Chapter 6 Almost

A Chapter by Christine T

When I woke up I looked over at my clock seeing that it was early in the morning, I lay there in bed deciding whether or not I wanted to get up. With a large sigh I got up and turned on my stereo system playing some upbeat music to wake me up more. Grabbing some clothing from my dresser, I headed to the bathroom to shower and start a new day. When I got out of the shower I looked in the mirror and saw that I looked pretty happy. Weeks before this I was yelling at my mom telling her this was going to ruin my life, so far it hasn’t and that was great.

I went over to my bed, took my clothing and got dressed. In the window I could see that it was cloudier out than yesterday. Turning off my stereo, I decided to head downstairs and eat some breakfast. When I got to the kitchen I noticed my mother sitting at the table reading papers, and drinking her coffee. I got some Honey Nut Cheerios out and ate it dry because I didn’t really care for milk with my cereal. My mom sat quietly flipping her pages and sipping her coffee. I sighed loud enough for her to hear. “Oh, I’m sorry, good morning, what are you going to do today?” “I think I might go for a walk.” “Alright just be careful and take your cell phone.” “Mom, when don’t I have my cell phone?” I laughed with her for a few seconds and then walked out the front door.

As I stood outside I debated on which way I should walk, at this point I remembered then house I saw from the attic and what Brian told me about it. Stupidly I decided to head in that direction, what’s the worst thing that could happen, is what I thought to myself. On my way I thought about what happened with me and Brian last night, he was so nice and didn’t rush anything or come on to me. Maybe he didn’t like me; we did just meet so it was a possibility. For some reason I notice myself watching my feet as I walked and looked up so I wouldn’t run into anything. When I looked up, across the street there was a guy standing on the curb starring at me, I didn’t know where he came from or why he was staring at me. Since he was on the opposite street I didn’t bother being worried but I did stay alert. Once I thought I was down far enough I went towards the woods, I saw what looked like a path and followed it. The tree’s made it look darker than what it actually was. Tree branches were breaking under my feet as I walked and leaves were being disturbed by my movement, the trees were so thick I could only see little of my neighborhood. What If I get lost? Something in my stomach was telling me that I shouldn’t be doing this but, I needed to see the house up close. In the distance I saw a shape start to form and the tree’s started to get scarce, when I got closer I started to see features of the house. I stopped in my tracks to ask myself if I wanted to get closer, behind me I heard what sounded like someone else stopping. My heart started to race and I slowly turned around, when I looked there was no one in sight and the path became slightly foggy. At this point I decided to a little bit further, the features of the house were very clear now, there was a porch and most of the windows were boarded. It didn’t look like anyone lived in it. I was just about to take a step closer when someone grabbed my shoulder. I was about to let out a scream but whoever it was grabbed my mouth and held me close to them, I tried to struggle but I couldn’t budge an inch. The person who was holding me quietly told me to stop struggling and to not scream, the voice was not familiar and I decided to listen. When I was let go, I turned around to face whoever grabbed me and prepared to take a run for it. The person, who stood before me, was the guy I saw watching me from across the street. He was a lot taller than me with a calm face, blonde hair and glasses. We stood there looking at each other for a few minutes, I then started to walk back the way I came not wanting to be bothered my him, something about him didn’t settle with me right. For a minute I thought he was going to let me leave but then he caught up with me and grabbed my arm. “Don’t touch me!” I said harshly while still walking. He stood there and then grabbed me again only this time stopping me by my shoulders.

“What are you doing here, are you trying to get yourself hunted?”He said with calmness in his voice.

“What is it to you? I can do what I want, who are you anyway?”

“My name is Connor.”

“Well Connor can you tell me why you were watching me from across the street?” He didn’t respond to this so I started walking away again. This time he didn’t seem to stop me he just followed silently behind me. As soon as I hit the neighborhood sidewalk, I took a run for it, going in the direction of my house. Many people who were outside watched me past; I didn’t stop until I knew he was far behind. My home was 3 houses away and I didn’t bother stopping anywhere else I went right to my porch and sat down. My mom had put the porch furniture out at some point, when I left this morning I didn’t really notice, there where to many thoughts going through my head.

I was sitting there thinking about why that boy Connor followed me, why would I be hunted. It seemed to me that he was the one that wanted to do the hunting. A familiar voice cut through my thoughts, it was Natalie.

“Hey Heidi, what’s up? You seem a little nervous or scared, you ok?”

I sighed

“Yeah I’m fine, I was taking a walk through the uh.” I didn’t want to tell her that I was roaming around in the woods but I did anyway, she was a friend so I didn’t want to lie. “The, uh, woods and this guy, Connor was watching me and ended up following me. He stopped me and asked me what I was doing; He kind of freaked me out.”

“Oh, Connor is really strange like that, he means no harm though, he lives a secret life, and no one really knows much about him.”

“Then how do you know he means no harm?” Our conversation was interrupted by Brian; he came walking up on the porch.

“Hey mind if I sit down”, he asked. “Go for it, we were just talking anyway.”I responded. Natalie then got up. “Hey I’m going to let you guys talk, Heidi you and I will talk later, I’ll give you a call and we’ll finish our conversation.” She ended up walking away before I could really say anything in response.

Brian and I sat there silent for a few moments looking, at each other wondering what to say. “Are you ready for school? Starts next week, I’m pretty excited.” He said. “Yeah, I’m somewhat ready for it to start, hope I make some good friends.” “Oh, I’m sure you will, there are a lot of nice people, just stay away from Günter and you’ll be fine, I’ll be sure to help you.” “Thanks, I really appreciate you being so kind. A lot of guys at my other school weren’t as nice as you, how are the guys here?” I asked. “Well, from my point of view a lot of them are nice. Some are your typical jock.” I laughed at this. “Well, how about the girls? Some at my school acted like they were too good for you and always started drama.” “Well, most of them here are pretty chill, I never was interested in any of them.”

At this point I felt like I should ask him if he had a girlfriend, it was the perfect moment and I was going for it. The only thing was how I would ask. I thought about it and came up with a way. “So none of them have your heart, even know?” “Well, there is one girl that has my heart. I just don’t want her to know yet; I want to wait a little bit longer to tell her. He looked at me with a friendly smile, I thought to myself, there goes my chance, why does this always happen to me. “Oh, well, good luck with that, I guess.” Wanting to change the subject at this point I decided to ask him about Connor. “Do you know a Connor? When I was walking in the woods he followed me and really creeped me out.” Brian’s smile left his face as soon as I said the name Connor, maybe knowing more than Natalie did. “Did he touch you; if he did I’ll break his neck. He is always trying to scare people, where in the woods did he follow you?” Oh no. “Well, uh,” I put my head down and lost eye contact with him. “I was near the Schmerz house.” His eyes got really wide with worry. “Why would you go there? If they were home they would have...” My mom came out on the porch, cutting Brian off. “Heidi, who’s this nice young man” “This is Brian, Brian this is my mom, Carol.” They said there hello’s and my mom sat down with us. “Heidi, I’m going to go to the store do you want to come or stay here?” I looked at Brian and he gave me a smile. “Um, I’ll stay here. Maybe Brian can show me around some more.” “Yeah sure, I can do that. There are a lot of places to see.” “Ok, then, have a good time and I’ll be home as soon as I’m done. Make sure you keep your cell phone with you and on.” “Alright thanks mom.” When my mom left, Brian and I were still on the porch.

prev chapter