If you have seen this on the JD board, you'll notice that I've done some changes. Back then this was written in first person, but I think I like it better now that it is written from a third person point of view. I have also changed the tense. All and all I am now much happier with the result, hope others will like it too.

Oh, and before anyone starts wondering, Sands has his baby browns in this story. How? Go figure, it's a miracle!

And now, on with the show.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER 2

Later that night, after a lot of carrying, arranging and rearranging, Lina looked around her in the living room. Almost everything was now packed in big cardboard boxes. She had piled all the boxes containing books, magazines, records etc. in one corner and boxes that had fragile objects in them, on the other wall. There were only a few little things left to gather up. Tomorrow the moving truck would come and the boxes and furniture would be loaded in it. Then they'd be on their way to the border and over it to the good old US. Her aunt had agreed to take at least a part of them, since Lina couldn't possibly fit them all in her tiny apartment.

She took the last remaining framed photo from the shelf and looked at it. It was a picture of her and her family, taken almost 15 years ago. She was sitting on horse with a big smile on her face. Her hair was a little lighter brown then and it was blowing around her in the wind. Mom was holding the horse from the reigns and dad was standing beside her, his arm around her shoulders. They were both smiling too. She remembered that day well. It was her tenth birthday and the horse was her surprise present. Its name was Pride and it was a beautiful black and white mare. She had been begging for a horse for ages with the persistence only a ten-year-old possesses. Sure, they had horses on the ranch, several of them, but she wanted one that was all hers and she didn't have to share with others.
'I don't think I've ever been happier than I was on that day', she thought a little wistful.
Lina snapped out of hers memories and put the frame into the last open box. But then she changed her mind and took it back in her hands. She took the photo from the frame and put it in her purse. She placed the empty frame back into the box and closed it. It was the last one, she was finished. She turned off the lights and leaped into bed. She was so tired from all the packing she didn't even bother to change clothes. She just shaped the pillow a little and closed her eyes to spend her last night in the house.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Lina woke up in the middle of the night startling to sit up on the bed. She was having some strange dream about horses and riding.
She got up from bed and trotted in to the kitchen to get a glass of water. She knew the house by heart so she didn't even have to turn on the lights. The darkness inside was soft and protective. That house was really the only thing she honestly loved there. She was a sad to let it go, but understood there was no sense in keeping it. What would she do with it? It would only remind her…
She cursed in her mind. She had forgotten the water canister on the table and now the water was almost warm instead of refreshing cold. Lina still poured it into a glass and drank it up. She wondered about her dream. She hadn't been on the back of a horse in a long time, so it was kind of surprising she was dreaming about something like that.
She shook her head as if to shed the dream. It must have been that picture that brought back memories.

She put the glass on the counter and planned to go back to bed when suddenly she heard a sound from the living room and stiffened to listen. It sounded like someone was walking there, quietly though, but she could still hear it.
Then she saw a flashlight travel along the walls, furniture and boxes. Someone was looking around. Her heart leaped in to her throat.

Burglars!

Of course! This was a perfect opportunity for them. Everyone in town knew Lina would be alone in the house tonight. And because of the moving, everything would be conveniently packed up, ready to be moved out easily.

The light started to come toward the kitchen and before she even thought about it she had ducked behind the counter. She saw the light wandering on the closet doors behind and above her. She tried to keep her breathing quiet and hoped they wouldn't come to take a better look.
Finally the light moved and she heard steps head back to the living room. The kitchen was dark again. She looked over the counter. What the hell was she going to do? Trapped in a house with a bunch of criminals was not a good place to be in. She realized she had to get out of the house and get help.

She chanced a careful peak in to the living room and saw it was empty. The burglar had apparently moved into either one of the bedrooms. Before she moved to the living room, she grabbed a knife from the knife holder a little hesitantly. At least she'd have some protection, although she wasn't too sure she could actually use it if push came to shove.
She headed to the entry way and slipped on her shoes. Then she remembered something: she had her cell phone in her purse. She could call the police from it. She sneaked back in to the living room and found her purse still where she left it. She grabbed it and looked inside. She had remembered right, her cell phone was there. Right at that moment she heard steps coming towards behind her. They were coming back! She looked around wildly and finally jumped behind the sofa at the last minute. The burglar walked through the living room and headed to the second bed room. St! Now he was between her and all the exits. The good news was she didn't think there was any more of them. There were no other sounds coming from the house, so he must have been by himself. Lina tried to think fast what to do.

She waited for the opportune moment and then made a mad lunge at the other bedroom door. Somehow she got there without being noticed and closed the door quietly behind her. Thank God it had a lock on it. She sat down on the bed and dialed the local police station number that she kept on her cell phone just in case. After a few rings a man answered, naturally in Spanish, and Lina hurried to explain her business whispering. She only knew a few words in Spanish so mainly she just kept saying burglars and repeating the address, hoping they'd understand. Suddenly the line ceased and she was met with only silence. She kept repeating hello in to the phone with no response. When she looked at the phone she realized the battery had gone dead. 'Well isn't that just typical', she thought irritated. Oh why hadn't she recharged it!
The door handle turned and stirred her from her lament. Someone was trying to come in. Lina froze. When the door wouldn't open, the handle was shaken harder. Lina dropped the now useless cell phone and stooped behind the bed, taking a better hold of the knife. The door was banged on.

