Hello my lovely readers,

So, this chapter took less time to work on than I thought I would. I hope you readers are happy about that because I am. Didn't I tell you something big was about to happen?

I hope you readers enjoy this chapter. It took a lot of thinking and working things out, but I think it came out pretty well. Please comment and review and let me know what you think. Once again it makes my life easier.

Thank you,

M.

Chapter 14.

The Call

It's the middle of July, and I decided it was time to move back into my room even though it was still hotter than hell outside. At least it had a lock on the door that didn't require a key to get in. That, of course, wouldn't stop someone from breaking down the door. Hopefully, by then, I had something to hit them upside the head with if the cops weren't here soon after calling 911.

Anyway, it had been a month since Clay bombarded me in my own home and the fight with both my brother and Jay. This didn't really turn to normal this time. I hadn't seen much of my brother and Jay had disappeared altogether, which sucked because he still had my gun. After our fight he never left it, so I was shit out of luck on this one. I missed them both, but I wasn't going to tell them that. They had both crossed a line and just because I missed them didn't mean I was going to forgive them. Plus, I can only imagine what Clay would do if they stuck around. I would never forgive myself if something happened to either of them, or anyone else I cared about. There was something about my stalker that just made me worry about what he might do. I couldn't risk the lives of my friends and family when he was still around.

The one person I didn't miss was Clay and I could feel him still following me. Even though I couldn't see him I knew he was there. I did catch a glimpse of him every now and again, which I think he did on purpose, but other than that all I could feel was his eyes watching my every move. Of course, he wasn't following me around all the time; he did have to work after all – if he had his way, I'm sure he wouldn't want too. Those were the times I wished for more than anything would happen more often.

I've been working twenty-four-hour shifts none stop for the past month and it was running me down. To add onto the stress of working those shifts, the lack of sleep because of the nightmares weren't helping either. The images that ran through my dreams where so real it was hard to get back to sleep once I woke up in a cold sweat and labored breathing.

Today wasn't different from any other day. I woke up two hours before my alarm was supposed to go off. As always, the cold sweat clung to my body and my breathing was shallow. My hand went up to my throat, as I remember a different hand that stopped the air from reaching my lungs. Once I realized there was no one in my room but me, I let out a sigh of relief. It was all just a dream; Clay wasn't over me trying to strangle the life out of me after he tried to stab me to death.

Then I asked the question I seemed to ask myself a lot lately. How was I going to get out of this situation without anyone's help? Just like every time I asked this question I always came up with no answers whatsoever. I knew I was going to have to come up with something and fast. Of course, I've been telling myself this for months, and it hasn't gotten me anywhere. I was just going to have to see how things played out and wait for an opportunity to "duck".

I laid in bed for another hour to see if I could fall back asleep, even though I knew it wasn't going to happen. Once I proved myself right, I finally got out of bed and went to take a shower. When I looked into the mirror of my bathroom, I didn't recognize the woman in front of me. She was paler than usual, and the dark circles under her eyes gave away the secrets of her sleepless nights. The woman looked like she was at the end of her rope with no safety net at the bottom to catch her, and that's exactly how I felt.

Turning on the water, I stripped my pajamas off waiting for it to warm up. Once the room was full of steam, I got in. The water was so hot it almost burned my skin, but I didn't care. I hoped it would burn away the remains of the nightmare; sadly, it never did.

I stayed in the shower until the hot water was gone – something I never did before. By then my wake-up alarm went off; I don't know why I even bothered setting it anymore. After I got dressed in my uniform, and my curly hair was up in a professional looking bun, I went to work on hiding the dark circles under my eyes. As the month dragged by, I had to put more makeup on than I had to do in a long time. The dark skin just kept getting darker, and also harder to hide, but I managed.

When I was done with everything in the bathroom, I worked my way into the kitchen to make myself some breakfast. I slowly looked around the doorway to make sure no one was waiting for me in the cooking space. Breathing a sigh of relief, I made my way into the room and thought it was a good idea to make some eggs and bacon from breakfast today. Doing my best to eat as slow as possible, I kept looking at my phone to see what time it was. About ten minutes before I was supposed to leave, I decided to just get to work early.

Making sure I had everything I needed it walked out the door and made sure to lock it behind me. Another thing I didn't know why I bothered to do, considering Clay already had a key if he really wanted too. I guess it was just out of habit.

On the way to work I kept looking out my review mirror to make sure I wasn't being followed. Only when I got to my work and in the building did I let out a sigh of relief. No one had followed me, and I was safe to relax on yet another twenty-four-hour shift. Okay, maybe I wasn't that relaxed. I knew I was safe as long as I was here, but once I left the building everything would be up in the air.

