Nowhere Safe

CHAPTER 4





Tri-issshh. Wake up, Trish, whispered eerily through her vanishing nightmare.

“Not...yet,” she mumbled. Heavy with exhaustion, her eyelids fluttered as she fought waking, then closed tight when she drifted off again.

Come and play, Trish.

“Not...yet...” she groused, mind thick and half asleep. “Go...’way...leave me ‘lone.” Sleep pulled her under.

Tri-isshhh!

Trish jolted at the harsh whisper, blinking fast awake in her dark bedroom. She tensed, ready to fight. Who was calling to her? The only sound now was her panting breaths that matched the rhythm of her thumping heart.

The whisper had been so close. So real.

Was someone in the room with her?

She slowed her breathing and lay perfectly still, trying to detect any movement. Had she been dreaming the scratchy voice? Not scratchy, really, but more like a robot voice.

Her sweat-drenched T-shirt clung to her clammy skin. Maybe the voice had been in her nightmare. Eyes adjusting to the blue glow cast by her nightlight, she scanned the room once more.

Nothing stirred.

No sound. Not even street noise. Trish flipped on the light beside her bed. A few of her geriatric neighbors drove around at midnight sometimes. She’d fallen in love on sight with the cookie-cutter houses with neatly trimmed yards and happy flowerbeds. West of North Miami, her quaint, older subdivision offered peace and quiet.

A safe haven.

Until now.

“You are one step from the loony farm.” Her whispered words might be funny, if they didn’t hit so close to the truth. She ran trembling fingers through her short curls and worked to calm her breathing. Just a bad dream. Again.

No more sleep for tonight.

She glanced at her digital clock. One tick past midnight. Wednesday had officially started and April was almost over. Dragging her sleep-deprived body from the bed, she headed down the hall to the kitchen for coffee, her sole vice these days.

When Trish straggled into the semi-dark kitchen, she expelled a sigh of relief, glad to escape another nightmare. But she couldn’t continue living on a few hours sleep here and there if she wanted to keep this problem from her overprotective brother.

Zane would soon notice the bags under her eyes.

And Trish had no choice but to keep this secret. No way would she allow someone to harm her only family.

Leaning against the sink, Trish instinctively reached to her right where the glass jar of coffee normally sat. Her wrist bumped something in mid-air a foot above the counter. She snatched her hand back and held her breath, then used her left hand to flip on the light switch.

Subtle light sifted across the counters from fluorescent fixtures beneath the cabinets. The coffee jar had been slid back to the wall, a cutting board left in its place.

Her wrist had hit the handle of a butcher knife stabbed into the thick slab of wood.

The knife blade nailed a piece of paper to the board.

Her mind screeched a denial, refusing to believe someone had been inside her home. She spun, checking behind and around her as she swallowed a sob threatening to rend the silence. Her hand trembled when she reached out to grasp the knife handle. Working it forward and back, she dislodged the tip.

The crisp piece of gray, fine-linen paper bore the same style of typed letters as the other notes she’d hidden in her nightstand.

I should take a Rook to replace the one I lost, but knocking over a worthless

Pawn in my way first is more fun.

When was the last time you had fun?

Time to come out and play, Trish. Go to your car and find your next instructions. Remember, your brother–or his very pregnant wife–will pay the price if you tell anyone about our game or if you don’t follow the rules exactly.

Trish put a hand over her mouth to smother the scream building in her chest.

AA

The Chessmaster smiled when a light brightened the kitchen window of Trish Jackson’s home.

Trish’s brother had felled Colbert, the Rook. An inconvenient loss that would mean a complex series of moves for this lowly Pawn. Every move would lead to eventually placing Zane in checkmate...once Trish was knocked off the board.

But not until Trish fulfilled her purpose.

No one could outplay the Chessmaster.