THE ATTACKERS

Then she ran faster and
start screaming, "is there someone out there?
Please help me, come get me"

***

CHAPTER V

*****

IT WAS FUNNY TO ME how, when I needed sleep the most, I spent the majority of the night tossing and turning, yet the moment sleep was the last thing on my mind was when I got a full ten hours. I only intended to take a short, thirty‐minute to hour long nap but, to my surprise, I found myself waking up to the early morning sun the next day instead.

A low groan slipped past my lips as I turned onto my stomach and buried my face into my pillow, hoping that I could maintain the position long enough to suffocate to death. The dull throb in the back of my head from the previous day had progressed into a sharp pang every few seconds, making me want nothing more but to rot away in my bed for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, money needed to be made and I was on a very tight schedule this week. Begrudgingly, I pulled myself out of bed, stretching out my aching limbs before heading to the shower to wash away yesterday's problems.

As per usual, the water went cold faster than I wanted, forcing me out of the shower and into the remainder of my morning routine until I was sat in the kitchen with a steaming cup of coffee in my hands while I waited for the hands of the clock to strike half nine so I could start my journey to my first session of the day. I still had about ten minutes so I distracted myself with one of those colour-sort games that played ads every two minutes when a message from an unknown number popped up on the screen.Without opening the full message, I read what it said.

'Hey! It's Elysia. I just wanted to check in on you since you left the party in a rush,' the message read, making my lips fall into a frown as I stared at it for a minute in thought. It wasn't a surprise to me that she got my number as most people our age seemed to have it but I couldn't understand why she was only texting me now.

Maybe it was paranoia, but I didn't understand why she waited until now to text me when the party was five days ago. Now that I coincidentally just happened to receive a death threat.

Was I dumb to consider there was a possibility that she had a hand in the matter? Did she know what transpired in the basement that night? I mean, she was Derek's friend so it wasn't too farfetched. How could she know him as long as she did and he wouldn't tell her something like this? How would he bring something like this up to her, though? This was something I didn't think I myself would've believed happened if I didn't see it with my own eyes.

There was a possibility that she had no clue and I didn't want to risk both her and my life by confronting her about this. It was my cross to carry but, while I had no intention of carrying it alone, I didn't feel the need to involve a, potentially, innocent person.

I decided to play stupid, responding back to her message with a standard 'I'm good. How about you?' before setting my phone down.

I wasn't completely sure what I was going to do about this death threat but I knew making baseless accusations wasn't it. I'd just ask her for Derek's number then somehow muster up the courage to speak to him and hopefully get some answers.

I finished up whatever was left of my coffee before washing the mug and making my way back up to my room for my satchel but something slipped beneath the threshold of my front door caught my eye.

Just like yesterday, a white, folded up envelope sat on the floor, halfway inside and halfway out. My heart started to beat harder in my chest as I crouched down to pick it up, my hands trembling with fear upon flipping it over and realising it was addressed to me again.

I stuffed the note in my pocket before rushing upstairs, my lesson learnt from yesterday to not read this where someone else could see me. Closing the door behind me, I pulled the letter out of my pocket and read the contents in the same way I had the first letter.

Dear Morgan,
Watch your back.
Love, Raphael.

I was going to crash out.

***

The whole day, it felt like somebody was watching me, yet every time I turned and scanned my surroundings, nobody ever stood out to me. I had even, at some point, started to memorise faces just so I could recognise if one showed up more times than was normal but none did.

Maybe I was being extra paranoid because of the letters which I carried around with me in my bag, but maybe I wasn't. Maybe whoever was sending me these letters was now following my every move. What if it was no longer just death threats with no weight behind them but actual threats of imminent danger? I couldn't say I knew why I was receiving the letters but a part of me believed that someone just wanted to punish me for knowing who killed Ralph and staying silent about and that was where this whole thing would end. Maybe they wanted to harass me until I came forward, but now, with these eyes on my back, I couldn't so naïvely believe it was that simple any longer.

Later that evening, I found myself sitting in my usual spot that was located at the very back of Redwood's local library, far behind the bookshelves and beyond the places people normally ventured, my mind now on my next client's assignment instead of on the possibility that I was being watched. Now I was too worried about analysing the economic state of the country to worry about the eyes on my back.