The first twelve hours went fairly well. Nothing too serious; a few drunk fights, a couple car wrecks, and another call from Tammy and Bill. There were no shootings, kidnapping, hostage situations, or anything like that. I mean if there were then I didn't get any of them, and that I was alright by me.

About two hours till I clocked out was when I got a call, and it was the worst I had ever gotten. I had just got off a call, from someone reporting a stolen car, when my phone started going off again. Doing what I had to do, I answered the call.

"911 what is your emergency?" I questioned.

"Ah yea," a man's panicked voice answered, "my wife and I were walking out dog. He started barking and ran off. When we finally found him, he was standing near a young woman's body."

My blood ran cold; I know there were a lot of people out there who murdered other people. It didn't mean I enjoyed hearing about it. I shook my head and motioned for Dawn to come help. Of course, it didn't take her long to get here. I watched as she put her headphones on and nodded her to head to say she was ready. She turned her attention to her screen, ready for the information I was about to get, so she could send out a squad car to the location.

"Can I get you and your wife's name please?" I asked.

"I'm John Aarons," the man told me, "and my wife's name is Sam."

"Okay John can you please tell me where your location is."

"We're at G.A.R. Woods. We–"

"Oh, my lord John," I could hear a woman's voice scream. "She's still alive!"

"Good god! You need to send an ambulance. The woman's still alive."

I looked over at Dawn with wide eyes. She only looked at me for a second before she started talking on her headset. I knew she was talking to whoever she was sending out there, before she started talking to whoever was running the ambulance barn. I just needed to stay on the line with John until everyone got there."

"I've got a squad car, and ambulance on the way," I informed the man. "They will be there as soon as they can. Is the woman conscious?"

"She was for a few seconds," John admitted, "but she just passed out again."

"I'm going to need your wife to try to get her awake again. We need to keep her awake. I'm ask going to need to you to describe her injuries."

"The woman on the phone said you need to try to wake her up Sam."

His wife started talking but I couldn't hear what she was saying. Hopefully she was trying to get the woman to wake up. I, instead, waited for the man to tell me what he saw was wrong with the woman. The first responders needed to know what they were getting into.

"I can't really tell," John confessed, anxiety laced in his voice. "There seems to be a bruise on her throat, and her clothes are torn and covered in blood. Her fingers are bruised… in fact it seems she's covered in them."

Typing almost everything that was being side into my report, I couldn't shake the feeling there was something more to this than just one woman. It was just something I couldn't explain; it was just a feeling in the back of my mind. This feeling was bugging me and there was nothing I could do about it. I needed to know more; maybe that's what was wrong. I wasn't getting all the facts.

"Can you describe her for me?" I asked.

All of this was happening in a matter of minutes, but it felt like it was taking forever. At least it was for me; I couldn't imagine what it was like for John and his wife. You didn't find a barely a live woman in the woods every day, and I'm sure this would haunt them for a long time to come.

"Uhhh, okay," John mumbled. "She's maybe in her early to mid-twenties, petite, and she has red hair."

I hesitated for a few seconds. My first thought was she looked like me, but I put that in the back of my mind. I didn't want to think about that now. Shaking my head, I went back to typing.

"Thank you," I said. "Does she have anything around her saying who she might be; a purse, or wallet, something like that?"

"I looked but I'm sorry I see nothing," the man confessed.

"That's fine, John. Thank you for looking. Is the woman still with us?"

"She's going in and out of consciousness."

Putting what exactly what Dawn was looking up, I could see she sent an ambulance and a couple squad cars. Kim and Roman just happened to be one of them. I trusted them more than I trusted anyone out there. It maybe just because they work close with my brother, or it could be Kim and I were really good friends. Either way I would feel safe knowing they were on their way.

"Just try to keep her awake," I told him. "The squad cars are almost there, and the ambulance isn't far behind. Just stay on the line with me until they get there, alright."

John and I talked for about five more minutes; all and all the call took about fifteen minutes, but it felt like it took an hour or longer. Mostly I asked about the woman and if she was still conscious or not. Once I heard the sirens over the phone and he told me they were there, we hung up.

I had to take a few more minutes to sit and collect myself. Dawn was more than find with that and let me sit in my chair as long as I needed. For the rest of my shift I was distracted. I tried to focus on the called I got, but it took a lot of effort on my part. Something in the back of my mind was pulling me toward that crime scene, and I knew once I was off work, I was going to be there whether I was supposed to be there or not.