A Face in the Shadow Part 3 Chapter 5

Five

Rachel stared at Jeremy in her living room. He wasn’t the charming man she’d met after the fender bender. His eyes were large saucers and a toothy smile was plastered to his face. Her blood turned to ice.

“Us?”

He nodded his head. He never broke his stare it simply slid up and down her body.

“My boyfriend will be here soon.”

His eyes flashed anger. He squinted and took two steps closer to her.

“No, he won’t. He has a seven o’ clock appointment.” His smile returned. “I knew we wouldn’t want to be interrupted tonight.” He licked his lips.

He walked slowly to her. He stood a few inches taller than her and he was much more muscular than she had remembered. He was in a starched button up shirt.

Another step. He was almost toe to toe with her.

How could she have come in the house and not smell his aftershave. He must have bathed in it.

“Please don’t.” She squeaked out.

“Don’t what?” He rubbed the end of her hair with his fingers.

Don’t give him any ideas. She stood silent.

“Open your present.” He motioned with his finger.

She turned and faced the table. The wooden box wasn’t more than six inches across. The outside was scuffed like something that has been opened many times. Or something fairly old. She lifted the lid slowly and reached into touch the lock of red hair.

He stepped up, pressed himself up against her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “There were eleven before you but they were not worthy. You were the one I had been waiting for.”

“Eleven?”

He lifted her hair and kissed the back of her neck. When she started to pull away he grabbed her by the throat and pulled her back then slowly began to kiss her again. She closed her eyes. Soon she would wake up from a paranoid nightmare and would be at her parents’ house where she should have been this evening.

“The eleven who betrayed me, Rachel. You saw them on the television.”

The dead women.

You are reading A Face in the Shadow by Tiffany Colter.

Tiffany is a writer, speaker and writing career coach. She is a frequent contributor to print and online publications in addition to her regular marketing blog at www.WritingCareerCoach.com

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This story is copyright Tiffany Colter. 2007. It may not be copied, distributed, sold or included in any larger work without the expressed written permission of Tiffany Colter.

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