The Invader

“You never texted me.” Donavan said when I arrived into work once school had let out. I blinked, suddenly recalling that I had promised to text him once I got him safely yesterday. Shifting the duffle bag on my shoulder, I smiled apologetically.

                “I’m so sorry, Don.” I said softly, “The moment I got home, I ended up crashing. I didn’t even change out of my clothes.”

                The scowl on his face said I wasn’t forgiven yet, “Do you realize how worried I was about you, Avery?”

                I made my way to the back room, Donavan following behind. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t really thinking about it when I got home.”

                “You could’ve�"”

                I dropped the bag on the floor, turning around to face him. I rested one hand on his shoulder, “I’m really sorry I forgot to call you, but I can’t change the past. Please drop it, Donavan. It was a rough day yesterday. I don’t need you hassling me about it.”

                He hesitated a few moments before sighing.

                I gave me a small hug before grabbing my clothes and going to the bathroom to change for the work day.

                It was evident that Donavan was still mad at me, whether he dropped the subject or not.

                ~*~

                “You’re kidding.” Karen said into the phone. It was close to ten in the evening. My grandmother had gone to sleep nearly an hour ago. I had to keep my voice soft on the phone so that she didn’t awake.

                Karen had called me at nine and demanded a serious talk. I bid my grandmother ado and retreated to my room. It took a while for me to explain the entire story. Karen was quite the interrupter. But I had finally finished and she seemed to be in shock.

                “I was horrified.” I mumbled, staring off at the alarm clock on my nightstand. The blue digits changed slowly, illuminating the room.

                “I would be too!” She exclaimed, “I don’t know how you did it. I probably would’ve fainted the moment I felt the gun against my head.”

                I laughed slightly, “I really couldn’t do that, now could I?”

                “I guess not, but still!”

                “Yeah,” I said absently. I rolled onto my back, hanging my head just off the edge of the bed. My eyes formed abstract shapes on the ceiling in the dark room.

                 “So tell me about Donavan. What did he do?” She seemed more interested in Donavan’s actions than the fact that I was almost killed.

                “Once the police got the man, he pulled me away and held me. It was so sweet, Karen, I couldn’t believe this was the same guy!”

                She sighed, “You’re lucky to have him as a friend.”

                “I know!” I rubbed my eyes, feeling exhausted. “He yelled at me today. I forgot to text him when I got back.”

                “Aw,” She giggled, “He worries about you, Aves!”

                “Shut up, I’d be worried too if one of my friends had a gun to their head yesterday!” I rolled my eyes.

                “That’s so cute.” Karen gushed, “If you two got married, you’d have such adorable babies. I’d want to be the godmother, of course.”

                I felt my face heat up. I sat up, staring at the head board, “Stop! I’m not getting married to him. He’s just my friend.”

                “You say that now…”

                “It will stay like that forever.”

                I could almost hear Karen rolling her eyes, “Sure. He’s single right now, isn’t he? You guys would be so cute together.”

                “Karen!”

                She giggled, “Alright, alright. I’ll drop the subject. But just so you know, the moment you two start dating, I’ll be there to rub it in.”

                “Don’t hold your breath.”

                “You say this now. Don’t you think he’s the least bit attractive?”

                “Yeah, but I really don’t want to worry about relationships right now. I just want to be single for a little while.”

                Karen sighed, “You’re going to have to move on someday. Avery, Josh was just awful for you. Forget about him. It’s been long enough. You can move on now.”

                “I dated him for a year and a half.”

                “And was that not the worst year and a half of your life?”
                “Not exactly…”

                “The correct answer is ‘yes, Karen, it was’.”

                I sighed, “Maybe.”

                “Knew it.”

                “Can we just change the topic?” I crossed my legs, my eyes studying the wood patterns on the bed, “Please?”

                “Perfect transition for my next question.”

                I inwardly groaned.

                “Why do you seem so fine about what happened yesterday? It was only a few hours ago, barely over a day. I would be in panic the entire time.”

                “I…” I blinked, not sure how to answer it. I should be in shock. I shouldn’t have been able to go to school today, let alone work. So why wasn’t I? “I’m not sure.”

                “Seriously, like I would’ve quit on the spot had that happened to me.”

                “Ronnie, the manager, told me it was completely acceptable to do so.”

                “Why didn’t you?”

