Chapter Text
You checked the time. The lecture seemed to drag longer than the time allotted for a single class. A pang of relief to find you were right, five minutes over time. On cue your professor seems to realize and dismiss the class, dragging on about the upcoming midterms. You tuned him out as you gathered your belongings, shoving them in your bag with haste, before putting in your headphones and starting out the room's door.
The air nipped at your arms, regretting the fact that you had left a sweater at home. you started for your car, clicking the buttons twice before hearing your car beep. letting the song carry your thoughts away with the wind as you made your way.
The drive was short, school was never too far from home, but the trees on the side of the road never seemed to make the drive go any faster. The long branches seemed to stretch over the car, like arms, reaching out to pull you off the side of the road. There had been crashes here, off the side of the road. The thought sent a stinging feeling in your stomach, the anxiety of being in a crash clouding your thoughts. you turn the radio up, hoping to drown out the impending doom you felt with no intention.
The sun was starting to set as you threw your car in park. The sun always went down earlier the closer you got to winter, making your 5p class seem like it takes too much time out of your day. you step out to the car and make your way to the door, taking in the last remaining pieces of the day before you reach for the handle. As you fished your keys out of your bag, the handle gives away to your handles slight pressure.
I could’ve sworn I locked the door
This seems to happen a lot, you always swore you had a good memory, but things were out of place recently. Your door would be unlocked by the time you got home, you left clothes out for the next morning without any memory, your sink would be devoid of dishes when you left the mess for later.
Maybe you had just been doing better without realization. You had always struggled with bettering yourself, maybe you had been doing it subconsciously.
You set your bag on the table, alongside your phone, keys and take your water into the kitchen to refill it. the ice machine whirred before dropping a couple of cubes into the leftover water, switching settings to fill the rest. Your phone began to ring, making you jump slightly.
You pick up the call, seeing your friend Brooke’s name slide across the screen with a photo of you both laughing mid sentence staring back at you.
“Hey, what's up?”
“Okay so i know you just left class, butttt, me and the guys were wondering if you were still coming out with us tonight?”
“i dunno i have a lot of school work to catch up on and i -“
“oh come onnnn, that can wait, can't it? you already know you are going ace the finals”
you let out a small laugh, “i dunno”
“pleaseeee” she seemed to draw out her words, pleading with you to join.
“fine, i guess, let me get ready”
“YAY okay let me know when you get here!”
She ended the call before you could get another word in. You sighed and put your phone in your pocket before heading upstairs to your room.
thump thump
You stopped mid step, you could’ve sworn you had heard a thump. You froze, the thought of someone being inside scaring you, making your stomach drop. You shook the thought out of your head, you were being ridiculous.
You see the door to your room, light spilling out from the cracks. The light was on, you never left the lights on.
You rest your hand on your knife before you barge in your room. Everything was in place, aside from your favorite hoodie on your bed. Maybe you had set it out before school and had forgotten it? That had to have been the case. You made your way over to the bed before pulling it on before looking at yourself in the mirror. Yeah, that's fine I guess, I’m not staying out long. You touched up your eyeliner and took a step back, looking in the mirror once again. Satisfied you pulled out your phone to check the time.
You laid in your bed, intending to just catch up on messages and relax for a moment.
Thump
You swore you weren’t dreaming, you heard it that time. The sound shook the door of your closet, you saw it happen out of the corner of your eye. Your hand reaches for your knife again, making your way out of bed as you made your way to the closet, shaking and never taking your eyes off of the now unmoved door. a hand pulled on the door with a hard yank. It opens, nothing, you're being crazy again. You shut the door. making your way out of the house before you close it behind you.
“hey I’m here, are you guys inside?” You locked your car as you started towards the bar.
“Yeah, the table in the back corner” You rounded the corner before crossing the threshold of the door before the warmth of the inside covers you. Seeing your friend recognize you and wave you down.
“Oh my god! I'm so happy you made it!” she says pulling you into a hug. you hug her back half hazardly before taking a seat next to your friend Riley. Brooke took her seat back next to your other friend, Kate.
Brooke ordered a round for the table as you started towards, catching up with your friends. swapping stories of recent dates and anxiety of the upcoming finals. you felt left out, with the intensity of your major on top of work, having a life outside of school make it damn near impossible to do both. You had been a little lonely, but hanging out with friends seemed to ease the pain a bit. Before you knew it, another round came.
You started a round of pool, paired off into teams. After a heated game, you and Riley reigned victorious. high fiving each other and hollering at your friends. Brooke and Kate seemed to sulk despite the smiles plastered on their faces. Losers brought the next round of shots after all.
You finished your third drink, telling your friends of your departure. You bid your farewells before heading out of the bar to begin the short walk to your car, happy that you had remembered a jacket this time. You knew better than to drive under the influence, even if you didn’t feel drunk. You pulled out your phone to order a uber before sitting and waiting in your car, playing on your phone in the meantime. You didn't mean to drink that much.
10:32 pm, how the hell had that happened?
The uber pulled up, a blue sedan as the app had said. You got inside, giving a small hello to the driver.
The drive went smooth, thankfully. The last thing you wanted to do was crash. The car pulled in front of your house and you opened the door, saying good night to the driver and stepping out. The shift from the warm air of the car to the unforgiving chill of the October air caused your skin to tense slightly. You made your way to the door, reaching for your keys again before you stopped, trying the door to see if you even remembered to lock it. It gave away with a soft twist.
of course
You had forgotten to lock it again. you set your bag down on the table once again. turning around to lock the door before turning in for the night. making your way to the kitchen to fix up something to eat. You haven’t gone grocery shopping yet, closing the fridge disappointedly after pulling out a piece of pizza from the other night and reheating it in the microwave. taking it out after 30 seconds and taking a bite before you stopped.
