Page 79 of She Belongs to Me

Blip.

The sound was suddenly foreign to me. But as soon as my brain registered that it was an email, my stomach sank to my knees. What if there was something wrong with the email? What if it hadn’t gone through? What if I couldn’t get it to go through? It was Italy, for God’s sake.

I was reminded all over again of the painful reason I was here in a foreign country.

Pretending to enjoy spending time with an overbearing, arrogant man.

I was distraught, more so than I should have been. But I jumped back onto the chair, anger and worry a sickening combination.

I was almost frantic, but quickly realized the email to the university had gone through. Who the hell had sent me an email?

I’d been afraid of the boogeyman when I was a kid. It was silly to fear something that didn’t really exist, but I’d been certain there was one hiding in my closet, another under my bed. I’d learned to sleep with the covers over my head on my stomach and had done so for years.

My aunt had been stymied as to how the phobia had developed. I had never been allowed to watch scary stuff, including on my iPad. I’d been allowed to read to my heart’s content, but nothing that would provide me with night terrors.

The single time I’d lied to Aunt Kim had been when I’d finally been allowed to spend the night with some childhood girlfriends after a birthday party. The sleepover had been supposed to be fully chaperoned. We were seven or eight. I honestly couldn’t remember. But the birthday girl’s parents were easily distracted, finally leaving us alone in the basement. There was a television and no controls on the satellite.

With popcorn in our hands, we’d watched two horror movies. I’d been the only one to stay awake through both of them. After that, I’d needed a nightlight in my room. I’d been forced to lie or my aunt would never have allowed me to see my friends again.

Of course, that had been a short-lived friendship for the five of us. The year I’d gone to junior high had been the one my aunt had finally accepted enough help from Nico to move from an apartment into the lovely house she still owned.

But it had been on the other side of the city.

The nightmares had remained for a couple of additional years.

But I’d overcome them with rationality, my logical mind finally accepting the movies hadn’t been real and there were no evil creatures running around in the dead of night.

Now I knew I’d been right all along.

Only the real monsters were harboring even darker evil, capable of doing much worse than the creatures in my nightmares.

It was confirmed by the email I was sent by an unknown source, but it was clear to me a monster had sent it.

The evil creature was determined to find me.

He’d hunted me down.

The words were clear, the meaning not something I could shove aside.

You fucked up, little girl.

You screwed with the wrong person.

Just like your daddy.

I will find you and when I do, I will enjoy spending time getting to know you.

Before…

What? My father?

What the hell was the asshole insinuating? Maybe he was using the tactic to try to rattle me even more. That had to be it. I took several deep breaths, finding a slight place of peace before reading it again with a more critical eye. Just a toss out there threat. Not that I knew what I was talking about, but that’s what my instincts were screaming.

Get control. Breathe. He can’t hurt you.

Could he?

It wasn’t signed, but if it had been, the lettering would have been done in blood. In my mind, I could see his horrible cold eyes as they’d captured mine. I rose from the computer very slowly, still staring at the screen. My stomach was in knots, my mind pushed into a place I’d never wanted to go again.