                Again, I hesitated, “I just don’t feel the fear that was there anymore. It’s strange, I know, but I just…”

                Karen was silent for a long moment. I pulled back the phone to make sure we were still connected before she spoke again.

                “That’s weird.”

                “Yep.”  

                “If you need to talk about it…”

                “I know who to call.” I finished with a small smile on my lips.

                “So, who called the cops?”

                “I don’t know.” I mumbled, frowning. I leaned back on my bed so that once again I was staring at the ceiling.

                “I just think that’s strange. How did anyone manage to call them without that psycho seeing them do so?”

                I bit my lip. I hadn’t told her about the masked man that rescued me. She assumed that the police arrived and took care of the creep.

                “I don’t know.”

                “Maybe it was someone who was in the back of the restaurant.”

                “Maybe.”

                Truth was that I did know how the police were informed. Ronnie called them once the masked man knocked the creep unconscious. They wouldn’t have been there for us otherwise. They had arrived too late to help aside from taking the criminal out of our hands.

                 “Either way, weird s**t happened at your job. Are you sure you’re going to continue working there?”

                “Yeah.” I nodded, despite the fact she couldn’t see. “It’s not bad. And McDonald’s isn’t a likely place to get robbed. I think that guy was going off of a burst of anger.”

                “Who carries a gun into a restaurant?” Karen huffed, clearly not likely my decision to stay with my job.

                “It’s America.” I shrugged, “Second amendment, Karen.”

                “It might be America but that doesn’t mean we hand out guns like they’re going out of style!”

                “We’re a prideful country.” I sighed, rubbing my eyes, “I guess I just don’t really think it will happen twice.”

                Karen hesitated before speaking again, “If anything suspicious does happen, you’ll leave, right Aves?”

                “Right.”

                “I trust you.”

                Thud.

                My body tensed at the sound of something dropping onto the floor softly. Goose bumps rose up on my arm. We didn’t have any animals in the house and my grandmother would’ve made a much louder noise if she was moving.

                What was that noise?

                “Avery? Hello?” Karen asked into the phone.

                “Uh… I need to…go…” I trailed off quietly. Slowly, I turned my head around my dark room. My eyes were wide as I scanned the area, looking for any sign of movement.

                But I trusted my ears, and they seemed to be leading me to believe the noise had come from outside of my room.

                “Is everything ok?” She sounded concerned.

                I bit my lip, thinking up a quick lie to ease her worries, “Yeah, my grandmother just… I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

                It wasn’t the best of excuses, but it wasn’t the first time I had ended a conversation with Karen due to my grandmother.

                “Alright, bye Avery.”

                I closed the phone without another word. Slowly, soundlessly, I turned my body so that my legs hung off the side of the bed closest to the door. I licked my lips, trying to calm my heart beat.

                I couldn’t really be involved in a robbery twice in two days, could I?

                My ears were perked up for any other sound the intruder might make. Logic tried to reason with me that it was just the house being old, or that something had simply fallen over.

                Inertia states that a body at rest will stay at rest. For something to have fallen over, that would be acting against the laws of nature.

                There went my logic.

                I stood up cautiously, praying that no joints decided to crack. I crossed my fingers behind my back that I was simply being paranoid and that my grandmother was perfectly safe. My eyes scanned the room again, this time looking for a weapon.

                My fingers curled around the edge of the science text book. I held it in both hands as I tip-toed over to the door.

                Turning the door slowly, I pulled the door open.

                My eyes widened when I came face to face with an upside-down head. My lips pulled back to let out a blood curling scream.

                “Aah�"”

                His hand clamped over my mouth sharply. A small shake of the head to tell me to silence. My breathing came in quick and short as I stood paralyzed in front of the same man that had saved my life only 26 hours ago.

                My hands started to shake in my spot.

                The man was hanging upside-down from my ceiling.

                How was that even possible?!

                He waited a moment before removing his hand. His figure dropped down, flipping on the way so that he landed on his feet. Slowly, he rose up until he towered over me. I could feel his eyes boring into me.

                My eyes remained on the only patch of skin I could see�"his lips. They pulled up into a smirk. He raised a clothed finger to his lips.

                I nodded.

                He disappeared into the darkness. While I couldn’t hear him moving, I could feel his absence in the air.

                I closed my eyes, taking in a shaky breath. My lips moved of their own accord, whispering words of encouragement, “It’s alright, everything’s going to be ok. There isn’t a stranger insider of your house. You’re dreaming. Everything’s going to be ok.”

