Because I'm Watching by Christina Dodd

Author:Christina Dodd
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250028440
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Someone was in the room with her.

In the middle of the night, Maddie woke and came to her feet. Her chair clattered and fell. Her heart raced and pounded. She spun in a circle, looking, seeking.

Nothing. The room was empty. No caped figure stalked her. No narrow eyes glinted in crazed pleasure. She was alone in her house.

She glanced at the clock. It was 1:15 A.M. She had been asleep two hours. More, maybe. Her butt hurt from sitting in that hard metal chair. Her arms had rested on the desk, her head cradled between them, and her shoulders ached from the awkward position. But she was alone. The trail of fingers across the nape of her neck was nothing but a terrifying dream.

Wait. At her dining room table. Who had turned that chair to face her? She hadn’t done it. She knew she hadn’t done it.

But maybe she had. She already knew that when she wrote, she was distracted. So maybe … maybe. Yes. She must have done it.

She stood and stretched. And saw a small piece of paper on the floor by the chair.

Reluctantly, she approached it. It looked like her drawing paper. Perhaps it had sailed off her desk and traveled on a wind current … although, of course, all the windows were shut and locked.

She picked it up, turned it over, and saw a sketch in pen and ink with a dark, menacing figure in a cape and hat.

But she had not drawn this. The style was primitive, the face had been painted with peach watercolor. And the eyes. Oh, God, the eyes. They glowed a sick, bright red.

With painful deliberation, she placed the paper on the dining table.

He had been in her house while she slept. He had been watching her. He had seen the monster she drew and he knew now she could identify him.

She sat down at the table and put her head in her hands. Why was he doing this? He could have killed her while she slept. Instead he cruelly tormented her. For what purpose? Why did he wish her to live in constant debilitating fear?

She wanted to call the police, to tell them, show them her evidence. But then everyone would know what her monster looked like, and she would be even more vulnerable.

She needed more sleep.

She couldn’t have sleep.

So she needed to eat. Standing, she went to the refrigerator and pulled out a beribboned box from Sienna’s Sandwiches. She had bought it earlier today. Right now, she wasn’t hungry, but she knew a cookie waited inside; her favorite, apricot nut oatmeal.

She deserved that cookie.

Setting the box on the counter, she slowly untied the shimmering blue ribbon at the top. She loved doing that; she loved the ritual involved, knowing when she opened the box, she would see the careful arrangement of sandwich, salad, and cookie. She eased the tabs apart, pulled back the flaps, and exposed the …

Maggots.

Hundreds of white maggots writhing on the bread, the cookie. The

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