My Sweet Valentine (5 page)

Her curiosity
piqued higher as she opened the simple gold clasp on the box to
reveal a gold pendent of two interlocking hearts with a diamond at
their joint hanging from a gold chain. She smiled and immediately
put the necklace on because it matched her engagement ring
perfectly. Amber dabbed at the wetness of her eyes with the end of
her robe and hoped Greg would make it home tomorrow. She had no
idea what she would get him for Valentine’s Day but just being able
to see his smile would over-shadow his surprise gifts.

That night
Amber shifted through her and Greg’s DVD collection for something
she had not watched in six years. She grumbled at the sheer amount
of DVD’s they owned and pushed aside a few comedy films. She let
out a little sound of accomplishment when the plain covered DVD
case came into view.

Amber sat back
on her haunches and popped open the case. Inside was a single DVD
with “Our Special Day” written in her own neat hand in black
marker. She giggled to herself and popped it into the DVD player.
As she settled back to watch her wedding day she snuggled into the
big red blanket on the couch and hoped Greg would be back soon.

The house
seemed so empty and foreboding without him. She found herself
starting at every little sound. Creaks came through the night and
she swore that they came from the back porch. She was always too
afraid to check in case someone actually was there so would
convince herself that it was merely the house settling.

The past few
nights it had been worse. She felt as if she was being watched and
had closed all the curtains in the house. The feeling would not be
alleviated so easily and she found herself looking over her
shoulder at the strangest times. She had even locked the bathroom
door that afternoon without realizing it.

She sighed and
wondered how Greg would feel about finally getting a dog. That was
one subject they could not agree on. Greg made a good point about
neither of them being around enough to take care of a dog daily.
Amber wanted a dog, a big mean looking dog just for protection
though.

Amber trusted
in the security system but a friend at work told her that anyone
could cut the wires of a security system and sneak into a person’s
house. Even if they didn’t cut all the wires the response time for
police to get to Amber’s part of town was half an hour. Amber knew
a lot could happen in half an hour.

She tried to
concentrate on the joyous video playing in front of her but found
that she could not. She flicked off the DVD and cuddled deep into
the blankets wishing for someone to talk to. She wished Greg did
not have to travel so much. She hoped he would agree to get a dog.
She wondered if her good friend was off work tonight.

At that thought
she reached for the phone and dialed a number. The ringing sounded
dismal to her and a machine informed her that her good friend was
not home. A panic rose in her throat but she pushed it aside and
tried to put cheer into her voice.

“
Hi
Tracy, it’s Amber. Just wanted to see what you were up to tonight.
If you get this message at a half decent time, call me. Maybe we
can watch a movie or something. Okay, good-bye,” Amber said and was
happy the nervousness in her voice did not show.

She hung up the
phone. Her voice did sound oddly loud in the quiet house and Amber
sighed. She tapped the phone against her leg lightly for a few
minutes before placing it back into the receiver and hiding in the
blankets again. The wind whispered outside and Amber could swear it
was telling her to stay out of the house tonight. Amber wondered
where that feeling had come from and shivered in her warm
cocoon.

Shadows played
in the corners of the room and Amber cowered deeper into her
blanket. She pulled the phone in beside her and wished she had
someone to keep her company. She wondered briefly if her neighbours
were home and shook her head at the thought. They would think she
was insane if she asked them over for coffee the night before
Valentine’s Day. Amber sighed and listened to the noises in the
house.

Nothing but the
regular creeks and groans came to her ears and she muttered at her
own unfounded fears before pulling herself from the covers. She
checked the locks on all the windows and doors before finally
making her way up to her bedroom. On a paranoid second thought, she
drew an old steel baseball bat from the hallway closet and set it
against her bedside table.

Amber changed
into a nightgown and settled into bed with her overhead light on.
She had closed her bedroom door, a habit she had never done and
wished it had a lock on it. She tried to read but the words
blurred. Even her favorite chocolates tasted bitter in her mouth
and she sighed. She noted the time to be merely 8PM and snuggled
into her bed regardless.

After a few
weary thoughts, she tried calling Tracy again but got only the
answering machine. She did not leave a message this time and
decided that she was going to leave the bedroom light on, just for
tonight. If Greg happened to sneak in before she could turn it off
in the morning she could explain how afraid she had felt and maybe
that would convince them to get a large frightening dog.

With that
thought in mind, she turned over and closed her eyes. She knew her
sleep would be restless because of her thoughts and the light but
she could nap tomorrow once she knew whether or not Greg would be
home. If he wasn’t home, she would stay over at Tracy’s tomorrow
night. Maybe then she would feel better and not be so paranoid.
After a brief struggle with her own mind, she fell into a light
sleep.

Part 5:
February 14th, Valentine’s Day

Amber twitched
and sighed heavily. Something felt very wrong to her but she could
not place why. She slowly opened her eyes and noted that she was
lying on one side, facing the en suite bathroom with the window at
her back. She squinted wearily and knew something looked wrong.

It came to her
in a mere instant of clarity: there was not enough light in the
room. Only sunlight streamed through the window and the overhead
light she had left on had been turned off. Mixed feelings shot
through her then and she struggled with them.

Her first
feeling was happiness. With the overhead light off, Greg must have
returned home and turned off the light before waking her. The
second feeling was of deep foreboding. She had no reason to suspect
the one who turned the light off was anyone but Greg and yet her
intestines were tying themselves in knots.

She noticed the
shadow spilling over her covers and it dawned on her that it was
the shadow of a man. This should have made her joyful because it
should have kicked the feeling of foreboding to the preverbal curb.
Unfortunately the shape of the shadow was all wrong. The man was
too tall and too slim to be Greg.

