Abigail

I was about to do something certifiably insane. Annette would lose her mind if she knew where I was right now.

Tiny Shack was not a shack.

It was a six storey building in a weird neighborhood, where most of the streetlights didn’t work and the streets were as dark as obsidian black.

I eyed the building warily from where I sat in the car, confirming the location on my phone. This was where the tracker on Cole’s phone led me to, the blue icon beaming on my phone screen.

"Okay," I drew in a shaky breath. "What now?"

The ground floor had a laundromat with a metal shutter pulled halfway down and a Chinese takeaway restaurant next door with only one light switch on inside.

That looked like bad news.

Whoever Gavin had given the phone was in there, probably trying to break into the detective’s device and extract whatever information they wanted from it.

What was the worst case scenario? What if Gavin was in there too? Along with like fifty other henchmen?

I had no one and no backup. The police would think I was delusional if I reported and I already tried that before, it didn’t exactly work.

The only way would be for them to catch him red-handed and I could pull that off only if I was Batman.

A mirthless chuckle left my lips and I dropped my head down on the steering wheel. I had to do this, for Annette. I didn’t pull my bestfriend into this shitty mess to have a stalker waltz into our life like fucking a Halloween prankster.

I raised the phone up and dialed 911.

"911, what’s your emergency?"

"Hi, yes, I need help." I pitched my voice up slightly, making it tremble with fear.

"I’m at-" I read out the address from my phone screen. "There’s a man, he’s been following me, I think he’s in this building and I’m scared to go past it to get home. Can you send someone?"

"Ma’am, are you in immediate danger?"

"I don’t know. Maybe. Please, I just need someone to come." I gave my name, confirmed the address twice while the dispatcher noted everything.

"Stay on the line and stay in a safe location, Abigail,"

"I’ll try," I sniffled and shoved the phone in my jacket pocket without ending the call.

"Can you hear me?" The dispatcher’s voice continued faintly.

"I can hear you," I slid out of the car.

"A team of cops are in their way to you right now,"

Perfect.

The building’s side entrance was a metal door propped open with a brick. I slipped through into a stairwell that smelled like wet concrete and something rotting.

Christ, why the fuck was anybody even in this run down place?

I whipped out my phone to check the tracker, zooming in. It kept pointing down.

Down? I was already on the ground floor. What did it mean by down again? I turned on the flashlight and scanned the stairwell. There was a door beside a wall under the stairs.

"Bingo," I stormed to the door and yanked it open slowly. Behind it were the stairs going down.

My heart pounded hard against my chest as I climbed down into the basement, holding my breath.

The basement was not entirely dark. Along one wall, there was a blue glow from the screens of multiple monitors that lit the room. Cables were running everywhere.

In the center of the room with his back to me, sat a man. He was slender, hunched over, his round glasses catching the monitor light. His fingers moved across the keyboard rapidly.

Cole’s phone was on the desk beside him, the screen lit up.

He had cracked it!

How fast could I dash in and grab the phone then make a run for it. He didn’t look very athletic-

"Are you lost?"

Shit! My entire body went rigid at the sound of the murderer behind me.

My head whipped back to see his eyes widen in recognition. "You!"

He remembered me from the morgue! 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Move Abigail, move!

My legs took off and I dashed into the basement, headed straight for the phone. The slender dude working on gathering his laptop and his phone up so fast my hands missed swiping it.

"Run!" Gavin roared, not at me but at the man with the glasses. "Take the phone and GO!"

The man scrambled and Cole’s phone disappeared into his jacket. He bolted through a door on the far side of the basement that I hadn’t seen, banging it shut behind him.

No no! The phone was gone!

I didn’t have time to mourn that loss because Gavin’s hand closed around my jacket and yanked me backward. I spun and drove my elbow into his face as hard as I could. He swore, grabbing his nose, and I ran for the stairs.

He was faster though. His hand caught my arm at the bottom step. I grabbed the stair rail and pulled, the sleeve of my shirt ripping, freeing me.

I bolted up the stairs with his footsteps pounding behind me, his breathing loud, ragged and furious in the narrow stairwell.

"I don’t know who you are," he snarled behind me. "But you’re working with that detective, aren’t you? You’re about to go on and join him!"

I burst through the side door into the open air and ran towards my car. I could hear him behind me, so fucking close so I cut left instead of right trying to put distance between us, cutting between two parked cars when

His hand caught my hair.

Pain exploded in my temples as he yanked me back. My back hit one of the cars. I tried to fight him off but his forearm came across my throat, pinning me there, choking me while I sputtered and fought against his grip.

His other hand came up and my stomach dropped. He was holding a short metal pipe tightly in his fist.

"You should have minded your business, bitch," he spat, digging his forearm harder against my throat.

Oh god, the police wouldn’t make it here on time.

My fingers clawed at his forearm. My vision slowly turned black just as he raised the pipe higher and brought it down.