"Morgan," I startled at the sound of my name, my gaze shooting up to meet the familiar brown eyes of Lindsay's, the library worker, while flinching away from her. She gave me a concerned look as she retracted the hand that was midway through reaching for my shoulder. Her expression softened, a smile appearing on her thin lips and highlighting the laugh lines around her mouth that deepened with her age. "It's just me, sweetie. What's got you so jumpy?"

I let out a breath and shook my head because I was not about to get into it with her. I couldn't get into it with anyone ever but if I had to put anyone's life in danger, she would be last on the list. I didn't know her all that well, but the little I did know about her from observing her told me she was a genuine person and we didn't get a lot of genuine people in Redwood.

In addition to that, I couldn't ignore the fact that I looked like I was slowly succumbing to madness. Despite my almost ten hours of sleep the night before, I still had prominent bags under my eyes and my coffee habit — now ramped up by my excessive consumption to compensate for my lack of sleep — had me jittery and jumpy yet, somehow, also slow and dumb. If I started going off about being followed, people were sure to think I'd have gone off the deep end.

"Poor thing," I could already imagine them saying with their fake sympathy, "couldn't cope with the stress of losing her father." Kill me.

"Just caught me by surprise is all," I said in an effort to dismiss her concern which only ended up making her do the opposite. She raised an eyebrow at me as if she didn't believe a word that left my mouth but knew better than to push me to open up, so she dropped it.

"I didn't mean to startle you. I'm sorry," she said, making me shake my hands to get her to stop apologising to me. "I didn't want to disturb you. You're always working so hard in this little corner of yours but we'll be locking up in a couple minutes," she said, pointing at the clock to show that it was coming up on a quarter to nine when the library would close.

"I'll tidy up now," I said to which she smiled and told me to "take my time" before leaving me to my own devices. I busied myself with packing up my old laptop and cleaning up my space before hooking my bag over my shoulder and making my way towards the door.

As I pulled the large, glass door open and stared out into the darkness that waited for me outside, I couldn't help the way my stomach dropped with the same fear from earlier that day. And then, there was that same feeling again; the feeling of someone's stare lingering too long on me. I sucked in a deep breath. All I had to do was walk back home; there was no harm in that. It was a twenty minute walk and even though everything was dark, that didn't mean that I was completely alone. From the door, I saw cars driving down the main street even at this hour, giving me the courage to grip my satchel tighter and head out.

I let my feet walk me down the road I knew like the back of my hand, almost on autopilot as I focused my attention on my surroundings instead, my body ready to flee at the slightest sign of danger. Every little sound had me alert and craning my neck to see who was there but, apart from an orange cat crossing the road, there was nothing.

I kept my guard up for another few minutes, painfully anticipating the moment I would have to fight off the danger I felt was around the corner, but those few minutes ticked by and nothing happened, so, naturally, my guard came down. I slowed down my pace, allowing my gaze to linger on the buildings and trees that surrounded me while my mind remained on other things like how tired I was and what I was going to eat when I got home. I wasn't much of a breakfast person so the only thing I was running on at that point was a mountain dew and a bag of crisps. I was way overdue for another meal. I pulled the zip of my jumper down, allowing the gentle breeze to cool me down as I continued my walk back home with nothing other than food on my mind when something unusual caught my attention. It was the sound of footsteps steadily keeping in pace with mine. Or maybe not in pace. Maybe a little faster.

That wasn't what scared me though. The same way I finished my work at this late hour was the same way other people could've finished their work at this time too. What scared me was that it wasn't just one person. From the sound of the footsteps, there were at least three people and, with the way it sounded like elephant stomps, they all had to be men. So a group of at least three men walking together; it didn't not make sense to assume they were all walking home together after a long day of work. I wanted so desperately to believe that was the case, but didn't groups of people talk to each other? This group was walking in complete silence and, while I couldn't see them behind me, I could feel their lingering stare on my back as if I was the soul focus of their attention.

My heart began beating harder in my chest as I sped up my pace to one that matched theirs so they couldn't close the gap between us. The worst part was that I was now on a quieter road where a car seemed to pass about every minute instead of constantly, making me feel like I was truly alone here with these people and the street lights were so far apart that long stretches of darkness followed between each post.

