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Friday

Grace made her way into the building, shaking the rain from her hair.  The thunderstorm had come up so quickly.  She hadn’t even had an umbrella with her.  She passed by the desk and was surprised to find it empty.  Usually, when the guard got called away, he left a little post-it note to say which apartment he was in or that he’d be right back.

Grace shrugged and made her way to the elevator.  The lights flickered off and on.  Grace paused with her finger over the button.  Maybe she’d better not use the elevator if the power was going to go off.  She turned to the stairs. 

Grace came out of the stairwell on her floor and headed for the apartment.  She limped slightly.  Her ankle hadn’t enjoyed the four flights of stairs.  The lights flickered again as she passed the elevator.  She reached out and pushed the button, just to satisfy herself whether or not she would have made it.  The light came on for a second and then disappeared.  Her heart leapt into her throat when the elevator doors opened.  She looked around.  Someone had left the elevator at this floor.  She wondered who it could be.

Just then the lights went out.  Grace stifled a scream, clapping her hand over her mouth.  She felt her way up the hall and fumbled for her keys.  Just as she was getting the right key into the lock, the backup power for the building kicked in and the emergency lights came on, casting a faint yellow light.  It was enough for her to see the lock.  She went into the apartment and closed the door. 

Grace felt for the hooks on the wall behind the door.  She didn’t like to hang up a coat that was wet, but she figured it would be fine until the power came back on.  Grace looked over at her windows.  It was so eerie.  Usually, there was light shining in there.  She felt her way over and looked out.  The whole neighborhood was dark.  Lightning must have hit a transformer. The rain lashed against the windows.  She turned and started to feel her way back across the room.  Suddenly she froze.

Someone was in here.  She could feel it.  She was not losing her mind.  Someone was here.

“Hello,” she said tentatively.  Her throat was so tight that the sound could not get out.  “Is somebody there?” she tried again.  A hoarse whisper was all she could manage.  She moved toward the door.

Lightning flashed in the windows behind her.  Before her, she could make out a shadow, a man coming toward her.

“It’s me, Grace.  It’s Gary.”

“What are you doing here?” she asked, backing away.  Why was Gary in her apartment…in the dark…waiting for her?  Grace’s legs bumped into a sofa.  She tried to edge sideways around it.  She gauged the distance between herself and the door.  Dammit!  She had locked it behind her.  She mentally added three seconds to the time she would need.

Gary kept coming toward her and reached out a hand.  “It’s okay.  There’s nothing to worry about.  I won’t hurt you.”  His voice was soothing, placating.

“Don’t come any closer,” she said.  “Please, Gary, don’t.”  Was it Gary, then, who’d been getting into her apartment?  But why?

“You don’t understand, Grace.  I need to be here.  I have to do this.”

“What, Gary?  What do you have to do?”  Grace started to shiver.  She ran her fingers through her wet hair and shook her head.  Water droplets fell on her shoulders.  Grace took another step away from Gary.

“I have to protect you.  That’s my job.  To protect you.”  He was almost there.  Grace moved behind the sofa so that it was between them.  If she could get him to come around the end, she could outrun him to the door, she thought.

But he read her mind.  “Don’t try and run, Grace.  I can’t protect you that way.  You have to stay here with me.”  His voice was low and reasonable, as if he were dealing with a child, or an incompetent.

“Did you watch my window from beside the bakery, Gary?” she asked.  She had broken out in the cold sweat of fear.  Her legs were shaking.  She knew she had to make a break soon before panic overtook her and froze her to the spot.

“Yes, I did.  I kept watch over you.  That’s my job.  But I’m here now and everything will be fine.  Come and sit down, Grace.”

"No, I don't want to, Gary."  She tried to sound reasonable too.  "I'm not liking the dark.  I think I want to open the door so the light from the hall can come in."  She edged another step around the couch.

"No, you don't want to do that, Grace.  If you do that that, he might get in.  It's better if we keep the door locked."

Grace wasn't sure she had heard correctly.  "Who might get in, Gary?"

The answer was a strangled cry.  Lightning flashed and Grace saw Gary’s face.  He looked surprised.  He reached his hand toward her.  Then his eyes glazed over and he fell forward.  Grace was frozen.  A crack of thunder shook the building and the flash of lightning showed her Gary’s body lying sprawled over the couch and coffee table.  Something was sticking out of his back.  Grace looked up.

“Hi, Baby!”

Matt. 

Grace screamed and screamed.  But she couldn’t move.  Matt stepped over Gary’s body and came to her.

“Stop screaming,” he yelled at her.  “No one can hear you.  Stop it.”

But she couldn’t stop.  Matt reared back his hand and slapped her hard.  Grace’s head flew back, but she stopped screaming.

“Remember, Baby, these places are soundproofed.  Remember what a great feature you thought that was.”  Matt grabbed her by the arm and dragged her over to an armchair.  Grace stumbled but Matt didn’t slow down.  He gripped her hard and pushed her down into the chair.

Grace tried to make her brain function, tried to get control of herself.  Breathe, she told herself.  Start there.  Breathe. 

“What do you want, Matt?” she whispered.  Breathe, breathe.

“What do I want?  Funny, you should ask that now.  That never seemed to be a priority for you before.”  Matt spoke in a calm manner, as if they were merely having a pleasant conversation over coffee. 

Lightning flashed again and Grace saw his eyes.  He’s insane, she thought.  He’s going to kill me.
Matt saw the fear in her eyes and he grinned at her.  He’s loving this, thought Grace.  What am I going to do?  What should I do?  Grace tried to push down the panic that was welling up inside her.  Breathe.  Breathe. 

Matt moved away from her. Grace strained her ears to listen.   She could hear him move around behind her.

