Following Me (4 page)

THE TRIO SPENT the evening lost in
debates about which match was going to be successful on
Millionaire
Matchmaker
while downing glass after glass of the expensive red wine
Garrett had brought back with him.  To accompany the wine, dinner consisted of
a perfectly cooked chicken marsala with spaghetti and garlic bread.  As they
laughed and joked during the meal, Devon felt the tension and anxiety of the
last semester melt away from her.

Each day had been a battle to
keep going, and in this moment, she felt lucky because she was here with her
friend.  She had made it through the day.

DEVON TURNED THE corner, looking
over her shoulder.  As she wound through unfamiliar streets, she was surprised
to find each one deserted. 
Where are all the people?

She was still walking, but her
pace was rapidly increasing.  She hated being lost, especially at night.  She
remembered a similar experience she’d had in a new city.  The driving
directions had been all wrong, and her GPS hadn’t directed her properly.  She
had freaked out and pulled over to figure out where she was supposed to be
going.  The overpowering feeling of utter insecurity and danger had made her
stomach tighten and tense.

She hadn’t been in real danger,
but it sure had felt like it.

And it felt like it now.

Devon swallowed hard, pushing her
blonde hair off her face, as she walked faster and faster, hoping to find something
that would trigger a memory of some sort.  She tried to recall where she was or
what she was doing, but it just wouldn’t come to her.  Panic rose in her chest,
causing her heart to flutter faster, as sweat began to bead on the back of her
neck.

She glanced over her shoulder
again, feeling eyes on the back of her head, but no one was there.  She was all
alone.
  How could she be all alone? 
Surely, someone else had to be
around.

Against her better judgment,
Devon went up to the first building and tried the door.  It didn’t budge.  She
did the same to the next door and the next one after that, but they were all
locked up tight.  She pushed her shoulder against another door to no avail. 
She wasn’t in some crime show.  There was no way she would try to kick her way
through a door.  The longer she stood and tried to find a way into a building,
the more she felt like someone was watching her, stalking her movements.  As
she banged on a door, her throat seized, keeping her from screaming for help.

Someone please answer the
door!
she screamed in her head.

No one came to the door.  Nothing
moved, not even the wind.

Tears welled in her eyes as
desperation kindled in her gut.  She moved on from the doors, knowing she was
having no luck here.  Her walk turned into a jog, and the sounds of footsteps
behind her fueled her on to a full run.

The only problem was she didn’t
have a clue where she was going.  She knew she could run for only so long
before exhaustion overtook her. 
How long did she have before they caught up
to her?

Keeping up her fast pace was
tiring, and she felt herself slowing, but she could tell from the patter of
feet behind her that her pursuer was catching up to her.  Tears streamed openly
down her face, and she did nothing to stop them.  She had a terrible, terrible
feeling about this.

When she turned a corner, she saw
a light on in the building directly in front of her.  Angling straight for it,
she gained a burst of speed.  It felt like she was running toward the light at
the end of the tunnel.

Devon yanked at the front door,
and it mercifully opened.  She didn’t wait to see if the person behind her was
still following her.  When she stepped inside, light streamed in all around
her, and loud party music filled the room.  People were dancing in every inch
of space, but no one stopped to look at her.

As she closed the door behind
her, the lights dimmed, and flashes of color bounced off the walls.  She
reached for the first person she could, but he brushed her off.  Every person
she tried to speak with after that ignored her completely.  It was like she
wasn’t even there.  Pushing her way through the room, her head was spinning as
the volume of the music seemed to increase tenfold.

What is happening to me?
she thought.

Then, she felt the eyes on the
back of her head again.  She turned around in a circle, looking for the source,
but she found only a sea of other people.  If she had thought she hated feeling
isolated in a deserted city, then she hated being invisible in a sea of people
even more.

She pushed people out of the way,
shoving them like they were rag dolls, until her arms were screaming in pain at
her.  She couldn’t move fast enough.  Her feet were giving out, and her arms
were failing her.  She couldn’t escape.

When Devon looked back to see if
the person was still pursuing her, she saw a single figure walking directly
toward her, but the person was indistinguishable from the dark surroundings. 
Turning around, she rushed forward with one last bit of effort.  She propelled
herself through a set of double doors, stepping into a stark white bedroom that
blinded her.

Just when
she reached the other side, she felt a person grab a hold of her arm.

DEVON AWOKE WITH a start, gasping
for breath.  Her hands clenched into the quilt, her chest heaved up and down,
and her body racked with tremors.  A cold sweat had drenched through her thin
T-shirt, and she shook as the chilly air sank into her skin.

Where the hell was she?

