Continuation of A Second Chance…
Finally everything seemed to fall in places. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt so happy and excited. Finally! She couldn’t stop smiling. What a wonderful day it was. Now she just hope it will never end.
“You’re in a good mood today,” Linda, Kirsten’s co-worker, complimented as they sat in the hospital’s cafeteria for lunch, Linda with her chicken salad and Kirsten with her turkey breast sandwich.
“Of course,” Kirsten replied, “I have a cool boyfriend and even Cody didn’t reject him when I brought him home.” Cody is Kirsten’s 10-year-old son who is also the judge of Kirsten’s boyfriend.
“Wow, he must be impressive.” You’re damn right he is, Kirsten thought. “So what’s he like?” Kirsten immediately reached into her back pocket for her phone. She scrolled through her pictures to the one taken the other night and turned the phone toward Linda. “Damn! Now I can see why Cody likes him.”
“I know, right?” Kirsten said, placed her phone next to her lunch and took a bite of her sandwich. She nodded and wiped her mouth. “I can’t describe it, it’s like all the pieces of a puzzle are falling into place. I don’t get why Barbara down in Accounting say that online dating site set people up with the weirdest people.” Okay, she thought, so Barbara is not entirely wrong. Zeke is only dysfunctional for one night a month, sometimes twice, big deal. That just means I get a night off. At times, a break can help a relationship.
“So that’s where you two met. I will have to try that. So when’s the next time you’re seeing him?”
“Tonight,” Kirsten answered excitedly just as her phone buzzed. It’s Zeke. “Hey, babe, what’s up.”
“Hey,” Zeke replied in a nonchalant kind of way, “listen, I can’t make it tonight.”
“Is it that time again?” Kirsten noticed Linda eyeing her with a confuse and concern look on her face. Kirsten rolled her eyes. “Well, how about tomorrow?” She could hear Zeke sucking big breath on the other end and could feel tension building up. Quickly, she got up and went into the corridor next to the cafeteria. “What’s the matter?”
“Uh, how do I say this?” He took another big breath. “This isn’t working out.”
“What are you talking about? It’s working out great!” She shrieked.
“For you maybe. Listen, it would be for the best if we break things off.”
“Wait, are you breaking up with me?”
He sighed. “I don’t want to do this but it’s for your own good.”
“Nah ah, you don’t get to decide what’s good for me and you certainly don’t get to break up with me because I’m breaking up with you.”
She hung up, squeezed the phone, wanting to destroy the phone. Sucking in several deep breaths, she began to calm down. “I will not lose control,” she repeated to herself as she slowly marched out of the back entrance and cross the street to the parking garage. She had to get out of here and go somewhere open and wide so she could scream and cry all she wanted.
She climbed into the driver’s seat of her car, shoved the key into the ignition and twisted. She glanced into the rear-view mirror, reminiscing on the night she and Zeke first met, he was half-wolf and she was deathly terrified after she ran him over. She sniffed, wiping the memory from her mind, shifted the car to reverse, and gently moved her foot from the brake.
A loud bang jolted her. She looked in the rear-view and gulped. A mousy-brown haired woman stared at her and it wasn’t the woman’s zombie-like appearance that scared Kirsten but the way the woman was staring at her. Kirsten knew this woman was related to Zeke somehow, the way her eyes had that yellow glint and that craze look on her face was the same look Zeke gave her that night when he demanded to be let go.
Kirsten looked forward and grabbed onto the steering wheel. Uh oh, she thought, they probably heard. Her heart began pounding as she plunged her foot on the gas pedal. “I can do this,” she repeated to herself. When she backed up enough, she shifted the car to drive and peeled out of the parking garage with the woman holding on to the back of the car.
Five miles later, when the woman had at last fallen off her trunk, Kirsten stopped in the parking lot of a park. Her heart was still pounding as she pulled the key out of the ignition, pocketed it, and stepped out of the car. She walked quickly across the parking lot to the park, listening and looking out for anything strange. Just as she reached the first tree, she heard rushing footsteps behind her and before she could walk further, a sack was threw over her head, drenching her in darkness. She screamed and struggled as she was pulled and dragged from the grass to asphalt to carpet.
“Shut up!” She heard a female voice and felt something hit the side of her head, knocking her out cold.
This story was originally posted on June 19, 2015.
Written for Finish It, a writing challenge where we are provided an opening (in red) and we are to finish the story.
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