Chapter Text
The first thing you heard was a click. You were known in your family as the lightest sleeper in the house, anything that wasn’t the normal creek or whine in your apartment woke you straight out of your sleep. You breathed deeply not moving as you heard a slide of a window. Your body tensed and you closed your eyes trying to focus on slowing your breathing. Your father had taught you that in addition to many things before he had passed away. You slowed your heart rate to mimic as if you were still asleep. You kept your eyes closed and your breathing motion consistent. You heard the lightest of footsteps come closer to the side of your bed. Your body was facing towards the wall that your bed was pushed up against so the vision of the wall was the only thing you could see. As your back was to whatever had intruded your house you let the eye closest to the bed and out of site open up. In the dark with the help of the small shimmer of the moon coming through your shades you saw an outline of a man.
The pulse in your chest started to speed rapidly as you readied yourself into your protective mode. You kept your body’s breathing pattern the same and consistent, still light and soft as if you were still asleep. You felt the presence of the man come closer and you moved your body’s position so that you’d switched to laying on your stomach allowing your face to be exposed to the figure. Your eyes still shut you felt the sweat start to gather as you readied yourself to make a move. You kept your eyelids perfectly still but could still sense that the man hadn’t moved, he was just there, staring at you. You kept your breath steady and your eyes relaxed. When your father had taught you random tips he’d tested you on how well you could fake slumber. Every time your father saw your eyes flutter he’d give you a solid flick to the forehead, your forehead was bruised for almost a week at one point. Four.
You kept your breathing steady and heard the man take one step towards your bed. You couldn’t feel his upper torso leaning over the sheets yet so you kept your breathing at the same past. Three. Your heart was pounding so fast in your ear that you thought he would’ve been able to hear it.Two. You took in a deep visible breath moving your head against the pillow as if you were about to reposition yourself. In actuality you were giving yourself leeway and space to grab the man’s neck with your legs if you’d calculated it correctly. One.
At the moment you were tensing your body to move the man’s phone vibrated. You stopped keeping your breathing consistent. You heard the man pick up his phone quick enough to let the phone only get half way through its first vibration. He’s fast. You waited a moment and heard the man turn around and open the window back up. You cautiously lifted one eye, the closest to the covers, and watched as the man slipped out of the window closing it leaving no traces but his presence. The man had worn a black hat and all black clothing not revealing any skin accept for that on his face.
Fourth Fatality
The sun had poured through the blinds in your room lighting it up into a different dimension. You slowly cracked your eyes open moving to rub the sleep out of them. You sat up slowly as your head pounded a new skull into you. You reached up and pushed both sides of your head on your temples as you leaned forward in your sitting position trying to stop the world from spinning.
“Shit, I shouldn’t have drunken that much,” you whispered under your breath. You sat up with your eyes closed and breathed deeply opening them up slowly. You stretched with your arms up cracking the lower side of your back.
“Ah that’s better,” you said looking around to see the empty bottles of alcohol coaxing your floor. You sighed. That’s right. I forgot. You’d forgotten that last night your boyfriend, ex now, Lay, had broken up with you. The kind hearted guy told you that you that weren’t giving him enough time and that he was going overseas to study anyway so it would be good if you two took a “break.”
You scoffed at the memory. You shook your head and rolled your eyes. Putting your hands to your face.
“Seven months and that’s what I get,” you whispered pulling your hands down your face slowly. You stiffened your body at the memory of what happened last night. You looked around sharply to your right your heart naturally picking up to the pace of potential danger. You slowly got out of your bed grabbing the knife that was velcroed under your night stand out. You crouched at the level of someone’s lower chest and moved to your window. You stopped and listened to anything that would be out of the ordinary. You stepped slower looking around the wall that separated the pathway from your bedroom into your kitchen and living room. Your apartment didn’t have a lot of doors, it was like an open space. The walls were built to leave an open space instead of a door. You didn’t see anything moved out of the ordinary. You went to your window and looked at your lock. It was in place.
“Hmm, must’ve been another nightmare,” you said standing straight into your regular stance. You walked over and stuck the knife back on the velcrow.
Ever since your dad had passed away you’ve had nightmares about getting taken. Ever since you were scarred by the scene when you were a child. You’d once gotten taken by someone for ransom once but your dad had saved you getting shot in the process. He never took the bullet out and because of that, he’s not here today. You tightened your jaw at the memory.