Anxiously, she looked around the
dark room, searching the unfamiliar space. 
Whose bed was she in?  And why
didn’t she recognize this place at all?

Taking a deep breath, she tried
to return to reality.  She took another breath, calming her still racing heart,
and it came back to her. 
St. Louis.  The train.  Hadley. 
She was
staying at Hadley’s place with Hadley’s boyfriend.  They’d had dinner and
wine.  They had gone out drinking afterward, and she had fallen into bed drunk.

Her stomach grumbled angrily at
the memory, and her head throbbed against her scalp. 
Great.  Hangover.

Her eyes roamed to the
red-numbered alarm clock on the dresser.

Six thirty in the morning.

Devon still had two or three
hours left before she had to get up.  She sank back into the comforter, feeling
completely emotionally drained.

It was just a dream. 
Just a
dream.
  She had to keep telling herself that over and over again.  No one
was after her.  No one was following her.

Just a
dream.

DEVON JUMPED IN the shower a few
hours later.  No matter how hard she had tried, she hadn’t been able to fall
back asleep.  The haunting memory of someone chasing her through the streets
had stayed with her.  She had emptied the contents of her stomach in the
bathroom twice since waking.  She was dead tired, and she just wanted to crawl
back into bed and crash, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to shut off her
brain.  As soon as she had tried, everything had rushed back to her all over
again.

She changed into a pair of light
jeans and blue tank top, pulled her hair up into a ponytail, and then covered
the dark circles under her eyes like an expert.  Her head was still aching,
despite taking 1,000 milligrams of Tylenol earlier.  She knew she needed to
eat, but the thought of food sent her stomach into a fit.

Finally feeling human enough to
leave the bedroom, she edged out into the kitchen.  She poured herself a glass
of water and slowly sipped it.

“Good morning!” Garrett called
cheerfully, walking into the kitchen.

Devon jumped and immediately
regretted it.  “Is it?”

“Well, probably not for you.  I
heard you getting sick earlier.  Feeling any better?”  He opened the
refrigerator door.

“No,” she said, shaking her
head.  “How are you so cheerful?”

“Product of working nights, I
guess.  When I get a good night’s sleep, I’m a much happier person.”

“Right.”  She took another
tentative sip of her drink.

“Are you going to be able to go
sightseeing today?” he asked, pulling out a full banquet of food.

The night before, they had agreed
that Garrett would take her around the city while Hadley had to work.  Devon
really wanted the chance to be a tourist while she was here, but she knew that
she wouldn’t get to see everything if she waited for Hadley to get home.

“Not sure,” she said, walking
into the living room.  She sat on the couch and put her head between her
knees.  Seeing that much food was making her want to run to the bathroom again.

“Well, I’ll whip you up something
that will make you feel better, and we can get going.”

“You really don’t have to show me
around…or make me food,” she groaned.

“Just some toast.  Drink up that
water.  It’ll help,” Garrett said, popping some bread into the toaster.

“Okay,” she muttered.

She drank as much as she could
manage.  He brought her a plate with plain toast and replaced her glass of
water with another full one.  She took it without comment and tried to choke down
the food.  It did help some, but she wasn’t a hundred percent better yet. 
Garrett had created an elaborate breakfast plate for himself, and he ate it all
in the same amount of time it took for her to finish her toast.

She tried standing again.  The
headache was finally dissipating, and her stomach was feeling only partly
queasy.  She could make it through another day.

“You ready?” he asked, coming
back for her plate.

“I think so.”

“Great.  We better get going
then.  Hadley gets off at three thirty today, so we have a good five hours to
try to get in the best tourist traps out here before I have to go to work,”
Garrett told her.

“Perfect.  If I can make it five
hours, it’ll be a miracle,” Devon said.  She was happy that she had a tour
guide even though Hadley was at work.

Garrett shook his head at her as
he stuffed his wallet into his back pocket.  “Come on.  It’ll be good for you
to get some fresh air.”

Devon grumbled something
incoherent before standing.  She grabbed her purse from the table and followed
Garrett to the elevator.  Riding the elevator might have been the worst part of
the morning.  Garrett rested a hand on her back as he warily watched her.  She
was pretty sure he was expecting her to burst any second, and she felt like she
might.

When they finally reached the
bottom of the huge complex, Devon uneasily walked out of the elevator.

“Let’s never do that again,” she
murmured, clutching her stomach with one hand.

“I’ve got bad news for you.”

Devon glared up at him.

“Well, at least you won’t have to
take the elevator for a few more hours,” Garrett offered.

“I don’t even want to think about
it.”

“So, what did you want to see?” 
He stood at the entrance, debating which direction to walk in.