In the middle of all of it she still found herself sarcastically thinking if he really thought she was going to open if he just banged on the door.

She looked around in the room. If he actually got in, there was no way out. All she could do was hope that the door would hold until the cops got there.
IF they get here, she reminded herself. They might not have understood her after all. If that was the case, she could stay cooped up there and wait for help until judgment day.

She startled when the door was struck hard, but to her relief it remained shut. She strained her hearing when there was mumbling coming from the other side of the door. The burglar was obviously cursing, and with a very wide vocabulary, she might have added. Against her better judgment she chuckled softly. Guess the door was a little harder than it looked. Served him right. And on top of that, now she knew one thing more; the burglar was definitely an American.

Her musings were cut short when the door abruptly opened with such force that it made a crack in the wall it hit. Lina hit the floor on her stomach, lifted the bed sheet and crawled under the bed. She didn't think he had time to see her in the dark. She wasn't stupid, he knew someone was in the room and sooner or later he was going to look under the bed. But if he would even look first in the closet and after that under the bed, those extra seconds could be crucial.

She couldn't see his feet because of the sheet, but she could hear him walking around the room. He did go to the closets first. Meanwhile Lina's dislike for cleaning could really be seen under the bed. It was dusty and she had to suffocate a sneeze. She realized it had gotten dead quiet in the room. I couldn't hear anymore steps. She turned her head around. Where was he and had he heard?

She let out a scream when she felt her ankle was grabbed and she was pulled out from under the bed. Immediately once she was completely out of her hide her ankle was freed. Lina stumbled on to her feet and turned to face the burglar.

"Playing hide and seek?" he said in an amused voice. But Lina didn't say anything and instead just stared at him. He was middle height and lean, his hair was dark brown and almost reaching his shoulders. It was dark in the room and Lina couldn't make out his face but she had a feeling she'd seen him before. She wound her brain for a while until she stopped to an image of a car parked on the street. It was him, the man from the car! He had probably been observing the house when she saw him.

While she had been wracking her brain he had taken a couple of steps toward her. Lina remembered the knife she was somehow still clutching on to and raised it trying to look convincing.
"Don't come any closer." Her voice certainly didn't sound convincing, not even in her own ears. The knife only seemed to make him even more amused.

"Now, what are you going to do with that?" he asked confidently.

She honestly didn't know what she would do, so she answered his question with one of her own. "What do you want?"

He was coming closer, forcing Lina to retreat a few steps. "What do I want?" He repeated the question. "Well, what I really hope right now is that you put the knife away."

Lina snorted. "You wish! Not going to happen." She might not be able to actually use the knife but there was no way she was going to give it up so easily.

"Oh really?" he arched an eyebrow.

He was even closer now and Lina found herself cornered. She bumped into a bedside table and had to catch her balance. With one swift move he had taken the knife, thrown it away and had a firm grip of her wrist. More out of instinct that planning she tried to punch him with her free hand but he ceased it easily and now had both her hands locked in his. He looked down at her with a little crooked smile.
Then the frightening thought struck her. What if he wanted something else beside the stuff? She looked into his eyes and started to panic. Where was the help when she needed it!
"My money's in my purse", she nodded to her handbag that was lying on the floor. "There's not much but just take it and leave me alone", she nearly pleaded.

This seemed to get his interest. He let go of her and picked up the bag. But before he had time to search for her wallet or anything else, the sound of police sirens cut through the silence of the night. Lina was relieved and scared at the same time. Help had arrived, and yet it was so far. There was no knowing what this guy would do when cornered. He went to the window and opened the shades a little to see if what she was silently praying for was true; the police cars turning on their street. One major fact to the plus sides of small towns: the police were never far.
He turned to look back and his eyes were drawn to the cell phone on the bed. She had left it lying there. He looked back to her with a fierce expression.

"You didn't…?"

At that point Lina got her feet on the move and leaped on the bed and across it to get to the door. But he was quicker. Arms grabbed her from behind, one covering her mouth, and she was dragged out of the bedroom and toward the back door of the house. She was fighting his hold the best she could when she heard the cops knocking on the front door. She tried to shout and scream but all she could manage was pent-up sounds.He opened the back door and she saw that the same car that had stood on the street on her way home was now waiting at the back. She was dragged to it and unceremoniously shoved in to the backseat. While he hurried to the driver's seat, she tried furiously to get the door open. It probably had some kind of a lock system because no matter how hard she tried it wouldn't open. She screamed but there was no one there to hear.

He didn't turn on the headlights and the car pulled away from the house unnoticed, with her in it.