Make Your Move Katherine

911- what's your emergency

‘Huh?’

Kat squinted her eyes, through the dimly lit room, trying to get a better look at the black silhouetted man and her heart palpitations felt like they were threats to leap out of her body when he stood up. She stepped back in fright for the stranger who knew her name was tall. And he looked massive beneath the long-sleeved casual jacket he wore. She’s seen jackets like that in magazines, so she knew they were costly- which bandit wore expensive militarily styled jackets as the clothing to break in?

She looked at his feet- boots but not the combat sort. Dress- perhaps Chelsea. His hands were covered in black colour gloves and his face by a mask, exposing only his eye area. Even his hair was covered with a cap. Everything black.

The beyond scared woman, grabbed the doorframe just behind her, trying to support her weak legs, feeling each pump her heart made banging against her chest. Her forearm touched her bre*st as she slid down and it was then she realized she was naked except for her undies.

‘Oh God.’

Her butt hit the floor and she covered her front- somewhat by crossing her forearms over her chest, bending her head. She slanted her legs and pulled them toward her chest, hoping they hid her, she made the very ostrich-like move and closed her eyes.

Coward. Get up you fool, she tried to motivate herself for it seemed all her defence classes had been in vain. Then again, the man was not attacking her so how could she defend, she argued back with herself.

Was he going to kill her? Just how far was Mrs. Colum really going to take this? All she did was expose her adulterous husband for the vile man he was. Well, not yet anyway but soon- if she lived. Was this story worth risking her life for? Kat decided no. That no story was.

“I never slept with him,” she mumbled, hoping the would-be killer, will leave her alone now. She hoped the truth could be passed on to the mayor’s wife that and it would spare her life.

“Good.”

His voice had a lot of depth she noted. She had to try and remember every detail about him to tell the police later on- if she lived. How did he get in? Was it that stupid receptionist? Did she let him up? Or was it the window?

“Did she send you to kill me?”

“What? No Kat. What a life you lead,” the stranger said and she opened her eyes, now confused that he knew her name, to see him shaking his head. She immediately looked back down for she knew persons got killed when they saw their attacker.

He wasn’t here to kill her- well what a relief- Kat? Only her friends called her Kat. To everyone else, she made sure they used her entire name. He wasn’t here to kill her? Wait- was this really the person from high school? The one the receptionist had told her about? The scared woman squinted her already closed eyelids.

“Do I know you?” she still had her head bent, her long loose hair covering his view of her body. “Can I change?”

“I quite enjoyed the view of you bouncing around.”

“What? You-” she looked up then and saw he had not even moved an inch from the foot of the bed. He sat back down and threw the terry cloth robe that was on the bed to her, which landed some feet short of where she was. She would love to test her self-defence class techniques right now but she wasn't dressed properly… her mind did a quick cameo of her past instructor, showing her the ways of grabbing a t-shirt if caught like this. Unfortunately, they don’t teach you that.

“Yes, I have been here a while. That was an unexpected show. Thank you.”

“Who are you?” she asked as soon as she belted the robe, still wanting to get to her phone for she did not trust this stranger who broke in and behaved as if it was the most natural thing to do and awaited his appointed meeting with her.

“A pity you don’t recognize me-” he started saying and Kat looked at him, her forehead in a slight frown, “-for you did say my voice was unforgettable.”

“Hey assh*le, you’re wearing a mask,” she dared and tested her bravery for her mama didn't raise no fool. Well, her father had been doing a marvellous, single-parent job for the past few years- till his recent marriage.

'Yay dad.' Her insides were trembling though.

He promptly pulled the mask off and Kat was filled with a renewed fear- oh crap, now she did it. Danielle always said her mouth would get her in trouble one day- well today is that day, Kat thought. The darkly dressed stranger, got up and walked over to her right and flipped the switch for the overhead lights. She blinked against the sudden brightness and Kat’s eyes enlarged at the sight of the tall, handsome man in front of her. No, he was beyond handsome.

Oh- sweet devil, her heart hit against her chest again this time because of his beauty.

His thick well-equally shaped long eyebrows and his sharp jawline were the first things that caught her eyes. His light skin-toned; the chiselled face was almost marble smooth with the exception of one dark black dot about two inches beneath the edge of his eyebrow. His narrow straight nose, flared as she stepped closer to him, grabbing his jaw and twisting his face to see the other side. Another freckle was present on this side too but lower to the bottom of his face, near his mouth. Wide slanted grey-coloured eyes and long lashes, blinked slowly as she assessed him. His mouth twisted capturing her attention to the fullness of each red lip and his even teeth that showed when he pulled his back from her grip and said, “Remember?”

She did not. She would remember a face like this. But he did seem familiar somehow.

“Were you following me today?” she asked boldly for she felt less under a threat.

“No. I was here,” he said casually as if they spoke like this often and twisted his hat but didn’t remove it.

She turned back and eyed her phone and tried to make conversation as she walked towards it, trying to look calm although it was the farthest from her mind. “How did you get in?”

“Just get the phone, I will not stop you. We need to talk.”

Not wasting time, she ran and grabbed the cell phone eyeing him. He still had not moved but it did not help her feel safer either.

“Look- I’m busy and you need to shower, I’m sure your bath is almost ready, so do me a favour and punch in whomever you wish to call and hold the phone. You can press dial if I put you in danger.”

Fair enough she thought and did exactly that. 911. “Talk.”

“We need to get married right away.”

‘Huh?’

“They said that in order to become who I am, I need to marry you to seal our fate,” he went on.

“What?”

“Right? That’s what I said, you’re young and even I don’t want to marry anyone but they say I can’t ascend the throne without a bride and so they did the pishogue, and boom here I am to get you.”

What the hell was this i***t talking about? A pishogue- what is that even? She watched as he paced the floor of her bedroom gesturing with his hands as he spoke about a concoction he drank, that brought him to her. She pressed the dial button.

“911- What’s your emergency?” came from the mobile in her hand.

The man froze.

“Help! There’s a man in my apartment and I don’t know how he got into my bedroom,” Kat screamed into the phone and ran out of her bedroom, not looking back till she was downstairs.

By the time the police arrived, the bathroom was flooded for the bathtub tap had remained on and the man was nowhere in sight. Kat who had not stepped in since was still in her bathrobe informed the police about what happened. Minus her being naked part, and told them he had not come down yet, so maybe he broke into someone else’s place. The windows were a no-no, for they were too high up for someone to climb.

The police did not like when someone else gave them theories.

The receptionist looked scared when Kat added to the police that the man had made claims of going to her high school but he did not. She also asked them to search the building which they did but only the surroundings. They told the panicked Kat that searching private properties was not what the police did.

“But he could be in one!” she had been a bit hysterical.

“Ma’am, you can’t prove that,” the dunce female officer said to her, rolling her eyes.

Kat could tell that the female officer did not like her from the moment she mentioned she was a reporter. Most officers had the same reaction but none had a bad attitude like this one. She knew both officers were thinking she upset someone- as ‘all reporters’ snoop into people's private lives and they were just scaring her. Okay granted, Kat did snoop but that’s because her department was the gossip columns- of course she pried into their personal lives. Ugh- just live your life in the straight and narrow path and the gossiping would no longer exist- maybe a new section would replace it…perhaps ‘Who does the most gardening’ might be the new…nobody would read that.

“Can you prove he’s not inside one?” came Kat’s reply and the officer walked away.

Great- should she move out? She was feeling so unsafe.