The Darkest Days

            It was a dark and stormy night. The wind was harsh, and chills were creeping down my spine. The night engulfed me. I was caught out in the storm by myself walking home from work. There was not much for shelter near me, so I crawled under the biggest and nearest tree I could find. The howling wind and crackling thunder shook me and forced my heart to race in my chest. I stayed put and hoped the storm would die down. It had felt like forever before I could finally leave the shelter of the tree.             Once I escaped the shelter of the tree, I began walking as fast as I could through, what was once pouring rain, back to the safety of my home. Once I had gotten inside and began warming up, I felt quite a bit calmer. That was until I felt the presence of someone else.             I reached as quickly and quietly as I could for the gun in the side table by my door, but when I had opened the drawer, the gun was missing. The moment my heart stopped beating I heard a click from behind me. “Are you looking for this, Katherine?”  At that moment, I felt my heart jump up to my throat and my stomach drop down to my feet.             Although the rain was still coming down outside, I could hear the intruder heavily breathing from across the room. The breath of an unfamiliar being. A being that had my life in his hands and could crush it within seconds. My heart was pounding in my chest, and when I went to speak, I noticed I hadn’t been breathing. “Who are you? What do you want from me? How do you know my name? How… did you get in here?”             I suddenly remembered something. Something important. My life wasn’t in his hands. The gun wasn’t even loaded. I never kept a loaded clip nor bullets in the house. They always stayed on me, no matter what. However, he didn’t know that. Or did he? I figured I would take my chances and believe the first option; however, I was prepared for the second option. I then took a step forward, then another step. I continued this process until I was approximately half a dozen steps away from the intruder.             Even in the dark, I could see the gun trembling in his hand, the first mistake. With a shaky voice and lack of confidence, the intruder spoke up, “don’t take another step, Katherine. I’ll shoot.”             “Oh, I bet you will,” I smirked.             “You don’t believe me, do you?” With confidence back in his voice, he took a step forward and made the biggest mistake an intruder could make. He lowered the gun.             “No, I don’t. I’m sure I don’t have to explain myself. You can sense why. I can also sense that you’re not here to kill me. If you were, you wouldn’t have tried to use an unloaded gun to do it.” I took a second chance by closing the space between me and him. I grabbed the gun out of his hand and took two full steps back without taking my eyes off him. “So, why are you truly here?”             The intruder then started to walk me backward until I reached the door. With no serious threat, I set the gun back into the drawer it belonged in. He placed his hands on the door, one on each side of my face. In a low and (oddly) sexy voice, “I’m here to make a proposition.”             Thought after thought was racing through my head. Was he here to r**e me? Use me? Kidnap me? What is this so-called “proposition” he speaks of? Plus, the million-dollar question, who the f**k is this guy? I was honestly becoming scared once again. “What… what is this proposition?” I stuttered.             “I help find your brother’s kidnapper,” he paused.             “And what am I supposed to give you in return? I have nothing to give. I have no money nor anything valuable.”             “It’s so simple darling. You give me the one piece of you that never leaves you.”             “I’m not quite following what you mean,” words full of confusion.             “You. You come to live with me. Move out of here. You’ll be in a better home with better protection.” He takes a slight pause to lean in to whisper in my ear, “You hand yourself over to me and do anything and everything I say,” his voice thick and deep. A tingle ran down my body as he backs up to finish, “I think it’s quite a fair deal. Don’t you, Katherine?” He looks me in the eyes as his smirk turns into a devilish smile. At that moment, the only thing I can think of is, “I’m. f*****g. Screwed.” I then turned around and flipped the switch to the living room light and made my way hastily to the bathroom. I was drenched from the rain, and I needed to change and warm up before I caught a cold. That’s the last thing I needed. I was on my own and couldn’t miss a single day of work all because I got sick from walking home in the pouring rain and stayed in wet clothes to talk to an intruder. Once I changed into some sweats and a baggy shirt my brother bought me while we were at a Skillet’s concert, I went back into the living room to find my intruder missing. My heart began to race in my chest. The first thought that came to mind was he snuck around my house to find a dark corner to sit and wait, wait to pounce once I exited my bathroom. However, the second I peeked around the corner and found him sitting at my dining table in the dark I calmed down. I followed his path, turned on the light, walked cautiously to the table, and sat down slowly across from him. Sitting across from my intruder at my dining table under a light didn’t seem as scary as standing in the dark across from him; however, it obviously wasn’t a common event. I had just finished building my dining table the night before. It was crafted from smooth oak wood with a gloss finish. The table made everything seem calmer even under my current circumstance. Struggling to find the right words, I stood up and walked into the kitchen to make a fresh cup of iced coffee. “So, what you’re saying is,” I paused as I poured the ice into a cup before continuing, “you know who kidnapped my brother, but you won’t turn over the kidnapper until I hand myself over to you willingly?” “No, Katherine. What I’m saying is I have connections, and those connections can locate whoever kidnapped your brother. Finding Branden has been your number one priority for the last two months. I have seen the stress and worry consume you like acid.” My intruder then lowered his head into his hands and spoke softly, “it’s not pretty Katherine. I despise seeing you like this.” In the kitchen, I paused making iced coffee and turned to truly look at him. I then walked over to him as if he were a long-lost friend of mine that needed a shoulder to lean on. I squatted down, took his hands in mine, looked him in the eyes, and said, “I’ll do it.”