6 Part 5

[Present-Lara]

She looked at her ceiling, feeling numb. Why would anyone send her flowers? She wasn't aware of any admirers and this sudden gift had surprised her. She had carried the bouquet inside and placed it in one of the vases in the living room. She stared at the vase quietly for sometime when suddenly something occurred to her.

She went into the washroom and freshened up. Then she sat on her couch and turned on her TV to watch Netflix. She loved the show 'The Haunting of Hill House' and no matter how many times she has already watched it, she still wanted to watch it all over again.

The actress on screen said something funny but she didn't feel like laughing. She wondered when she had become like this – a walking corpse. She barely ever smiled or laughed. She never understood how she was ever able to laugh so effortlessly before. Whenever she tried to smile at someone now it felt so fake even to herself. She knew how she should react in certain situations and then according to the circumstances she faked her emotions.

As time slowly passed by she started turning more and more into him.  She realized she had developed most of his qualities without even realizing it. They had known each other only for a few months before his untimely death but she had already become too attached and without him life never felt the same again.

She recalled when after his death her entire conscious snapped. She stopped talking, eating and started self-harming because hurting herself somehow made her feel connected to him. After all, hurting her emotionally and physically was his favorite thing to do.

"I don't want to kill you, no I won't kill you," he had said. "I just want to see you hurt. I want to make you suffer."

And now she was suffering.

Her eyes welled up as she felt the familiar ache in her chest that she felt each time she thought of him. She turned off the TV and connected her phone to the speaker. Playing her favorite songs out loud helped clear her mind.

She put it on shuffle and Sabrina's voice started coming out of the speakers – loud and clear. She reached into the drawer by the sider of the couch on which she sat and took out a packet of cigarettes and a match. She didn't smoke often but some days she felt like she needed to have one and today was one of those days.

She inhaled and exhaled, feeling satisfied as the smoke released by her mouth curled up into the air and vanished. Her phone lit up with a text.

I didn't know you smoke.

It was an private unknown number. The hair at the back of her neck stood up as she realized someone was watching her right now, as she sat smoking in her living room. She knew she wouldn't be able to spot anyone so she didn't even bother looking around.

There was one thing she knew she couldn't do in a situation like this.

She couldn't panic.

She needed to be calm and handle the situation. She was very aware of the only weapon nearest to her being a butter knife on the table in front of her. If this stalker was to suddenly jump out from wherever he was hiding she could do only two things – either light him up with the match still in her hand or reach for the butter knife and take a risk and try and stab him.

She paused. What was she thinking? Since when had she become so resourceful and thoughtful? She knew the answer too well.

He was the one who forced her to think and pushed her to think of ways to deal with any situation at hand. But she could never outsmart him.

Lara laid back on the couch with the phone in her hand, her cigarette on the table forgotten. She realized she couldn't act too calm or it would be suspicious. The best response a girl should give in this situation is panic. But for the love of her life she could not fake panic when she was so calm.

Who are you? She wrote back.

Why do I run back to you like I don't mind if you fuck up my life? Was the response and she realized they were the lyrics of the song that was currently floating out of the speakers. Goosebumps broke across her skin and she calmly stared at the number, memorizing it.

You're smarter than you let on, aren't you? I realized that the very first time I saw you. You are not what you look like.

The words sent a chill down her spine. Eerily, they were the very same words she had said to Lucien when they first met.

Lucien.

Could it be him? But how could it be him when he was dead? It didn't add up.

Wondering who I am, love? You will come to know soon.

She was about to dial the unknown number but before she could, her phone flashed up with a call from another unknown number. But it wasn't the same number from where the texts were coming, the one she had just learnt.

"Hello?" she picked it up.

There was no answer on the other side.

"Who is it? I am in no mood for games."

"Found you."

The line went dead. She stared at the phone for sometime but she had no clues as to who it could be. The voice was a familiar one but she didn't know who it sounded like. The two words were like cold water splashed into her face in the middle of a winter day. Her memories of those words were vague but she felt the same terror she had felt when she had heard Lucien say them.