                I took in another shaky breath, continuing with my chants. Maybe they weren’t as meaningless as I had originally thought. My body seemed to be taking it better than standing in total silence waiting for something to happen.

                There was a loud crash downstairs.

                I jumped in my place, my breathing hitching, “It’s alright. It’s ok. You’re fine. Nothing bad will happen. God is with you. He’ll protect us.  We’re alright. This is just a dream. It’s ok. Everything is going to be ok.”

                “You really don’t know how to listen do you?” A deep voice said. I could feel his breath on my lips as he spoke.

                My eyes flew open, taking in just how close we were.

                The masked man seemed almost invisible in the dark hallway. But his bare mouth was only mere inches from my own, the lips pulled into a smirk.

                I took a step back into my room, swallowing. “Tell me what happened.”

                I tried to sound confident and demanding, my voice betrayed me, cracking in the middle of the last word.

                “Is that anyway to ask?” He teased.

                I swallowed again, summoning up any emotion I could, “Tell me what happened now. Or I’ll call the police.”

                “They won’t do much in this situation.”

                “Please tell me.” I whimpered, losing my tough façade.

                “There’s the magic word I was looking for.” He took a step into my room, closing the door behind us. I watched as he made his way over to my desk chair, taking a seat, “You had a little bug messing around in your back yard.”

                “W-what?!”

                He shrugged as if it was nothing.  “Don’t worry. He’s been taken care of.”

                “What was that crash?”

                “Knocked over a few trashcans.”

                “That didn’t sound like trashcans…”

                “Don’t worry. I handled it. When you wake up tomorrow, it will seem like nothing ever happened.” The assurance in his voice was tempting, but I didn’t want to wake up like I did this morning. I needed confirmation that the events actually happened. I needed visible proof. My fingers crossed with hopes that something would be disturbed.

                “Why are you here?”

                He chuckled, leaning back in my chair. The masked man looked entire comfortable while I still stood frozen in my spot. I felt like a stranger in my own home. “I’m here to protect you.”

                “How did you know there was a man in my back yard?” I asked skeptically, “Are you stalking me or something?”

                He openly laughed, “That’s cute, princess. Haven’t heard that yet. No, I’m not stalking you. I’ve just got… intuition.”

                I frowned, offended that he laughed at such a serious accusation. I had to admit, I was worried that he was indeed stalking me. He found out where I lived and decides to show up the next night randomly. It didn’t sound good.

                “You don’t believe me.” He stated. I didn’t argue with him. It was true. “That’s understandable. But just remember, I haven’t touched you.”

                “Yet.”

                His lips pulled into a smirk as he tried to hold back chuckles, “You want me to?”

                “No!” I hissed. “Never! Please!”

                “Good. I have no intention of harming you.” He stood up, running his hand over his mouth, “Just keeping people safe. I’m the good guy.”

                I raised an eyebrow skeptically, “What kind of ‘good guy’ intrudes on a young girl’s house at ten in the evening?”

                “The one trying to prevent someone from breaking into her house.”

                “Who are you?”

                He clicked his tongue, wagging a finger at me. “You really can’t tell me you’ve forgotten the rule already.”

                I closed my eyes, taking in a slow breath. “Please. Just, please tell me who you are. I won’t tell a soul.”

                “Can’t trust you on that.”

                “Right hand up�"”

                The masked man grunted slightly, rubbing his temples. His lips pulled down into what looked like a painful grimace.

                “Are you ok?” I asked cautiously.

                He lowered his hands, forcing a small smile onto his lips, “Spidey senses are tingling. It was nice chatting with you, Avery, but I really must leave.”

                He moved over to my window quickly, prying it open.

                “You’re not�"” He climbed out the window disappearing into the darkness. My eyes blinked twice.

                Quickly, I ran over to the window, staring out. The upper part of my body stuck out as I called into the night, “How do you know my name?”

                I waited for a few minutes for a response. Silence greeted me. Licking my dry lips, my eyes scanned the ground for any sign of a man moving.

                His face appeared before mine in an instant. His lips were pulled into a playful smirk again. My eyes widened from fear, but I managed to keep myself from screaming.

                “It’s a secret.”

                With that he disappeared just as quickly as he came. My eyes strained in the darkness as I tried to find him unsuccessfully.

                “Fantastic.” I mumbled under my breath as I pulled back, closing the window, “I have Superman as my stalker now.”