Ever since then you’d always had nightmares. But when your dad passed most of them had been about being taken. A few about shooting your own dad even, since you’d always held the burden and thought of you being the cause of his death. You walked out the way open way in the wall to your living room then walking over to your kitchen. You looked in your pantry and saw that you definitely needed to go grocery shopping. You sighed and grabbed the frosted flakes off the top of your refrigerator, you were a classic kind of girl anyway. You grabbed a bowl when you heard a ringing at your door. You put your bowl and cereal box down and walked over to the main door entrance looking through the whole.
It was your brother, Chen. He knocked on the door more and you unlocked the three locks on the door not including the regular one on the door knob.
“You really need to stop being so paranoid,” he said walking into your apartment. Chen was a good brother of yours but ever since he’d been running his campaign he barely had time for you. He was all you had left anyway. Your mom had died young so you don’t remember her that much, and now that your dad was gone your older brother was the only thing that was connected to you on this earth. You were grateful for his random visits. You smiled and closed the door locking all of the locks and latches back into place.
“You never know, one day I might get taken,” you said smiling walking passed him back to your kitchen. Chen followed you to the kitchen and grabbed one of the tall stools to sit on and watch you make your breakfast. He leaned on his arm and stared at you.
“What?” you said looking up at him and back down to your cereal.
“Are you ok?” he said looking at you. You smiled with a chuckle.
“Of course I’m ok why wouldn’t I be?” you said turning around to put the cereal back on top of the fridge.
“That’s not what you said last night,” he said pulling out his phone wiggling it at you. You paused and got the milk out of the fridge.
“I was drunk,” you said not looking at him.
“And you were dumped,” he said sighing putting his phone down. “Y/N, you can’t always hold your emotions in all the time. And besides all we have is each other, you can rely on me.”
“What do you want me to say?” you said getting a little frustrated, “he dumped me it’s over.” You stopped mid movement of you getting your spoon. Chen sighed and got off the stool. He came around the counter and took you into a big bear hug, he was great at those. You pushed your face into his chest demanding yourself not to cry, thankfully only one tear slipped out.
“You don’t need to be like that,” he said patting your back. Chen always knew when you were upset, you couldn’t hide anything from him. He was never that close to your guys’ father but once he passed away Chen made a huge effort to keep your relationship strong, he knew you’d miss him the most.
“And besides, the smell of alcohol is staining your apartment go crack a window,” he said pulling away walking over to crack your window in the kitchen. You shook your head at the memory of the dream you’d had last night and stared down at your cereal.
“What’s wrong?” he said walking back over grabbing a bowl for his own tastes.
“I had a weird dream last night,” you said moving to sit in the stool he had got up from.
“About?” he said pulling down the fruit loops from the top of the fridge.
“A guy came into my room through the window and just kind of hovered over me,” you said taking a bite.
“Did you kick his ass?” he said getting the milk out.
“I didn’t get a chance too,” you said shaking your head looking up at Chen, “I think someone texted him and then he just left.” You stared past Chen at the vivid memory of the man smoothly sliding out of the window without trouble.
“Hmm, must’ve been the alcohol,” he said pulling up another stool sitting next to you. You glared at Chen and he smiled at you genuinely.
“What? It’s true,” he said taking a spoonful of his cereal.
“And what about you?” You said looking him up and down with a chuckle. He was in a full suit ready to get his day started.
“Oh, I have an interview at 11,” he said shrugging still eating his cereal. You shook your head and looked at your older brother. He really did grow up quickly. You were never that close to him until your dad passed away, but nonetheless you were thankful for him. He caught you and smiled as he took another bite.
“What? Thinking about how much you love me?” he said winking at you. You rolled your eyes and laughed finishing your cereal.
“Good luck with your interview today,” you said as you got up to wash the bowl. The island counter had the sink positioned so that you were facing Chen as he finished eating.
“Thank you for breakfast,” he said after finishing gulping down the milk. He smiled and reached out to pinch your nose. You glared at him.
“I probably won’t see you for another week,” he said sighing standing up to fix his suit.
“I know,” you said not looking up at him continuing to clean the dishes. He came over and gave you a hug from the side and roughed up your hair. You smiled and put the dishes down to hug him back without your hands touching his suit.
“Love you,” he said kissing your temple.
“Love you too,” you said as you watched him walk out the door unlocking all of your latches and waving as he moved out the door.
Once you were done with the dishes you walked over to the door and latched it back up. You went back to your room and picked up the empty bottles to throw away. You vacuumed your floor and went over to your window about to crack it to let the room air out. You hesitated. You breathed deeply still not being able to tell what was imaginative and what was a reality.