Stalker

CHAPTER ONE 
 Hattie had just finished up for the day and she was feeling unstable and tired as usual. Mr willow wouldn't let her hear the end of it about how much he loathed his wife. It was her job but she found him somewhat infuriating. He kept going on and on_ talking, shouting, cursing, trying his best to make sure he was understood. What he didn't know was Hattie didn't care about that_not even a little. All she yearned was for him to see reasons with her and let her do her job. Although she kept glancing at the time to signal him that time was far spent, his nagging knew no bounds.

She had finally finished sorting her desk, she folded her coat, on it written "Doctor Hattie" and then she dropped it on her brown desk, straightening it out with her hands to avoid wrinkles. No one would want a doctor that looked disheveled.

She slid her legs into her heels. she had hurled it off earlier judging from how uncomfortable it made her feel but she couldn't help but wear them. It was Westin's, her boyfriend's fashion taste and she had no say in it.

She tugged her bag when she heard a knock on the door.

"who is it this time?". she half yelled with a little crease on her forehead. She was done for today and certainly didn't feel like taking another patient for counseling

The door opened to an apprehensive looking woman in her 40s. She proceeded to a sit with her hand to her chest trying to steady herself as her eyes remained wide open. She looked appall and sick to the gut

"Mrs. Aida, what's wrong?" Hattie asked perplexed as she lowered her bag and went over to her. She cupped her chin with her palm, lifting her face to look at her.

"did you see anything?" she asked again. It seemed like the poor woman was still striving to grasp her breath and process something. In other word, she looked like she just had a physical rivalry with a ghost. Literally

" Doc... Doc.." she paused as she swallowed hard  " Doctor Patrick"

" Yes tell me what happened, you are scaring me" Hattie panicked with the fear apparent on her face.

" The news, he is dead," Aida said as tears flowed down her cheeks

"What! what news?" Hattie asked astounded as she grabbed her phone from her bag. She could barely even hold the phone as her shook in apprehensiveness.

His body was found in the basement of his house, tortured, and stabbed to death

Hattie took a few steps back as she tried her best to process the whole thing. Her eyes flew open with the tears threatening to fall

'why?' she asked herself in utmost confusion

'Mr. Patrick did not deserve to die. Why him of all people. Why was he murdered when there were a lot of terrible people in this world?. Even though he was going to die, at least not in a very vicious way.

That was not the first death reported in the past two months. Five people including  Mr. Patrick had been brutally killed and the police had not caught the killer. 

  Mr. Patrick had been acting strangely lately and Hattie was going to ask him if he had any challenge tomorrow but the news stopped everything.

She did not know how to feel; scared, angry, or blank?

Hattie felt furious because her Mother was murdered the same way and the murderer was never found. Why did terrible people get away with everything? Her mother's killer might still be walking the earth whilst she lived in utmost misery

Fear overwhelmed her. She just couldn't help but feel frightened. She had always lived in fear all her life.

She wiped out the tears on her cheeks, that wasn't noticed until she felt the slight tickle on her cheeks

Mr. Patrick meant a lot here.

"What are the police saying about it?" Hattie asked even though she already knew the answer to that question. It was something they always said

"they are working on it" Aida replied shakily

"Of course," Hattie said with contempt as she grabbed her bag and stormed off. She needed to get home and clear her head.

She was grateful for the fact that the distance between her house and the hospital wasn't so far. That way, she wouldn't have to take the bus, giving her enough room to bawl her eyes out in slight privacy.

Westlin, her boyfriend needed her car for his business trip so she had to forfeit it for a week.

The cool whiff hit her delicate skin as she sighed in exasperation at the same time, bending her wrist to get a glimpse of the time

"11:24?" she gasped, staying this late was something she rarely did, but the appointments got the better part of her

It was drizzling slightly, making her scrunch her eyebrow in disapproval. How much she hated when it rained. Reckoning from the weather, it was bound to pour harder than this. Her mind suddenly began to fill with regrets about not remaining with Aida in the hospital, it was her shift anyway.

She felt timid and sick of everything. She needed a hug and someone to reassure her. Someone to tell her that everything was going to be alright. All she could feel was the vast void in her chest that seemed to spread with each stride she took.

After about 3 minutes of walking, she looked behind and her heart skipped a few beats. There was someone behind her, dressed in black with a black cap concealing his face from being seen. It was dark, so, she couldn't discern any of his features.

Hattie increased her pace at the same time, trying to calm herself. He probably just loved black, she consoled herself inwardly. Judging from the murders that happened lately, she couldn't help but think of the worse

With the hopes of getting rid of him, she made a right turn, but that didn't get him off her back. As a matter of fact, He was slowly catching up with her.

Not wanting to take any chances, she further increased her pace.

The rain was pouring down heavily now, her hair and clothes were drenched, but that was her least concern. All she wanted was to get rid of the freak that kept following her. She occasionally kept looking behind her, hoping and entreating that he would magically fade away

When fear got the best part of her, she took to her heels, breathing hard and crying at the same time. Words couldn't explain how relieved she felt when she caught sight of her house. Out of fear, she looked back again and to her surprise, the fellow was gone.

How stupid could she have been?. He probably lived around the neighborhood. She inferred Inwardly but the fear still wavered.

'Silly Hattie' she sighed

It was too cold to shower. At least that was the excuse she gave herself. Truth be told, she was too tired to take a shower, even to prepare dinner. With the last energy in her, she changed into her nighties and hopped on the bed.

"Mr. Patrick," she said out loud and slept off.

******Flash back,******
"Mum, am home" she paused as she took out the groceries with an amusing smile plastered on her face "you won't believe what happened at work today?" she giggled at the thought of it.

"Mum?" she called out again.

'Did she step out? She must have gone to Mrs. Harder's house' she thought

Hunger got the better part of her as she took out the chips from the bag, opened them, and went over to the room to eat them. Chips had always been her favorite snack.

She opened her room door and met the shock of her life. The chips she had initially been holding fell from her hands as she scurried to her almost disfigured Mother on the floor

Her face charred, her clothes ripped. One of her eyeballs was missing and she was dripping with blood from all over. Hattie tried to find the source of the blood but there were too many stabbed wounds. It was apparent that the person who murdered her decided to do it in the most dismal way possible,

"Mum!" She cried.
"Mum".

*******
Hattie woke up, sweating profusely. This was not the first time she was having such a dream. Hot tears rolled down her cheek as she felt empty.

'When will it stop?'.

There was a huge lump in her throat as she swallowed hard. Fear and emptiness were what her life had been based on and she couldn't stop it. It slowly consumed her, making her feel useless to her own emotion as she slowly drowned in vast bleakness.

Hattie still drowned in her misery, made her way towards the toilet to answer nature's call. She flung open the toilet door and to her utmost surprise, the toilet window was wide open. it was as if it was forced opened judging from the way the window was damaged.

'Strange' Hattie didn't want to make any assumption but it seemed as though the door was forced open by someone.

The thought made her shudder. What if someone came through the window whilst she was asleep? Which apparently meant that person saw her sleep. Probably even watched

'What if the person was a murderer?' she thought with fear

'No Hattie stop making any assumption, maybe it was a cat". she said trying to calm herself. Hardly

"I will call someone to fix it tomorrow," she said out loud

Just when she was about to leave, she caught sight of a piece of paper, wrapped in the corner of the broken mirror. One part of her which was her paranoid self thought to leave it, but the other part of her; her overthinking self got the better part of her. She walked over to the window, grasped the note at the same time glancing around in fear. When she was stable enough, she opened the note and read the content

"O HATTIE, MY HATTIE
COME WITH ME,
YOUR LIFE  IS DONE ."