Chapter Twenty-eight

A noise woke her.  She looked over the back of the couch, but it was too dark to see anything.  Maybe it was Brooks.  She sat up, but Brooks was curled up by the glass door, sleeping. She heard the noise again.  It sounded like papers shuffling in the front room.  Her heart lept in her chest. There was someone in the house.  She quietly stood up, concentrating on the noise. Slowly she moved toward the kitchen, thinking of the back door and escape.  Her foot exploded in pain as she smashed her toe into the coffee table.  The rustling noise in the other room stopped. Her heart was beating so loudly in her chest that she wasn’t sure she could hear anything else.  Suddenly, there was a footstep on the hardwood floor. She glanced at Brooks, still softly snoring way blissfully unaware.  The ominous sound of another footstep reached her ears. She backed up slowly, frantically trying to think of a place to hide. Panic was rising in her and she was having difficulty keeping herself from breaking out into a run.  She slipped behind the couch and kneeled down, but not before she glimpsed a shadowy figure in the hall. She held her breath. She crawled to the far edge of the couch ignoring the cold of the floor against her bare knees.

“Paaayton…” whispered a deep frightening voice.

She froze. He knew she was there. Her hands were shaking.

“Paaaaaayton…” the voice repeated. “Come out, come out, where ever you are.”

She swallowed away a whimper that tried to escape and fought the building scream with all her might.  She heard his step again at the far end of the room.

“Come on Payton. You don’t need to bother hiding. I will find you anyway. You’re just making it harder on yourself.” 

If he kept talking, she would be able to know where he was and keep away from him.  He was across the room now and sounded as if he was moving toward the glass door. If she didn’t make a move now, he was going to get between her and escape.

“Payton, this is getting old,” his voice had lost the spooky playfulness and began to hold more anger.  She heard him bump into the side table.  He cried out and she jumped up and ran for the kitchen.  In a second, he was on her, pushing her to the floor and crawling on top of her.

“NO!” she screamed as she struggled against him.  She flailed against him swinging her fists at any part of him that she could connect with. He was fighting to get her wrists under control.  She connected with his nose and he growled at her and slapped her hard.  It stunned her just enough for him to get his hands around her wrists and hold her down. 

“Now stop, Payton. If I wanted to hurt you, I’d have done so already,” he hissed.  “I have other plans for you.”

Payton’s eyes grew wide.  His face was still in shadow, but there was something in his voice. For just a second, she thought she’d heard it before.  Her panic began all over again as he forced her legs apart with his knee. She could feel his breath on her cheek. She struggled underneath his weight. He had her arms pinned, but she managed to get a foot against the floor and push up against him as he was trying to wrestle both wrists into one hand. She gained a little moving space and shoved her knee into him pushing with all her might. For a second she was free. She rolled quickly to the right, but he was on her again before she could get to her feet. He shoved her face into the floor and climbed on top of her.

“Oh, you’ll pay for that I was going to be nice, but now…” he hissed at her.

He slid his hand down to her hips and grabbed the waistband of her knit pajama shorts.

Payton screamed.

“What, what?” a bewildered Sidney sat up in bed next to her.  She had screamed out loud, waking her from the nightmare. She was breathing hard, so hard in fact that she was having a hard time getting it under control.  Sid wrapped his arm around her and she clung to him. 

“Baby, hey, it’s okay. You’re okay.”

He reached over to the side table and banished the darkness with the lamp. She was here in his house, in his bed, safe in his arms. He pushed the hair away from her face and looked at her with concern.  She kissed him quickly and held on to him.

“It was just a dream.”