Luckily, at that moment, I just came up under one of the few lights that littered the, otherwise, dark and empty street, allowing me to take advantage of it and sneak a quick glance behind me through the guise of flipping my hair over my shoulder. My image of them wasn't clear but I had seen enough to figure out one thing; I had been wrong. There were four of them and they seemed to be a lot closer to me than they were before. Listening to their footsteps, I noticed how we were no longer going at the same pace anymore. They had sped up.

"Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out," I mouthed to myself as I tried to remain calm. I needed to think of a solution fast and now that they weren't aware that I was onto them gave me the upper hand but I didn't know how long I would have it and I wasn't the best at working under pressure.

The sound of a car turning down the street gave me the idea to hitchhike, a practice I knew wasn't very safe but it seemed to be a better option than the alternative. I turned my attention to the road, watching out for the headlights that gradually approached me in hopes of stopping the driver and getting a ride from them but, again, something was off. The speed limit in this area was at least thirty miles per hour but this car seemed to be driving much, much slower than that, as if also trying to keep in pace with me.

Now seemed like a good time to freak out.

I broke into a sprint, running as fast my legs could take me as I mentally berated myself for thinking I could outrun a car. Confirming my fears, a low hum had come from the car as it accelerated to match my speed while the group behind me broke into a run as well.

I was so royally fucked.

I ducked into the nearest alleyway, the main thing on my mind being to lose the car because I was sure I could outrun everybody else but I didn't consider that it could end up leading me to a dead end. Not until I came upon a tall iron barrier with a smaller, padlocked gate, keeping me away from the main road where I could see the cars continuing to race down the street; where I would be safer. There would be too many people on that road for them to hurt me. Someone would help me. The presence of the gate made me falter a touch, but I didn't stop; I couldn't. Instead, I sent a silent prayer to whatever god there was above and barged right into it, hoping that, at the very least, with my momentum, it would topple over and give way or something. Instead, I flew right through, my eyes widening in surprise once I realised that it wasn't actually locked like I thought it was before relief washed over. When else had I ever been so lucky?

Unlike what I had thought before, the group of men still continued to run after me despite the lights from the shops that illuminated the street and the many cars that littered the road as if they could attack me or snatch me up if they caught me. They didn't stop chasing me until we were far away from the main road, now on another quiet street on the opposite side of town but this street was different. This street had something scary enough to make them all disperse before I had even stepped a foot through the pair of twelve-feet tall iron gates leading to the building I had had in my mind since I began running.

Now much calmer with the knowledge they couldn't follow me anymore, I walked in through the double doors of the police station and made a beeline for the officer sitting at the desk behind the glass barrier. Hearing me approach, he raised his head from the documents he was looking over and met my eyes instead.

"Hi. Somebody is following me," I said, not bothering to beat around the bush.

The pale, overweight, middle-aged man behind the front desk let his eyes run over my appearance once before an unimpressed look appeared on his face as he let out a loud breath.

"Come again, ma'am."

I frowned. "I said somebody is following me," I repeated slower this time and with greater conviction as I stared, unrelenting, into his beady brown eyes. "They followed me all the way here and I don't feel safe going home."

"And what do you want us to do about that?" he asked, making me tip my head to the side with my brows furrowed in confusion while he waited for me to answer him.

"I—I don't know. Maybe drive them away or something," I offered before narrowing my eyes at him. "It's your job to figure out what to do," I cast my gaze down to the name tag on his uniform to help me fill in the blank, "Lucky. So do something."

Lucky put the pen he was holding down as he leaned in over the desk closer to me, his voice low and his eyes narrowed as he spoke. "Do you know how many girls like you run in here claiming they're being followed and it turns out to be a false alarm? Just some man walking in the same direction?" he asked, his voice filled so much with accusation and indignation, even I had started to doubt myself. "It's a waste of our resources. We're already understaffed as is. Who's going to run this place if one of us goes out on this wild-goose-chase and it ends up just being an innocent man again?"

