Stay Calm

A Story by Exploring Life

The story of Clare - from her innocent beginnings to her journey as a woman to recapture the stability she knew before a dark encounter left her secretly shattered.

He tended to hamburgers cooking on the grill outside while his wife relaxed inside the dimly lit apartment with their guests. Tonight they had two visitors - the wife’s longtime girlfriend and Claire, who had just gotten there a few minutes earlier. Claire was just getting to know the couple who seemed a little strange, but nice enough.

When Claire had arrived at their address, she had a hard time finding the couple's apartment. It was dusk and therefore hard to see the unit numbers on each door. The two floor complex had a series of garden courtyards, each encircled by small apartment buildings. There was nearly no slope to the tall, shingled roof - it was almost like it extended straight up from the top of the second floor. Old and somewhat run down, the whole place felt like a maze.

Claire wondered around looking for the correct apartment number. She noticed some of the outdoor stairwells stretched up an extra flight beyond the second floor. The stairs appeared to turn a corner and end at the roofline. With no luck in her search yet, Claire finally decided to follow the stairs up to the roofline. To her surprise it led to a rooftop courtyard surrounded by lots of apartments doors and windows. This third level was hidden behind what had appeared to be the tall, shingled roof. There was one blinding floodlight at the center of the rooftop courtyard which only made everything outside the light’s reach seem even darker. Claire checked each door for the apartment number. No luck. This was taking forever and she was frustrated. It was either find this damn apartment or take the city bus home after dark. She pressed on to the next building’s grouping of rooftop apartments. At last, she finally found what she was looking for within one of the third-level courtyards. What a relief.

Their place was small and furnished with just a few second hand items. Directly inside the front door was the living room followed by a kitchen right behind it. The two flowed together almost like one room. There was an interior door on the left. On the same wall as the front door and to her right, a giant TV completely blocked the only window in the living area - an odd choice in Claire's opinion. The carpet was old and worn and everything seemed like it could use a thorough cleaning. It was all very different from what Claire was use to.

Growing up, her mom had always kept a perfectly clean, dust and grime free home. Claire would joke that she probably never needed to own more than two pair of underwear - the pair she was wearing and the pair her mom had already washed and put away back in Claire’s drawer.

For now, she decided not to concentrate on the less than prestine environment. When the burgers were ready she wasn’t hungry and didn't eat. A bit shy at first, Claire always felt a bit like an observer around new people, as she did now - seeing them enjoy their food while watching TV and chatting during commercials. As the evening passed by though, she started feeling more relaxed. The couple and their friend included her in their conversations, telling stories and making jokes. Maybe they were more normal than she originally thought.

After a while, he stood up and motioned for Claire to follow him into the next room, saying he had something he wanted to show her. It seemed a little strange but whatever it was must have been important since he was compelled to call her away from the other girls. His wife turned her attention to her friend and waved her on to go ahead and follow him.

The next room turned out to be the bedroom. It was the only other room in the apartment except for the bathroom. It's door was just off the living room where they had all been socializing. Once she was on the other side of the bedroom doorway, he shut the door behind them. Claire panned the room. It was nearly empty. There was one tall, skinny window on the wall to her left. Closet doors made up the entire far wall. And the apartment's only bathroom was on her right. And on the floor... Oh god, and on the floor... Only a dirty mattress, single size, its filth only surpassed by the soiled carpet it laid on.

Claire's gut was screaming at her, telling her she was in grave danger. However, his composure was unchanged, as if nothing was awry. Talking the whole time about who knows what, he walked over to the closet and began looking for something on its upper shelves. She couldn't really concentrate on what he was saying though. Her adrenaline was pumping way too hard for that. She tried her best to hide what she was feeling. “Stay calm, appear calm”, she told herself. As he retrieved a notebook he had been looking for, he told her to have a seat. The only place to sit was on that dirty mattress, so she did, reluctantly. He sat down next to her.

Looking at the notebook, she couldn’t help but wonder, “This is what was so important?”. It looked like the kind of notebook she used in school. Its ruled paper was badly tattered, held together by a bent spiral binding and full of hand written pages. As he held it out in front of her, he tried to convince her he was a legitimate writer and poet. For just a moment, it seemed a little sad and pathetic that he thought this would impress her. And why would he want to anyway?

She may have only been 15 years old but she knew that none of it added up. She was certain he was trying to deceive her; trying to hide a sadistic motive. She could nearly taste her own fear as it welled up in her throat and into her mouth. Like an animal frozen in front of its predator, trapped, heart pounding, she tried her best to maintain her calm demeanor. It's almost as if things had started to play out in slow motion. Suddenly, she heard her own stoic voice speak up. Before she had a chance to think about it, she had already said she didn’t believe him. If only she could take her words back, but it was too late. She had exposed him, he was caught in his failed attempt to seduce her. Rage instantly overcame him and she would be lucky to survive it.

© 2018 Exploring Life

Author's Note

PLEASE rate/review this writing either here or on Reddit - wherever it's easiest for you.

I've never written anything like this before. Should I continue the story? Please let me know what you think is good and what needs improvement. OR, if you don't feel like critiquing it, please simply rate it and add a quick comment of "interesting" or "not interesting" (etc).

Help on a chapter title would also be appreciated.