Chapter 3

AUTHOR's POV

Victoria climbed out from her window and tried to grab the ladder resting on the wall only missing it by inch, before losing her balance, f allig to the ground and landing on her face.

She squirmed as she turned over to face the sky. She stared at the clouds trying to shape them into one as if doing that would help relieve the pain. After a few seconds of futile attempt in trying to shape the clouds, she got on her feet.

Usually, a fall like that would dislocate your bones. But weird enough for her, everything was intact.

Victoria walked down the street both hands in front of her front pocket. It was pretty uncomfortable but she had gotten used to being comfortable while uncomfortable. She stood still for a moment contemplating on what route she should take. On a normal day she would just dodge around the houses then take a bus to the library so no one could see her. But right now, the streets were empty and quite devoid of people.

The library happened to be her second comfort zone, her room being the first. The staff had come to acknowledge her everyday presence. She could use and browse any book she wanted from their computer. Sometimes they would even let her check out more than five books at a time, whereas the minimum limit is four per person.

She loved the comfort she got from the library. She admired how neatly and co- operate they all dress.

She once had her eyes on the manager.

Mr. .James

The emphasis mainly on 'once'

He is young in his late twenties, and he smells nice. She could tell he is around or in the building without having to look around. His cologne was popping and expensive.

Victoria had wondered severally if she had anything that anyone would notice her for. Aside from her little educational rebellion by pulling pranks in the school on a weekly basis.

Mr. James only gets to talk with her, when she is in the E- library. She was so into him to the point she wanted to tell him how she felt, till one fateful day.

Victoria happened to have seen him in the same vicinity where her mother did ask her to pick up a package from. She had seen him dropping off a little boy at a school nearby.

Weird part was that he was wearing a ring. Victoria acted like nothing happened and went to the library later in the day. The feelings she harboured for him disappeared once without her having to think much about it.

When Victoria got inside to the E- library section, she saw him talking to one of the staff. Desperately trying to avoid him, she covered her face with a book she had just picked from a nearby table. But James had sharp eyes.

Victoria walked over to him to greet him after he called out to her. He brought his hand for a handshake. Although she hesitated, but she ended up shaking it. Shockingly for Victoria, the line on his finger where his wedding ring used to be, was removed.

Since then, she had avoided him like a plague. Victoria shakes the memory off her mind as she stands by the bus stop, checking her watch and observing the road.

"The bus usually stops here, where is it?" she thought to herself.

In a quick flash, something rather fast ran past her, slightly brushing her shoulder. She steadied herself so she wouldn't fall on the floor again.

"Hey watch it!" she yells after the lady who just continued running, her hair dishevelled and stained with blood.

"Blood" she sniffed

The urge to chase after her invaded Victoria's mind, and without a second thought she made to run after her, that's when she saw it.

The band on her wrist.

"Is that Mary?" she asked rhetorically.

She looked at the direction she had come from, incase of any looming or impending danger but had seen none.

She turned to look back at the direction Mary had followed, when she came face to face with her.

"Arghhh!" Victoria screamed in shock and stumbled backwards. The Mary she's looking at right now had blood dripping from the side of her neck.

Victoria tilted her head to look at it closely, when Mary turned with a grunt and she started walking to a different direction growling in frustration.

She looked up and saw a few others walking, some running and others on the floor creeping, like they were desperately trying to get at something, or away from something.

"What the hell is going on?" She asked confused

Taking a closer look, they all had blood stains on their clothes, with some shirts brutally torn. Their hairs looked really messy and unwashed like people who crawled out of the sewers.

"What the fuck is this? Is it Halloween already? Your outfits are so cool. I must admit I got scared for a minute. Wait- is this some kind of payback prank..?" She laughed hysterically "Mom- you really had to do this to teach me a lesson? Well I'm not buying it." She looks over to mary again. "Look at you mary… you allowed my mom to drag you into this. And your son!" She paused and kissed her teeth.

"Your son is an asshole!" She yells.

"Grr…" they started sniffing the air and growling as they stumbled and walked around Victoria with their arms stretched.

"Ha! Haaaa… very funny! I'm not buying this…" she made to say but a quick glance at the man with a broken leg on the floor who snapped his teeth wildly at her, shuts her up.

"Is that -someone's flesh?" She looked closely

She looked up and noticed each of them having single or multiple bites on their bodies. That was the only explanation she needed for her to turn and make a run for it.

They pursued after her growling like rabied monsters.

"What the fuvk is this?" She asked as she ran down the road.

"Grrrrrrrr!" They kept growling, running after her.

"She took a swift turn, and hid behind a tree, panting heavily. After calming her breath she took a peep at them from the side. More of them had joined the chase.

"Grrrrrrr!" She turned quickly to see the crippled creature snapping at her. He was a few feet away from her, but the noises he was making with his teeth was enough to make the other creatures start running towards her.

She jumped over the fence and made her way to the road. She kept running, her breath shaking with every step she took, her vision becoming blurry from the sweat running down her face. She kicked a log of wood on the ground and fell on the floor.

"Fuck! My waste" she yelped

She turned to see if she had managed to loose them. But they were all running after her relentlessly.

She shut her eyes waiting for the inevitable.

"It's best not to see who killed you, Yh?" She asks herself. At this point she could literally hear her heart thumping.

She opened her eyes after some minutes a second later and they had all run past her.

She exhaled deeply.

"What a joke! I can't believe I fell for this stupid prank. Is this your way of paying me back? Well it sucks." She yells after them.

"Oh no! They are coming back."

_________________________________

Meanwhile, at Victoria's place, the gentleman (not so gentle) kept pacing in her living room.

"Was I too hard on her?" He asked himself for the tenth time.

