1 Never Saw it Comming

Jonah was going through a rough patch in his life. His ex-girlfriend whom he had spent more than six years with had decided that he wasn't worth her time and ran off with another man. He found himself overwhelmed with his new life and doing his very best to try and keep his head held high.

His ex was the one that handled the finances while they were together, so Jonah finds himself rather overwhelmed in simply keeping track of the number of bills that need to be paid every month. That's exactly where he finds himself now, sitting in his den on a small laptop.

The light in the room was just enough to keep his eyes from straining while skimming through the excel file of numbers and dates. He sits back and stretches, shifting himself from side to side to hopefully alleviate the strain of having been sat in that position for some time now.

His phone starts beeping and startles him enough to look over and see that it was ten at night and the alarm for him to stretch and meditate is going off. He reaches over and slides the timer down before clicking close on the phone. "I'll take a walk after i finish paying this last bill." He mumbles to himself.

He clicks a few links of his computer, puts in his account information and payment, then submits it. He then saves the confirmation number to a secondary spreadsheet before shutting his computer down and packing it away.

The sound of barking draws his attention, a dog from a few houses over. At which he peaks through the blinds to see a car driving slowly past the house and down the street. Nothing to be alarmed of, dogs bark at that sort of thing all the time.

Jonah makes his way through the house, collecting his shoes and coat before heading for the front door. "I'll be back in a bit." He says to the empty house, pausing a moment before shaking his head and sighing. He was still getting used to being alone, but the silence was not something he disliked.

Jonah lived in a pretty good neighborhood, none of his neighbors ever caused any trouble, and he got along with the ones he knew quite well. Strolling around in the dark is a hobby of his, he has always just felt at ease.

His phone starts buzzing in his pocket. He retrieves it to see a message from his ex. He hesitates a moment, and then opens the phone to see what she has to say.

'Why do i have to have people coming up to me in the street. Why don't you get a job and get off your ass. Maybe if you hadn't acted like a monster all those years, we would still be together.'

Jonah stared at the message for a moment in disbelief. She had left him for some guy she met and had been bragging about how wonderful he was. It made no sense for her to continue messaging him and ranting like this.

'Why don't you go enjoy your new life with your prince charming and leave me alone.' He sends in reply before stuffing the phone back in his pocket and heading up the hill towards the park in his neighborhood.

The park is fairly large, and held a number of trails leading up the mountain which overlooks the valley that he lives in. This late at night though its quite closed, but there is a lake that Jonah enjoys watching the moon over, so that is where he sets his sights for this evening.

Jonah makes it to the parking-lot for the park before his phone starts buzzing again. He takes a peak at his phone and sees a reply from his ex, which he shakes his head and leaves it sit.

In the middle of the empty lot he notices an SUV, oriented towards the park entrance. Jonah looks at the vehicle for a moment, unsure if he can see anyone inside, before deciding to move on and head over to the lake.

The moon shines beautifully over the lake, and Jonah hangs around for a few moments before deciding to look at his phone once more. Taking it out and sliding up to see what his ex had to say this time.

'I should have left you soonr. My new life with Traver is wondeful. He knows how to treet a woman. Not like you, such a nasty monster. Everyone knows the way you trated me, and your gas won't work on me.'

Jonah scoffed at the message. As always, she has no idea how to use basic English, and is still going out of her way to badmouth him. "Well i know exactly what to say to this."

'Are you having trouble learning English? If so there are plenty of courses you can take that will teach you how to properly use words. You can badmouth me as much as you want, the truth will always come out in the end, and karma will come back to bite you.'

The reply this time came quite quickly.

'HaHaHaHa, that's so funny. Go waste someone else's time. Have a great night!'

Jonah shook his head and was about to put his phone back in his pocket when he feels a sudden jolt from behind him. He finds himself falling forward and loosing grip of his phone. He quickly crashes with the cold water of the lake and tumbles beneath it. After a moment he swims to the top and bursts through, taking a gulp of air and trying to get a look around the park. He can hear footfalls growing distant.

Jonah swims to the edge of the lake and hoists himself up out of the cold water, noticing his phone open and unlocked a few feet from the edge. A wave of relief falls over him as he realizes that his phone isn't destroyed but it crosses his mind that someone pushed him into the lake.

He climbs to his feet as the sound of a door slamming shut comes from the parking lot. He then grabs his phone in his right hand and starts making his way up the lot to see who had just attacked him.

There is was again, the SUV in the darkness.

"You think that's funny! I'm calling the police!" Jonah calls out as he takes a few steps into the lot.

Suddenly the vehicle starts and the high beams blind Jonah. He can hear the tires screeching and realizes that they are comming straight at him. He dives back into the grass, just in time for the SUV to screech past him and bolt down the street.

"Who the hell was that..." Jonah mumbles to himself, scrambling to his feet and feeling his heart beating so fast that he fears it might erupt from his chest. He nervously scans his surroundings and waits for a minute, letting his heart-rate slow down.

The wind picks up and reminds him that he should be on his way home to change at the very least. So that is exactly what he does. He makes his way out of the park, down the street, and back towards his home, sopping wet footsteps all the way.

Upon arriving at home he finds that his mailbox is broken into pieces and scattered across the road. At a loss for words, Jonah quickly makes his way into the house and locks the door behind him. The mailbox is something that he would deal with tomorrow, everything that is going on is too much to handle already.

Then the phone goes off... more messages from his ex.

Curiosity gets the better of him, and in his current state, he is very much not thinking correctly.

'I bet you still go down to that stupid lake at night. Don't fall in. Ha ha ha ha. You get exactly what you deserve.'

Jonah stares at his phone, coming to the realization of what just happened and who was most likely behind tonight's events...