"I know what I saw," I said, my hands coming down against the desk in frustration at him. A tight knot formed in my chest with the fear that I wouldn't be able to get any help from them. I didn't need them to investigate who was behind this and start arresting people; I just wanted to make sure I got home safe. "It was a group of them. Not just one man—"

"Ah, so a group of friends who happen to be walking in your same direction."

"—and they were following me. They took every turn I took. They sped up and slowed down with me," I tried to explain, but it was clear to me he wasn't hearing a word I was saying as he resigned himself to reading his documents instead, making me huff out in frustration. Then, to my luck, an idea struck me. "Look. Look at this," I said as I reached into my satchel for the threats I had been receiving. I placed each one of them on the desk, letting him scan over the words himself and hoping it would convince him that I knew what I was talking about. "They've been sending me these recently. You see?" I pointed out, but his face still showed indifference as he looked up from each letter to me instead.

"If you want to report this, then we have procedures for that. No cutting corners."

"I want to report them!" I exclaimed as I pointed to the windows where I knew just beyond them, my stalkers lurked; waiting for me to come out alone so they could hurt me. The fact they still dared to chase me in front of so many people told me that their purpose wasn't simple. Something more was at stake and I had no idea what that was.

Lucky's gaze followed my finger, taking a quick glance over the dimly lit parking lot outside before turning to me with a blank expression on his face. "I don't see anyone outside," he said, sounding dumb as hell to me yet I willed myself to keep my inside thoughts inside. "Now do you want to file a report or not?" he asked as he gathered up the letters and made to take them into the back room to do God-knows-what to them.

"No," was all I said as I snatched the letters out of his grasp and stuffed them back into my satchel. I wasn't sure what games were at play here but I didn't trust him to take the only piece of evidence I had with him and not throw it in the bin or shred it. Worst case, I ended up murdered. I ,at the very least, wanted this on hand so maybe someone would call foul play on my death instead of believing it was the suicide I knew my murderers would stage the scene as. I wasn't going out like Mike did.

"If you're not going to file a report then I'm going to have to ask you to leave," Lucky said as he gestured to the doors, making me frown at his words before shaking my head. He wasn't going to refuse to help him and then push me back out to my death.

"No." I took a seat in one of the waiting room chairs available, shifting around in it until I found a position I deemed comfortable enough to spend the rest of the night in if I needed to. I met Lucky's irritated gaze again. "If you're not going to do anything, then I'm staying here until it's light outside and they're gone."

"This is a police station," he said to which I gave him a condescending smile.

"Yes, and this a chair," I said slowly as if talking to a five-year-old, as I pat the chair I was sitting in since we were both pointing out the fucking obvious now. "And this is a coffee table. And this here is—"

"I'm asking you one more time to leave," he pressed, making me narrow my eyes at him as I got to my feet and walked over to him again.

"I'm not going to let those bastards outside murder me before you finally figure out how to do your fucking job," I hissed, a finger raised in his direction as I spoke which in turn made him stand to his feet, his lips pursed in irritation and his jaw clenched.

He leaned across the desk slowly, both his arms balanced on it to keep him upright. "Do you want to repeat that again, miss?" he asked, to which I gave him a sweet smile.

"I don't believe I stuttered just now so it's either you're hard of hearing or you're just really fucking slow," I said, no longer trying to stay respectful as I sat back down and crossed one leg over the other. "We can do this all night," I said, before presenting my wrists to him as if asking him to handcuff me. "You can even put me in jail if you want."

Lucky opened his mouth to say something, the look on his face telling me it wouldn't have been anything nice, when another officer stepped out from the backroom behind the desk and drew both of our attention to her. She was much shorter than Lucky and thinner but didn't appear to be much younger than him.

She looked between him and I, her eyebrows furrowed before she spoke. "What's going on here?"

"This woman is causing a disturbance," he said, making me fold my arms over my chest as I leaned back in my seat.

"At first I thought you were just lazy, but I see you really are slow," I bit, cutting him off before turning to the female officer whose name tag read Martinez. "Somebody out there is following me. It's not just one of them; I counted at least four and they've been following me since I left the library at nine. I asked Officer McDumbfuck over there to help me and he asks me what he should do as if that isn't his fucking job."