Footsteps
you heard footsteps upstairs.
Or you thought you did, pushing the thought away before chalking it up to the house settling. making your way to the bathroom to wash your face and teeth.
You stepped into your room, lights off, as you remembered to do this time. You fumbled around the wall before hitting the light switch, flooding the room in bright lights that started to hurt your eyes. You began to pull off your shoes and pants, throwing them on your floor. You started pulling off your sweater and shirt in one motion and throwing them on your bed. You pulled on a pair of plaid pajama pants and a college tee shirt from your first year. You caught a glimpse of yourself in the mirror, checking yourself out, maybe it was the liquor that gave you the new found confidence.
Something fell, the crash was undeniable, and it came from your closet. You froze, grabbing your jeans and pulling out your knife. You flicked it out and took two long strides to the door before your mind caught up to you. ripping it open.
The closet door swung hard against the wall, before you saw it, saw him. There was a man, and he was in your closet.
Your eyes widened, you didn’t process that you started to scream. He rushed forward and clamped a hand around your mouth, cutting the sound short.
“shh shh don’t scream d-don’t scream” the man towered over you, his shoulder jerked as his neck cracked in a rapid motion. You took a step back quickly before he grabbed your waist to keep you quiet against his hand.
You stopped, you were quiet, taking it all in. He was tall, at least taller than you. He wore a baggy hoodie with stripes on the sleeves, with short shaggy brown hair bunched up around a pair of orange goggles on his head. a metal mouth guard that rested right below his nose. His eyes were wide, baring into your soul in a manic look. This was crazy, he looked crazy.
He kept staring, neck jerking to the side violently every few seconds. You never lost the grip on your knife, but never mustered up the courage to do anything with it.
“a-are you gonna s-scream?” he asked, his tone was low, as if he didn’t want anyone in the next room to hear, as if there was anyone there. “i’m not going to h-hurt you” you stayed still for a moment, before you shook your head, maybe if you played along he wouldn’t kill you. he pulled his hand from your mouth away slowly, before slowly reaching down to pull your knife out of your hand. you froze, and let him, what the fuck.
He closed it against his side and set it gently on the dresser next to the closet, releasing his grip on your waist. You stumbled back until your knees hit your bed. He didn't move, aside from the short jerks his body gave, of which he paid no mind.
Tourette’s? you had anxiety tics that reminded you of what his body seemed to do more often
Maybe it was the drinks you had finally catching up to you, maybe the severity of the situation hasn’t hit you yet, maybe that's why the question slipped out
“Do you have Tourette’s?”
“i-is that seriously your f-first question?” he let out a small laugh as he answered, surprised reaching his eyes as he gave you a questioning look, cocking his head ever so slightly.
“no no, sorry i um” the question you had asked felt a little too invasive for a first meeting. Even if this guy had broken into your house. A blush slowly creeped across your cheeks.
Politeness had left the room, you realized what this is. There is a man in your room, and you didn’t even bring him home. “Wait wait, who are you? What are you doing in my house?! get the fuck out!?” the question came out angry, defensive, you braced yourself against the bed, prepared for retaliation despite not knowing what you were going to do.
he took a step forward, he was close, but your eyes tracked him up and down for the first time, he had jeans and boots on as well, with twin hatchets strapped to waist that swayed with him as he moved.
oh shit oh shit oh shit he’s gonna kill me
Your mind started to race, had he come here to kill you? Why have those? the fear must have been prominent on your face, his eyes went wide as he took another step forward to close the distance before his hand clamped over your mouth once again.
“i-i told you i wasn’t going to h-hurt you” he sounded betrayed, but still trying to be reassuring. He stared into your eyes once again, his face was closer than before, nose almost touched yours as his other hand moved to hold the lower part of your jaw. His eyes were a hazel brown, how had you not noticed that before?
Snap the fuck out of it, the rational part of your brain had kicked in and began to race. like a computer starting to crash, your face grew hot, the space between you two suddenly feeling suffocating. You could feel the rest of your body heating up as your hands fumbled up to find his sides to push him away.
His eyes darted down before dropping his hand to hold your wrists down in between the small space between both your waists. Your eyes dropped and saw how close your hands had been to the waistband of his pants, instinctively holding onto his belt.
“if you w-wanted me that close you could’ve just a-asked” he eyes floated upward to meet yours, you could feel your cheeks heating up as you let go of your grip on his belt. “d-dont scream” he said in a soft voice, as his hand seemed to fall away from your face. His hands lingered a moment longer on your wrists, before letting go. His fingers were calloused, rough against your skin.
He took a step back, running his fingers through his hair as he slowly started paced in front of you. You moved to sit on your bed.
“w-who are you?” The question was meant to be demanding, but instead came out as soft and scary. your hands searched for the hoodie on your bed, finding it and pulling it into your lap.
“Toby” his voice came out softer than expected, “you weren’t supposed to find me”
“Then get out of my house!” you found your voice, raising it slightly to try and hide the fear lingering in your voice.
“no no no no” he whispered, taking backwards steps toward your closet and pulling the door to hide him slightly. your eyes widened and scooted back toward the headboard as he moved with such quick, inhuman motion as he whispered. He stared, unblinking, knowing the door was not hiding him. You stared back, bringing your knees to your chest in fear of what this strange man was doing in your house.
“what, what are you doing here?” you held onto your hoodie as a shield, like a child hiding from the boogieman under the blankets. the edge in your voice was gone. replaced with confusion and fear.
He held your stare as he slowly closed the door in front of him. You looked on in disbelief, and once the closet door closed, you moved. towards the door and opened it, except there was no one there, just the opening to the attic.