Stalker

Hattie.

She had just finished up for the day, and was feeling unstable and tired as usual. Mr. Willow, her patient, wouldn’t let her hear the end of it about how much he hated his wife. It was her job, but she found him somewhat infuriating. He kept going on and on_ talking, shouting, cursing, and trying his best to make sure he was understood.

What he didn’t know was Hattie wasn’t concerned about that, not even a little. All she yearned for was for him to see reasons with her and let her do her job. Although she kept glancing at the time to give him the notion that time was far spent, his nagging knew no bounds.

She had finally finished arranging 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 who looked untidy.

She slid her legs into her heels. She had hurled them off earlier due to how uncomfortable it made her feel, but she couldn’t help but wear them. It was Westin_ her boyfriend's fashion taste. She had no say in it. Westin was a man to mould a woman to what he wanted, and Hattie was a woman who didn’t mind about that. As long as she felt loved.

Hattie had just grabbed her bag when she heard a knock on the door.

“Who is it this time?” She yelled with a little crease on her forehead. She was done for today and certainly didn’t feel like taking another patient for counselling.

The door opened to an apprehensive-looking woman in her 40s. She proceeded to sit with her hand on her chest, trying to steady herself, as her eyes remained wide open. She looked appalled and sick to the guts.

All the anger left Hattie immediately, staring at the woman with concern, “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. She appeared very devastated. In other words, she looked like she just had a physical rivalry with a ghost.

”Doc… Doc.” she paused as she swallowed hard, “Doctor Patrick”

”Yes, tell me what happened. You are scaring me Aida” Hattie panicked with the fear apparent on her face.

”The news…. He is dead,” Aida said with tears burning 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 she shook in apprehensiveness.

Her eyes widened when she read the article, which contained how he had died.

‘His body was found in the basement of his house, tortured, and stabbed repeatedly until he died”

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 the utmost confusion.

Mr. Patrick didn’t deserve to die. Why him, of all people? Why was he murdered when there were many other terrible people in this world? Even though he was going to die, at least not in such a gore way. He had been her co-worker for the past 3 years. The sweetest fellow in the hospital, with the brightest smile that made everyone’s day better.

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

Hattie had noticed how Patrick had been acting strangely lately, and she was going to ask him if he had any challenges the next day, but that was already too late.

She didn’t know how to feel; scared, angry, or blank?

Hattie was entitled to feel angry because her Mother was murdered the same way and the murderer was never found. Why did terrible people always 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 d*mn life.

Slowly, she wiped the tears off, which wasn't noticed until she felt the slight tickle on her cheeks.

Mr. Patrick really 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 rage as she grabbed her bag from her desk and stormed off. She needed to get home and clear her head. She didn’t even think to say goodbye to Aida. She was too thrown off to do that.

Her house not being too far from the hospital was a plus for Hattie. That way, she didn’t have to take the bus, giving her enough room to bawl her eyes out in the slight privacy of the lonely night.

Having her car with her would have been so much better, but Westin, her boyfriend, needed the car for his business trip, so she had to forfeit it for a week. He did have a car of his own, but insisted on taking hers. Hattie knew deep down he did that not because he really wanted the car, but because he wanted to restrict her movement a little while he was away.

The cool breeze of the night hit her delicate skin, sighing 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 ever did, but the appointments she had that day seemed endless.

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 load with regrets about not remaining with Aida in the hospital, it was her shift anyway.

Out there in the lonely road with the rain getting heavier with each stride she took, she made sure to maintain a steady pace to get home as fast as possible. After about 3 minutes of walking, she looked behind and her heart skipped a few beats. There was someone out there, dressed in black, with a black cap concealing his face from being seen, also walking at the same pace as her. 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 was nothing. He wasn’t even following her, she consoled herself inwardly. Judging from the murders that happened lately, she couldn’t help but think of the worst.

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 looked behind her, hoping and praying that he would magically fade away.

When fear got the best part of her, she took to her heels, breathing hard, running as fast as she could. Words couldn’t explain how relieved she felt when she caught sight of her house from afar. Before entering her house, she looked back again and to her surprise, the fellow was gone.

How stupid could she have been? He probably just lived around the neighborhood. Fear simply took the better part of her.

'Silly Hattie' she sigh…

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,” That was the last thing she said aloud before she finally slept off.

******Flashback******

“Mum, I’m home!” Hattie announced, taking out the groceries with a witty smile plastered on her face, “You won't believe what happened at work today” She giggled just at the thought of it.

“Mum?” she called out again when she didn’t hear anything.

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

Hunger got the better part of her as she grabbed the chips from the bag of groceries, opened them, and went over to the room to eat them.

She opened her room door, humming a song as she munched on the chips hungrily. The smell of blood shut her lips right up. Right in front of her feet were blood trails that led to the most horrid sight she had ever beheld. The chips she had initially been holding fell from her hands and she scurried to her almost disfigured Mother on the floor.

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

“Mum!” She cried.

“Mum”.

*******

Hattie flung her eyes open, sweating profusely. Her heartbeat picked up acceleration as she sat up on her bed. This wasn’t the first time she had had such a dream. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks as she quivered.

‘When will it stop?’

There was a huge lump in her throat each time she swallowed. Fear and void were what her life had been based on since her mother died. She just couldn’t stop it. It slowly consumed her, making her feel useless to her emotions 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. Part of the glass window had been broken, signalling it had been forced open.

'Strange' Noted Hattie. The last thing she wanted to do was make any assumptions. But what if someone was trying to make their way into her house?

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

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

'No, Hattie, stop making any assumptions. It might have been an animal’. She thought aloud, trying to calm herself.

With the assurance, it was absolutely nothing, she was about to leave, but she suddenly caught sight of a piece of paper, wrapped in the corner of the broken window.

One part of her, which was her paranoid-self, thought to leave it, but the other part of her; her curious-self, got the better part of her. She walked over to the window, grasped the note at the same time glancing around in dread. When she was stable enough, she opened the note and read the content.

“O HATTIE, MY DARLING HATTIE

COME WITH ME,

YOUR LIFE IS DONE.”

Chapter 2

He staggered as he tried to hold the table for support. His hand brushed against the alcohol on his desk, causing it to fall and shatter. Staring at the mirror in front of him he couldn’t recognize himself anymore. She was right. He really needed help.

His eyes held no emotions. He didn’t feel anything. He couldn’t, even if he tried. The only thing he could feel was a sense of guilt and anger hovering around him, enveloping him in misery.

'How could she?' he thought with disgust, stretching his hands to her picture on the table, caressing it. It went from a soft caress to a tight squeeze. He squeezed as hard as possible, taking out all his anger on the picture, further tearing it.

He no longer felt guilty. He felt rage

'She should have cared less' he let out in a shaky breath.

“Oh my Darling” he finally said as he reached out to his pocket and took out a lighter “You will burn” he put the picture over the lighter and