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Chapter 6: Late Night Phone Call
The next two weeks proved to be uneventful, even though Piper still had the feeling of impending doom. She now worked days at the restaurant, much to the relief of Mark and her sisters. Now they worried a little less about her being attacked, but one of them usually managed to show up as she got off work, usually Phoebe, who was currently unemployed. Piper hated being babied like this, but she knew they were only doing it because they loved her.
Piper opened the door to Mark's apartment using the key he kept under the mat. Mark called earlier to tell her some one had broke into the lab, so he wouldn't be home until late. Piper just hoped everything was okay.
Piper laid her coat over the back of her chair and headed towards the kitchen. Mark's apartment now felt like a second home, and she seemed to spend more time here than at the manor. No one seemed to mind, really. Mark loved it when she spent the night, as did she, and her sisters were thrilled to see her with a great guy.
Piper grabbed herself a snack and curled up on the couch to read a book both Mark and she were reading. She was currently a chapter ahead of him and planned on finishing before him.
Piper read for hours until her eyelids grew too heavy to keep open and she fell into blissful sleep.
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Piper's eyes flew open when she heard the constant ring of the telephone. She struggled out of the blanket she had thrown over herself and headed towards the insistently ringing phone. Her first reaction was that is was Mark calling, since she saw no evidence of him arriving home yet.
She picked up the phone and gave a groggy hello.
"Piper?" the person on the other end asked.
"Sky?" Piper asked. She looked at the clock on the nearby microwave and it read 1:32. "It's one-thirty in the morning. What's wrong?"
"I'm scared."
"Why? Is he there?"
"No, I just… I don't know. I don't want to be alone. I'm afraid he'll come." Piper could hear the panic in her voice. Something was wrong. Something terrified this girl.
"Sky, I want you to calm down. I'm going to come right over, okay? Don't answer the door for anybody except me, okay?"
"Okay," Sky mumbled.
"I'll be there in a few minutes." Piper hung up and hurriedly scribbled a note to Mark. She grabbed her coat and car keys and was on her way to Sky's.
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Mark was struggling to keep his eyes open. Someone had broken into the lab earlier that day, and all the employees were being kept for questioning. After the crime scene investigators finished with the lab, the employees still had to clean up. There were may chemicals and experiments strewn about the lab that had to cleaned up, documented, and thrown away.
In simple terms, it was going to be one long night. Mark, after obtaining permission from a police officer, went to call Piper. Even though it was a little after one-thirty in the morning, Mark wanted to let her know he was okay, and to make sure she was home safely. Ever since she was attacked, he worried about her every second she was out of his sight.
The phone kept ringing and ringing until the answering machine picked up. Assuming Piper was asleep, Mark headed back to the room where the employees were being kept. On his way back, he ran into Andy and his partner, Darryl Morris.
"Mark," Andy greeted him amiably. "We've released the scene, so you guys are free to do your thing and go home. Tell Piper Darryl and I said hello."
Mark gave a grateful thank you and hurried to help clean up so he could go home to Piper.
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It was a good twenty-minute trip to Sky's apartment, even with traffic being at a bare minimum at this time of night. Piper parked her car and headed towards her apartment. Piper was surprised to find the security doors propped opened. Instead of having to wait for Sky to buzz her in, Piper could just walk right in. So could anybody else. Piper's heart constricted in fear, and she realized she should have followed her gut instinct and called the police. Piper slowly made her way to Sky's apartment, the last one on the left side of the hall.
When she reached it, the front door was wide open and the apartment was totally dark. "Sky?" she nervous called.
She heard a muffled cry just before something smacked her on the back of the head.
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Author's Note: Interesting yet? Please read and review. Read on to discover what has happened to Piper. Will Mark come to her rescue, or will he be too late?