Sam shot up on the bed, her silent screams stifled by her lack of breath as she clutched at her wrists which were tender and sore. Painful reminders that her dreams were more of a reality than she wanted to believe.

But she was awake now, alone in her own bed, her own apartment, tucked up high on the fourth floor of the one hundred year old building.

She glanced at the clock on her bedside table, 4 a m it read. She took a deep breath, letting it out as she flopped back down onto her pillow, she wouldn’t get anymore sleep that night in fear the same nightmare would come back.

’Time for a run,’ She thought to herself, as she threw the covers off her and swung her legs over the side of the bed, feeling the soft carpet on her bare feet.

As she dressed, her thoughts wandered back to her increasingly intense nightmares. She wondered if she needed to see a doctor, but what would she tell them? Some faceless man assaults her while she sleeps.

They weren’t always nightmares, when they first started they were vivid sex dreams. She enjoyed them, they were exciting and exhilarating. As time went on and it became night after night she started to realize she didn’t know who she was kissing, or who was touching her and the more she tried to figure out who it was the more violent he became. She stopped waking up feeling pleasured and instead started to feel violated and afraid. Until finally she resisted him completely, trying desperately to run away from him, each time it became harder and harder to wake.

She was now fearful to fall asleep, knowing as soon as sleep found her, he would too.

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As Sam Jamison stepped out of her apartment building lobby she was hit by the rain. The day had turned out to be a dreary one, typical of Seattle. Cars whooshed by, spraying up puddles of water that had pooled in the street in front of her building. People pushed passed her as she dodged their umbrellas and absent mindedness on their way to their jobs or most likely a coffee shop for chit chatting and pretending they had busy important lives.

"Sam! Hey, can you believe this rain?"

"It’s Seattle Jack, it always rains," She replied as she ducked under his umbrella. By the time she had remembered she had forgotten hers she was already on the second floor and didn’t want to climb the two flights of stairs back up to her apartment.

"True that! Come on, we’ll be late again if we don’t hurry,"

They started walking, Sam hated the fact she had exams today and was in no hurry to get there. She hadn’t exactly study her course work with all that had been happening lately. Since she was a little girl she had been interested in the human brain, so a psychology major made sense.

"Are you alright? You look upset,"

"I’m fine, just didn’t get much sleep is all,"

They continued to walk as the rain poured down on them. By the time they reached the University they were soaked. It was such a short distance from where she lived it seemed pointless to waste the dollar the bus cost. She didn’t have allot of money and what she did have went to bills and school.

"Good luck today Sammy girl!" Jack shouted over his shoulder at her as he left her side to join a group of his fraternity brothers. Unlike Jack, Sam had decided against joining a house on campus and instead had opted for her own place two blocks away. She was actually proud of him for getting in with the Alpha Delta Pi, they were the most elite fraternity on many college campuses and joining them meant new doors and opportunities for their members.

She smiled after him as she watched him clown around with his friends. She wasn’t like Jack at all, she couldn’t make friends the way he did. She was reserved and often found herself annoyed with other people’s conversations and actions. She just couldn’t relate to them and she really didn’t mind. Jack was different however, he actually made her laugh. He was genuine and kind, a slight screwball in life but she liked that about him. He was just happy, and fun all the time.

The closer she got to the exam hall the less she thought about Jack and the more she thought about her course work. Today could make or break her and her lack of sleep wasn’t helping. The images in her head were so vivid she couldn’t stop thinking about them, she felt violated by something and she couldn’t explain it, no way Jack would understand either. She had to forget about the dark figure that haunted her long enough to secure her future.

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Well it was done. She had finished her dreaded exams and now it was in her professors hands if she graduated or not.

Leaving the auditorium she decided not to wait for Jack, and began walking back to her apartment alone. The sky was cloudy, but at least the rain had stopped. She felt like a zombie as she walked along the sidewalk. Red and gold leaves from the maple trees that lined the walkway covered the concrete under her feet as they crunched and blew around in the chilly November air. A chill blew through her as she shivered and wrapped her jacket closer around her body. She decided to swing into a coffee shop before leaving campus to get a Chai tea, hoping it would warm her up a bit.

