Past, Present, Future

Out.  She had to get out of the house.  She raced down the hall, back to her room and slammed the door shut, not caring anymore if she made too much noise.  She twisted the lock and then pressed her back against the door and closed her eyes as tightly as possible.  Think.  She had to think. 

When she opened her eyes again she focused on the window and made her way to it.  She pulled it up and the cold night air wrapped itself around her arms, chilling her already frozen blood, but she ignored it as she used all of her strength to push out the screen.  After a few tries it finally broke loose at the bottom and she pulled it the rest of the way off and threw it aside.  She stuck her head out and swallowed hard, trying to dislodge the large lump that had formed there. 

Her room had always been her pride and joy, and she had adored looking out over the lake during sunset, but now she wished that she had switched with Nathan.  His room faced the driveway, but hers was located at the rear of the house, where the land ended and the rest of the house was on stilts.  The stairs that led downstairs were at the end of the hall and they went out onto the deck below.  That was the problem.  Her window didn’t empty out onto nice, soft grass.  She had a fifteen-foot drop onto solid wood.  Her gaze shifted to the pool a little towards her right and she tried to estimate if it was possible to land in it.  Maybe if she pushed off of –

“Open the door, Melissa.”

He knew her name.  How did he know her name?

“I know you’re in there.  Open the door and I promise not to hurt you.  Okay?  Just open the door.  I just want to talk.” 

His voice was gentle, almost crooning, and Melissa felt the urge to vomit begin to rise within her again.  She pushed it back down, only to have it force its way back up when the sound of metal scrapping against metal met her ears.  He was trying to pick the lock. 

She climbed through the window so that she was squatting on the ledge, only braced by her hands on the windowsill, and then looked back down at her possible landing.  Her choices were simple.  Did she want to face the monster at her door or face the probability of death?  The scraping grew more insistent behind her.  Melissa took a deep breath and jumped.