell back asleep. It would also be nice to have someone else mow the lawn, change the oil in her truck, fix the sink, defrost frozen pipes and hang Christmas lights!
So when one night, during a particularly magnificent thunder storm, her french doors blew open and the dogs started barking she tried to pretend it was her imagination. A voice like whispered silk caressed her cheek, and suddenly the dogs were quiet. Now Rachel might be afraid for herself but if it came to protecting the ones she loved the maternal instinct in her came out in force. She grabbed her pistol from under the bed (see, not a complete idiot) and came up yelling with the gun pointed towards the drapes.
"Get the hell out of my house right now while you can still walk!" The dogs came barreling over to the bed and hid beside the edge. They weren't even growling but cowered. "Some guard critters you are." She muttered fondly.
"So, Rachel, are you coming?" An amused voice drifted over to her. The panic that arose was overwhelming, for the fact the attacker new her name was too intimate and made the fear much more real. "Get out of my house or I will shoot you!" she quavered, pulling the hammer back on the pistol. "How can you shoot, what you cannot see." The voice came from her left and she whirled in the bed to point the gun toward the voice but no one was there. The drapes continued to flutter in the breeze as the rain began to puddle on her hardwood floor. She tried to listen for the attacker's breathing to gauge his location. Oh it was definitely a him; no woman could have a voice of smooth velvet that sensually promised darker secrets of pain or pleasure. Unfortunately the pounding of her heart in response to the adrenaline rush was too loud in her ears. The vulnerability was unbearable as she sat in the middle of her bed in sleeveless cotton pajamas. There is something about being nearly naked that does not make one feel safe at all. The breeze caressed her brown hair as to reassure her, that she didn't have to be so afraid and to stand-down her defense.
A flash of lightening gave her the chance she needed though. It highlighted a human shaped figure lounging on her settee and she fired the gun.