"Excuse me?" Officer Lucky spoke up, his brows pinched together and his jaw set as he gave me a deadly glare but nothing this man could do or say would make me care. If it was between him and possibly losing my life outside, I'd choose him every time. The bonus was that my presence seemed to ruin his day. "This is how she's been speaking to me the whole time she's been here, Martinez," he said, his words this time directed at the female officer like he was telling on me to his superior before shooting a glare my way. "You're lucky I haven't put you in handcuffs yet."

"If you did, I might actually believe that you do your job," I rebutted, making him open his mouth to reply when Officer Martinez stepped in.

"That's okay," she said, holding up a hand to stop our back and forth. "She's riling you up on purpose, Lucky. Don't respond to her," she said, making him give me one last glare to which I gave him a cocky smile before returning to the papers on his desk.

With him out of the way, I turned my focus to Martinez, hoping to play on her heartstrings a little and get her to help me out.

"You know what it feels like to walk alone in the dark and be unsure of your own safety; especially as a woman," I said, watching the way her dark eyes seemed to soften at my words. "I know you understand this more than anyone else here; the fear that somebody would follow you and do the worst imaginable thing to you. Even if there's a chance that I'm wrong, it's not one that any girl in my position would want to take; the consequences are too dire. I just want to get home safe. That's all I'm asking for. Can't you help me do even that?" I begged, making her watch me for a couple seconds longer, a frown on her lips before she let out a sigh and turned to Lucky.

"Lucky, I'm doing my rounds," she said to him as she picked up a coat she had sprawled out on the back of the empty chair beside Lucky's. He looked up at her.

"You're not actually listening to her, right?" Lucky asked, an incredulous look on his face as he eyed Martinez before turning his eyes of suspicion onto me.

"I'll drop her at home and then get back on route. It won't take long," she said with a shrug.

"You're taking a huge risk." I narrowed my eyes at him, a string of curse words rising through my throat but I forced them back down again since there was no longer any point in arguing with him. What the hell was his problem? He wasn't going to help me so when someone else actually steps up to, he discourages them? Did he want me to die?

"She looks harmless. Plus, I understand what she's going through," she said to him before turning to me with a smile that told me she understood me and didn't doubt what I was telling her. "Come with me; I'll escort you home," she said to me before walking out the back door.

Before I followed suit, I turned to Lucky with a wide, fake smile. "You better have your full name and badge number for me tomorrow because I'm reporting the shit out of you," I hissed before turning away to follow Martinez out the back door, not giving him time to respond.

She walked to one of the police cars parked out front and held the passenger door open for me, allowing me to slip inside before she closed the door behind me. I busied myself by putting on my seatbelt as she walked around the front of the car and got into the driver's side before starting the car.

As we silently cruised down the empty road, I couldn't help but look out the window, trying to see if I could catch a glimpse of the people who had been following me earlier, yet there was nothing. I would've believed that they were scared off if it wasn't for the fact that I still couldn't shake the feeling of being watched; even with them no longer being in sight. How were they so good at hiding?

"Do you see them?" Martinez asked, breaking me out of my thoughts as I turned to her with a frown on my lips before shaking my head.

"No, I don't," I sighed, a part of me relieved while another part felt somewhat disappointed; like them not being there just proved to her that Lucky was right and I was insane. "Lucky must be laughing."

"Don't pay any attention to him," she said as she rolled her eyes at the mention of his name. "Someone accused him once when he wasn't in uniform sometime in the eighties. It was a whole deal; he even got questioned by the police before he was let go. Ever since then, he's had some sort of vendetta against women who claim to be followed," she explained, making me nod my head in understanding. Maybe I could sympathise with him a little but I still wanted to report him. "He doesn't realise that one mistake doesn't mean every girl is mistaken."

I couldn't help but agree with her. And as an officer, he wasn't supposed to allow his own personal experience get in the way of him doing his job. I wouldn't be surprised if all the "false alarms" he claimed to have were of women who were actually being followed but because the police had intervened, they got home safe. Or what, did a woman have to die because he hadn't taken them seriously before he learnt?