“No, Grace only did what Grace wanted,” continued Matt in his pleasant tone.  “If Grace didn’t want to talk, Grace didn’t talk.  If Grace didn’t want to fuck, Grace didn’t fuck.  Of course, eventually, Grace did both, didn’t she?”  He placed his hand on her shoulder.

Grace twitched but said nothing. 

Matt screamed at her.  “Didn’t she?” 

Grace jumped.  She nodded her head.  “Yes,” she whispered.

“And did Grace fuck the blond guy?”  Matt’s hand tightened on her shoulder.

Omigod, Nick. 

“Well, did she?” yelled Matt.  He grabbed Grace by the hair and pulled her head back.  She tensed, waiting for a knife to slash across her throat, but it never came.  “Did she?!!?”

“Yes,” she whimpered.

Matt let go of her hair and moved away.  His voice became coaxing, wheedling, like a child’s.  “And is he good?  Does he make you come?  Or do you freeze up like winter for him too?” 

Grace did not know the right way to answer this.  What would make Matt angrier – to know that Nick could do what Matt couldn’t or to know that she had not got anything out of throwing him over?   Grace decided to say nothing. 

“I’ll bet he does.  I’ll bet he pokes away at you and you just cream.” 

Grace felt something cold on her cheek.  She jumped.

“Oh, careful now, Grace.  You better watch out.  You might cut yourself.”  He ran the flat side of the blade down her cheek.

“Matt, please…”

He kept moving around.  She tried to follow his movements by following the sound of his voice.

“’Please’ what?  ‘Please’ what, Grace?”  The conversational tone was back.  “Please forgive me, Matt?  Please come back to me, Matt?  Please don’t kill me, Matt?”

“Are you going to kill me, Matt?” she asked.  She knew he was and a calm acceptance of the fact came over her.  He was going to kill her, but she was not going to give him any joy in it.  She wouldn’t fight him.

“Not first,” he answered. 

Grace was chilled to the bone.  No, she said inside her head, no, no, no.

Matt put his lips right at her ear.  He ran the point of the knife lightly down her neck.  “First, you get to watch me kill your little blond boyfriend.” 

Nooooooooooooo!
“Sorry, Matt,” whispered Grace.  “You are going to have to be content with killing me.  You can’t get to Nick.”

“I don’t have to get to him, you idiot,” he said, pinching her hard on the arm.  “He’s going to come to me.  Or should I say, he’s going to come to you.”  He pulled her hair back, twisting it in his hand so that her neck was totally exposed.  He moved the flat side of the knife back and forth across her throat.

He’s like the schoolyard bully, thought Grace.  Well, you stand up to bullies.  They’re cowards.  You stand up to them.

Grace laughed.  She didn’t know how she managed it.  She found some reserve of strength somewhere and she drained it.  She laughed.

“Well, Matt, they say timing is everything.  And yours sucks!”  Grace froze, waiting.  Buy it, she prayed, buy it.

“What do you mean, Grace?”  Matt moved back in front of her.

“We broke up.  We’re not together anymore.”  Please, God, let him believe it.  Please, God, make me the best liar in the world.

“Nice try, Grace,” he said, and she felt his hand on her breast. 

Grace twitched and tried to stifle the grunt of panic that rose in her throat.

“It’s true,” she said.  “He’s at a big benefit show right now, and you don’t see me there, do you?” She tried to make her voice sound bitter.

"That's right," said Matt.  "He's at the Musicians that Care thing, isn't he?  See Grace, I know what he's doing.  I have kept my eye on him too."  His hand fiddled with the buttons on her blouse

"Well, then you know that what I'm saying is true.  We broke up."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you break up?  Don't try my patience, Grace.  Take off your blouse.  I can't manage it with one hand.  And you wouldn't want me to set this down, would you?" He laid the blade against her throat.

Grace sat forward in the chair and, with trembling fingers, she undid the buttons on her blouse. She did it as slowly as she could.  She needed time to think.  What would he believe?  That Nick got tired of her?  That he found someone else?  Someone younger?  That might work.  She took off her blouse and set it on the side of the chair.

Matt moved behind the chair again.  “I’ve been following your little romance on the Internet.  Yes, Grace.  I do know how to use the Internet.  You’re not the only one that can push a button.  I can do email too.”  He leaned down and whispered into her ear, “you fucking slut”.

A strangled sob escaped her.  “That was you?”

“Yeah, Baby.  That was me.  I’ve been everywhere in your life.  Even rearranging your fucking flowers.”

I’m not crazy.  The thought whirled through Grace’s mind.  It gave her small comfort.  Sane and dead.  Crazy and dead.  Still dead.  She tried to focus her mind.  She couldn’t sell him the story about a new girlfriend if he had been watching fan sites.  She needed time to think.

“Do you want me to take off my bra too?” she asked.  Her head snapped back as Matt slapped her.

“Don’t act like a whore, Grace.  It doesn’t become you.”

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered.  “I’m trying not to make you angry.”

“Then you shouldn’t be fucking someone else,” he screamed in her face.

“I’m not,” Grace screamed back at him.  “I told you we broke up.”

“Ah yes, so you said,” said Matt, calmly.  “But you still haven’t told me why.”

“They made him.”  Where did that come from? she wondered.  “The group.  Kevin.”

“Who the fuck is Kevin?  The tattooed guy?”

“No, that’s AJ.  Kevin is the oldest one; he’s the leader of the group.  He makes all the decisions for the group.”

“Good thing,” said Matt.  “They wouldn’t get far with that dumb blond prick in charge.”   He paused.  “I changed my mind.”

Grace waited.

“Take off your bra.”

Suddenly, the lights came back on.