Halfling (Black Petals Book 1) Read Free Page B

centre parking lot, and Landon unlocks the doors. “Good luck.” He says this like he knows the words will be useless.
    I nod before exiting the car and sprinting to my own car, jumping in and locking the doors as quickly as I can. So much for city clean up. What a morning. I wait until his car is out of sight, before I exit the parking lot and head home. I guess Madison Street West will have to stay uncleaned. I hold back tears the whole way home and drive in all sorts of directions in case he’s following me.
    Once I get home, I break down into tears. I close all of the blinds and lock all of the windows and doors. Call me paranoid, but I am worried about Landon’s warning. Remembering that I told Blayk I work with seniors, I rashly call and quit my job, not wanting to risk him finding me at work.
    What if I do go to the cops? Can’t they protect me somehow? Can they put me in witness protection? I promised I wouldn’t, but I only promised because I thought it would save my life.
    Witness protection? Really, Megan? No, they wouldn’t do that. You aren’t even scratched. You have no proof of even being taken.
    Calm down, no one is coming after you, you’re over reacting. At least that’s what I tell myself. I’m probably just shaken up, right? I walk into the bathroom and open up the medicine cupboard. I grab some cold medicine that has drowsy listed as a side effect and pop three into my mouth. I lean down and take a sip of water from the tap to wash them down. I need to sleep ever so badly right now.
    While I’m waiting for them to kick in, I decide to jump into the shower. I don’t realize how terrible of an idea this is, until I’m already inside. How am I supposed to hear someone break into my house with the water running? I throw shampoo into my hair and lather it intensely, then I wash it out. When I close my eyes to keep soap from getting into them, my mind goes into panic mode, suddenly I’m opening my eyes expecting to see someone standing in my bathroom ready to kill me. Luckily, I manage to evade the soap. I’m left gasping for breath in the shower. I’m absolutely paranoid like a psycho, I know that.
    I don’t have anyone to call. I don’t have anywhere else to go. I’m stuck here in this house, with my own thoughts. Every noise, no matter how little, makes me flinch for the rest of the evening. The pills do nothing to help me sleep, but eventually I do manage to get some shut eye. I sleep the rest of the day and all night.
    When morning rolls around, I am startled awake by the sound of my neighbor’s dog barking. It takes me a moment to remember the events of the day before.
    I turn on the morning news downstairs and fry some bacon for breakfast. When my doorbell rings around noon, I nearly shit myself. Who would be at my door right now? No one even knows where I live except my neighbors, and I don’t know any of them except Mrs. Lander who only comes over when she needs a dog sitter.
    I instinctively grab a cleaver from my knife block and peer through the peephole of my front door. This wouldn’t be near as frightening if I didn’t live alone.
    Surely if someone is going to attack me, they’ll do it in the middle of the night, right? Not at noon.
    I see nobody outside of my front door, so I move to the window next to it and carefully look between the blinds. A man in a suit stands on the top step, out of the way of the peep hole. Is his position deliberate? I clench my teeth and take a deep breath. Do I open the door?
    My hand rests on the lock for a moment in hesitation. Megan, you’re over reacting. You said it yourself, how would they ever find you? Chill the heck out. I slide it the lock and pull the door open, plastering on a smile. The man grins back, looks down at my hand clenching the knife tightly, and takes a short step back in surprise.
    “ Hello …” He moves his gaze up to mine. “I’m Crispen, your new neighbor next door. I just wanted to introduce myself,” he says