She was about a block from her building when she noticed the man leering at her from across the street. He was leaning casually against a tree with one hand tucked inside his perfectly tailored black and grey suit pocket that fit his lean body well. His black hair had a damp look to it as a short curl blew across his forehead and he raised his other hand to puff on a skinny cigar. As he inhaled, the amber cherry burned bright, illuminating his dark eyes, making them look as if they were on fire for a moment before he removed the cigar from his elegant, youthful lips.

She stopped and wonder if she knew him from somewhere because he was staring at her as if he did. The hair on her arms began to tingle and a fear rose up in her.

"Sammy, wait up!"

She turned to look back down the street she had come from to find Jack racing after her. When he reached her he panted, "Why didn’t you wait for me after class?"

Ignoring Jack’s question she turned her attention back to the strange man across the street only to find he wasn’t there anymore.

"A man, did you see a man there?"

He followed her gaze to the other side of the street, "No," He said, looking back at her in confusion. The look on her face bothered him, he glanced down at the paper cup in her hand and saw how she was shaking slightly. “Are you cold?” He asked before touching her arm as he tried to regain her attention.

She jumped a bit, snapping out of her trance. "I’m fine, I--I have to go," She stammered and with quickened steps she disappeared behind her building leaving Jack on the street looking after her.

****

’I must be losing my mind,’ she said to herself once she was safely inside her apartment.

Turning the bolt lock and grabbing the chain, she slid it into place, resting her head on the door.

She threw her school bag onto a chair in the living room and walked into the kitchen, setting her Chai down onto the counter. It was only two-thirty in the afternoon but already the sky was dark, leaving her apartment dim looking and shabby. She walked to the arched doorway to flip on the light only to discover she hadn’t paid her electrical bill. “Damn,” She muttered to herself as she walked to the kitchen table, which happened to be an ironing board that folded up into the wall. She had tossed all her mail onto it earlier that week and had forgotten to go through it. As much as she liked to think she was responsible and well organized, she wasn’t. She found the envelope she was looking for, with the Pacific Electric emblem in the corner.

Before she could tear into it she heard a crashing noise from her bedroom. Whirling around, she looked towards the hallway, frozen in fear. After what seemed like forever she forced herself to take a step. The closer she got to her bedroom door, the louder her heart thundered in her ears. With each step the floorboards creaked under her weight and she was sure the sound was giving away her presence to whatever was behind her bedroom door. Slowly she reached for the doorknob, feeling its iciness on her fingertips as she wrapped her fingers around the knob. She threw it open with a bang, terrified of what she would find on the other side.

She had half expected to find some burglar lurking inside but was only greeted with calm silence. Panning her eyes around the room, she saw nothing out of the ordinary except for a broken picture frame of her and Jack that had fallen off her night stand. ‘Strange, it shouldn’t have broken like that.’

Nevertheless that must have been the crashing sound she had heard, which was odd because it sounded louder than just a picture breaking. She stooped to pick up the picture and cut the tip of her finger on a shard of glass, gasping softly at the pinch of pain. A single drop of blood fell from her small wound and landed on Jack’s face, making him look like he had had an awful accident.

She set the ruined picture back on her night stand and walked to the bathroom to sanitize her cut and get a Band-Aid before she cleaned up the glass. Suddenly she heard another bang in the apartment. She clutched at the frame of the bathroom door, smearing blood on the white paint. Again she was too frightened to move, the thought of some unknown person in her home with her sent chills up and down her spine. She had thought it sounded like a door slamming shut and there was only one door that wasn’t in her view.

’No’ she thought to herself in a panic, ’I locked it,’

She ran to the front door and let out horrified scream. Every lock was undone and the chain dangled, moving back and forth as though someone or something had moved through it in a hurry.

Next Chapter: Never Alone