"I'm actually just down this neighbourhood," I said as she drew nearer to the one of the roads leading into my neighbourhood. As she drove in, I gave her directions for the rest of the way until she was parked right in front of my house at the beginning of my driveway. I turned to her, hoping she could see how grateful I was. "Thank you so much for taking me seriously. You don't know how much this means to me."

"You don't have to thank me," she said, a warm smile on her face as she waved a dismissive hand. "I have two nieces that I hope someone would do the same for if they ever need help," she revealed before shooing me out. "You go up. I'll stay here until you're inside," she said, making me give her another grateful smile and a nod before getting out of the car and closing the door behind me. I waved again at her one last time before making the short walk up my driveway while looking through my bag for my keys.

Honest to her words, she waited until I got the door open and stepped inside my house before she drove off, making my heart swell with appreciation. I loved women so much.

"Who was that?" a quiet voice said in the dark, making me almost jump out of my own skin before whipping around to pin a glare on Richard just as he switched on the hallway lights. Why the hell did he keep creeping up on me like that? "Was that a police car? What did you do?" he asked to which I rolled my eyes as I double checked the door was locked before dropping my keys back into my bag.

"Nothing. They just escorted me home," I said but the look on his face told me he wasn't going to believe that. Not that I cared anyway. He could believe whatever he wanted.

"Why did a police car escort you home? What did you do?" he continued to pester me, following me down the hallway as I made my way into the kitchen. I made a point of not answering him because I already told him all I was willing to say and all I figured he needed to know but this was Mike's brother we were talking about so it wasn't enough. Nothing was ever enough. "Morgan."

He grabbed my arm to stop me from walking away, making me whip around to glare at him as I ripped my arm out of his hold. "Don't touch me," I hissed, narrowing my eyes at him despite the darkness that surrounded us. "Forget the fact you live here; I don't fucking like you so stay out of my way and I'll stay out of yours," I said lowly before turning around and switching the lights for the kitchen on. "Don't start pretending you care."

Richard remained standing by the doorway into the kitchen, watching me in silence for a bit as I went about fixing myself a sandwich like a fucking creep before he spoke up again.

"Whatever you're into, Morgan, make sure it stays with you alone," he said, his voice low; warning. "I have a family that I'll do anything to protect."

"Then do that," I said in exasperation, my voice being the fine line between a loud whisper and a quiet hiss. "I don't care. I was escorted home because some freak was following me," I only half lied. "Nothing is going to happen to your family so shut the fuck up about it."

Finally fed up with the conversation, I assembled the rest of my sandwich before pushing past him and making my way across the hallway to my room. As soon as I had devoured it, I made a point of taking a shower despite the fact I already showered that morning before laying down in my bed, freshly washed in my pyjamas.

I let my mind race as I thought over the day's events because I could never not overthink. It seemed to be coded into my DNA.

Rolling onto my side, I picked up my phone only to see that I received another message from Elysia. One I didn't feel the need to reply to. I had more pressing matters on my mind like the letters and the stalkers. I was certain that the people who followed me were the same ones behind the letter which scared me more than I was ready to admit, because I thought, at first, the letters were just a thing used to punish me for my silence. It was naïve to think that but I so desperately wanted it to be the truth so I believed it but the fact that people had been following me, ready to do things I didn't even want to start imagining to me, told me that it was more troubling than my initial beliefs.

It also clear to me that Derek was most likely not the one behind the letters like I had been considering was the case. Whatever doubts I had about him before were quelled. If he wanted my silence, he wouldn't have sent hoodlums to follow and intimidate me; that wouldn't make any sense but still, there was only one conclusion I came to at that point and it was that I needed to speak to him.

Picking my phone up again, I opened Elysia's chat and, without reading the last message she sent me, I sent her one of my own.

'Hey,' I typed out, 'could you give me your friend's number?' I read my message over once before hitting send only to realise it was too vague. Needing a secondary text, I sent one other word after:

'Derek's'.

***

Hey yall. So I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is that Derek is going to be in the next chapter. The bad news is that the next chapter comes out next week 😔 I'll definitely have it posted as early in the week as possible but updates are now returning to normal and will be weekly 😭😭 I'm sad too

Anyway, damn near 6000 words of this yall better appreciate me!

Don't forget to vote and comment pls ❤️❤️ i eat them for sustenance