Greg was only
five feet and ten inches tall, average sized. They were actually
the same height and she remarked to him all the time that the
numbers for her meant she was above average while for him he would
forever be average. He took this with a smile or a laugh.

Despite his
average height, Greg had broad shoulders and a thick back. His
waist tapered to his hips and he did have a bit of a pouch
beginning now but the rest of his body was built more muscular than
what the shadow spilling across her form was revealing to her.

Amber heard the
breathing then. It was light and fast, Amber could tell that the
stranger standing next to her bed behind her was excited. Amber
knew she could not reach the baseball bat if it was still against
the dresser. The stranger had probably moved it and even if he had
not, there would be no time for her to turn, throw off the covers
and grab the handle before he grabbed her.

Or worse:
before
he
grabbed the baseball
bat and beat her with it. Amber swallowed thickly and wished she
had hidden the baseball bat underneath the covers. At least then
she would have a bit better chance of fending off the unknown man
behind her.

A smell
permeated her nostrils finally and she blinked at it. It smelled
like old copper pennies and if she had not been a nurse, she was
certain she would have smelled it quicker. Being a nurse made her
used to this particular smell and she almost cursed her own lack of
attention. The figure behind her was either bleeding or covered in
blood. If Amber strained to listen, she could hear the blood
pattering on the area rug that the man was standing on behind
her.

She wondered
briefly what would cause that amount of blood to be on a person and
knew that the man either had to be bleeding from the throat or
would have had to cut someone across the throat. Bleeding from the
throat would mean she could just wait him out as he would die in
less than five minutes. If he had cut someone across the throat
then he could stand there forever. Eventually he would get bored of
watching her and attack.

A thought
dawned on Amber and she suddenly realized that the stranger behind
her was not bleeding from the throat. His breath was not coming out
raspy or wet enough. So he had cut through the flesh of someone
else’s throat and been covered in the spray in the process. He had
probably watched the spray until it died down and he knew for sure
the victim was dead from loss of blood.

Amber almost
jolted upright in bed at that thought. The only person who could be
dying in her house would be Greg. Tears came unbidden to her eyes
and she squeezed them shut. Greg was not dying downstairs as he
would all ready be dead by now. The amount of blood on the man
behind her and the amount of time that had passed between Greg
being cut open and her lying there thinking would mean Greg could
no longer draw breath and never would again.

She pushed her
eyes shut to stop the tears and wondered if the man was leaning
over her enough that he could see her profile. If he was, he must
be able to see her crying and see that she had been awake this
whole time. Amber realized with a spark of knowing that he could
not see her face. He was not at the right angle and her head was
buried in the pillows.

Anger rose up
in her then. Who was he to kill her husband on her most favored
holiday during her favorite time of year? What did he gain from it?
Amber’s tears died and she scowled deeply. Before she could second
guess her own actions she let out a roar of fury, threw the covers
from her form and over the man. She then tackled the man,
collapsing atop the struggling form and releasing a flurry of
punches to area where she thought his face would be.

She screamed
wordlessly with every punch she laid on the man underneath her.
Strong arms clamped around her waist so suddenly that she did not
register them until she was being thrown off. Her head slammed into
the thick metal foot board of the bed and she lay there dazed for a
long moment.

In that moment,
the stranger tugged the covers from his bloody person. Amber noted
in a daze that she recognized the man as the one she saw when she
had been shovelling snow. His hair was brown and messily tied in a
pony tail and his eyes were the same shade as his hair. Amber noted
gleefully that his nose and lip were now bleeding freely.

She tried to
puller herself to her feet but found that her body declined to give
her the proper response. The man stood and shook himself like a dog
coming out of water and Amber tried to shift away. Her neck and
back shouted in protest. Amber let out a little gasp of pain but
refused to close her eyes in protest of the agony.

By now the man
had turned and was looking down at her with a grin that set his lip
to bleeding more quickly. Amber blinked away the haze threatening
to settle on her and wondered at how bad her concussion actually
was. She hoped it would not hinder her too badly so she could get
out of this situation but knew hoping was not enough.

The man took a
step towards her and Amber let out a growl as her only warning. The
man tilted his head to a side and almost started laughing until
Amber’s foot slammed into the juncture between his legs. He doubled
over and Amber noted the bloody knife that dropped out of his
hand.

When he fell to
his knees, she kicked him with both feet in the face. When he fell
backwards, she slammed both her heels into his stomach four times.
Finally she regained most of her senses and was able to pull
herself to her feet.

The world
tilted dangerously and Amber felt bile rising to her throat. She
looked dizzily at the dresser for the other portable phone but saw
it was not there. She also noticed that her baseball bat was
missing and scowled at the writhing figure on the floor. For good
measure, she put her full body weight into his groin until he
screamed and passed out from pain.

She nodded then
regretted the motion of her head. Amber leaned against the bed for
support taking a few deep breaths before stumbling out of the room.
She pulled the door closed behind her and pushed a potted plant in
front of it. When he came through the door, she would hear him if
she was still in earshot. She was not planning to be in
earshot.

She fumbled
down the stairs with her head spinning and her stomach lurching at
every step. The scent of blood came to her nose again and she
turned wildly to look behind her, unbelieving that she had missed
the sound of the pot breaking. She lost her grip on the railing and
tumbled the rest of the way down.

She landed back
first in a cooling pond of blood. She noted with some difficulty
that the man had not been behind her and the smell had been coming
from in front of her. She slid in the blood as she tried to get
back up. She managed only to fall twice more and stained her cloths
red.