He sighed as he looked at the time on the wall again as it read 4:05pm

"Where is she?" He muttered.

He got up from the couch he has been sitting on and went to the window. His phone vibrated and he quickly runs to check it, thinking his mom had texted. Only to be disappointed.

It was a message from his sister.

"- Kayla went to pick up a package and she's not yet back. I've tried calling her several times but it did not go through, did she call you?"

That morning, he had remembered asking his mom and his sister where she was and what she was up to, but they gave him a vague response saying she went to get something and she would be back soon.

Thinking about it now, made him worried.

His mother had used the excuse of 'going to get something, she'd be back soon' to make him come here in place of her.

'Could it possibly be she went to look for Kayla?' He thinks to himself.

He grabbed his phone firmly and shot a text back to his sister.

"- I didn't see her before I left the house, is there something you're not telling me, Kai?"

He waited for a moment before his phone buzzed in his palm.

"- I didn't mention this before but Kayla snuck out for a birthday party last night. Mom made me promise not to tell you till she finds Kayla and ground her. But now, I'm really scared because both mom and Kayla aren't back yet." The text reads

Panic gripped him at the thought of something happening to his mother and sister.

"- why didn't you tell me all this before now, what the fuck is wrong with you?" He typed back to her.

A message came in almost immediately as if she was waiting for his response.

"- maybe if you actually had time for us, and really cared, she wouldn't be sneaking out to find balance for her mental health. How about that?"

The message made him furious. He started typing back angry words to her when his screen suddenly went off. He tapped furiously on it severally but it refused to come back on.

His battery was dead and he forgot his charger back at home.

He looks around for a Samsung charger. He soon finds one lying on the table and he rushes to grab it and plug in his phone. He was still waiting for it to come up when he heard a loud thud in the bushes.

"Mom?" He called out

He got up leaving his phone on the table and rushed over to the window to see what made the noise he heard. But he saw nothing.

'She's probably throwing things out in frustration.' He thinks to himself

He closed the drapes and went back to the couch to continue his wait.

'Mom ought to be here by now. I have an artwork to complete and deliver tomorrow that I haven't even started yet. Mom knows this, so what's keeping her so long? She knows how important my work is to me." His fist clenched making his knuckles bleed a little.

He stares at it slightly at the pain it caused. Some minutes ago he was struggling to wrap the beautiful white Cotton around his knuckles. Now he has ruined the neatly wrapped Cotton with his blood.

For one, this isn't the first time he got his knuckles bruised. It had happened a few times in the past to the extent he doesn't find it as painful anymore. In fact, he was not done healing from the previous one from last night.

A guy had creeped up on him with a knife while he was returning, from finishing off a project. He dodged the knife, and managed to knock the knife off his assistant's hands which led to a fist to fist battle.

They fought for several minutes throwing fist and serving punches at each other before he had the stranger beneath him. He wanted to hit him in the face but his attacker dodged the blow sending his hand straight into the concrete floor.

But he had the their/ assailant bleeding anyways before the cops came in.

A smirk was playing on his face as he recalled the memory. He walked to the sitting room table and picked up the small portrait standing pretty there. Mr and Mrs Hart; A lovely couple.

He dropped the frame when he noticed another that was hung on the wall. He picked it up. It was the trio, with Victoria being in the middle.

He stared at her eyes. Her sad brown eyes staring back at him with no emotions. If he's not mistaken, she looks twenty but looks can be deceiving.

His eyes drifted to the stairs.

"Ahh geez!" He groans

The memory of Victoria drinking that gallon of water like her life depended on it flashed across his mind.

'Maybe she was hungry?' He thinks to himself.

'She probably doesn't know how to cook.' He reasoned. 'But how will I get her downstairs?'

His stomach rumbles.

"That's it, food!" He snaps his finger.

He gently placed the portrait back on the wall and headed to the kitchen. He contemplates for a while on what to cook.

'Maybe a pie would do' he wondered as he rummaged through the cupboards in the kitchen.

With that in mind he gets down to work.

_______________________

He stares at the picture he had drawn of the creepy lass upstairs before taking a glimpse at his wristwatch.

6:50pm

And she was still up there in her room, fuming behind closed doors.

"I'll never understand girls," he said out loud and sighed heavily. "They can be pretty annoying. That's it.. I'm going to get her."

With that said, he hops down from the dinning table where he had eaten the meal he prepared and made for the stairs. He climbed up the staircase and went through a passage that led him to three doors.

He walks past the first two and stops at the one that says …"ENTER IF YOU DARE!"

That was the only confirmation he needed to know whose room it was.

"Knock knock" he tapped on the door

No response

"Hey are you in there?" He called out after knocking the second time.

Still no response.

"Kno-" He made to tap on the door more loudly than the first time when the door bolts open.

"What!?" She screams as she comes out and stares at him angrily.

He bites his lips to prevent the smile that was already starting to form, to appear on his face.

He placed both hands on each side of his front pocket as he analysed her cute angry face. He noticed the dirt in her hair and her eyes looked like she had been crying.

"You've been up for so long. I made pie." He said

"Why are you still here?" She questioned in response.

"Sadly for the both of us, my mom is not back yet."

She gives him a confused Weird face.

"What do you mean she is not back yet? Or you don't want to go? Enjoying the free food, Eh?" she rolled her eyes at him.

Victoria crosses her arms under her boobs.

"You know what-" he made to say.

She doesn't budge, rather she gave him a face that screams 'i don't give a fuck about what you're going to say.'

"You don't deserve love." I told her. And with that I made my way downstairs.

"Did you leave me some pie?" Victoria calls after him.

The smirk he has been trying to hold down surfaced as he continued his walk downstairs.

"Hey! Heeeeeeey! I'm talking to you!"