Sarah, Returned--Chapter 31 (A Steemit Original Novel)
“Sarah!” Matt shouts, frantic, his strong voice carrying down the hall.
“I’m okay!” I call back as I sit up on my knees. I should get out of here and go meet up with Matt. Clearly, this is not a safe place to be right now. But, every fiber of my being is begging me to stay and keep searching for that one special object that may be my ticket home. I haven’t even been back in 2017 a day yet, but it already feels like forever. I miss my family.
Of course, there is no guarantee I’ll find anything here, and I’m putting both Matt and me in danger the longer I stay in this room. If I want to be with Joshua and the children again, I have to stay alive to make the journey.
There’s nothing for it. The search will have to wait. Damn it. Fine, Universe. You win. I’ll wait, and trust you will get me where I need to go when the time is right. What else can I do?
“Sarah? Where are you?” Matt calls out again, his voice right outside the door this time. He’s probably on his way to my room, where the glass broke. I’ve got to stop him before he gets there, in case an intruder is waiting for him inside.
“Matt, I’m here,” I call, and leap to the door in two strides. I open it and there he is, just about to walk by. He stops and looks at me, confused.
“What are you doing in there?”
“I couldn’t sleep.” Well, it’s partially the truth. I actually did want to sleep, but couldn’t, because I had to search this room. “I thought I’d come sit in here and remember Grandma, but all of her things are gone.”
“Oh. We….” He begins, but is cut off by a loud knock at our front door. Sgt. Baker or some relief officer, probably coming to make sure we’re okay. Together, we take off down the stairs as the knocking continues with amazing force; I hope we get there before whoever it is breaks down the door.
“Mr. Morgan. Ms. Morgan. Are you all right?” It's Sgt. Baker. He’s shouting through the door when we arrive. Matt unlocks and opens it, and there the good officer stands, sweating, his service revolver in his hand.
“We’re fine,” I say with startling calmness considering what just happened, but reach for Matt’s hand anyway. Knowing someone wants to hurt you is pretty disconcerting. Matt squeezes my hand, letting me know he’s with me.
"What was that noise?” Matt wants to know. “It sounded like someone breaking Sarah’s bedroom window. Thank God she wasn’t in there when it happened.”
“Someone was on a ladder, trying to cut the glass on your window, Ms. Morgan,” Sgt. Baker tells us, his face grim. “It’s pretty dark out there, and your bedroom light was off, so I only saw the shadow. It was enough to take aim and shoot, but I think I missed the perpetrator. The person was being extremely stealthy. I might not have seen anything, except for the light coming from your grandmother’s room.”
“I was in there,” I admit. “Just happy to be home, and missing her. Trying to re-connect with her in some way.”
“You’re lucky. If I had to guess, I would say whoever it was intended on either getting in and killing you right here, or taking you away somewhere, maybe for ransom. They were going to a lot of trouble to get to you, and willing to take a huge chance, with my car parked outside.”
Gee. How comforting. Clearly, I was better off dealing with Penacook raids, Quaker persecution, and smallpox outbreaks. Who knew?
“Wait. You shot at my cousin’s window?” Matt asks, horrified. “How did you know she wouldn’t be hit?”
“We’ve got a detailed map of the house from our searches when Ms. Morgan was missing. With her light out, I assumed she’d gone to bed, and I know her bed is located just to the left of the window the perpetrator was cutting. She was in no danger from me.”
“If you’re not sure you shot them, I take it they are still at large?” I ask, not feeling at all confident about any of this. If a person can get into my heavily fenced yard, with a police guard on duty out front, how safe am I anywhere in Dover?
Sgt. Baker nods, looking apologetic. “They jumped off the ladder just as I shot. It was too dark to see how or where they landed, but I’d be surprised if they didn’t at least break an arm. This house is taller than an average two-story. The suspect ran away after they landed, and I lost sight of them. I had to make sure they didn’t come inside. That was a bold move, coming up in the yard with a police car on the premises. Either they already knew I was going to be here, or they saw me out front, and took an alternate route to get behind my car without me noticing them. I caught sight of their shadow on the ladder in my rearview mirror.”
“Either way, that person is determined to get to Sarah,” Matt concludes. “We’re lucky you were so observant.”
“Not observant enough. This was too close for comfort. They almost got into the house. Look, I’ve called for backup. We’re going to surround this house, to make sure no one else gets near it without us knowing. I don’t think the suspect will return tonight, but we can't be sure. And, with the suspect at large, I don’t want to risk moving you two to a hotel. It’s safer if you stay where you are, with me and five other officers outside. We will protect you, I promise.”
“What do you think, Sarah?” Matt asks, deferring to me. I’m the one being stalked, so I get final say. Matt isn’t a secondary target after all, since the perpetrator could have gone to his window as easily as mine.
“Sgt. Baker is right,” I reply, looking at Matt with firm conviction written on my face. “We stay.” ________________________________________________________________
Catch up with the entire "Sarah, Returned" series here:
This channel has very good videos along the lines of specifics of what you and I are looking for, when they do put them out.
This one is 12 hrs old. Panama City.
I am having pain and sleeping issues again so not really on Steemit, I came to tell you about this.
This is 100% unrelated to your post, I hope you do not flag me LOL.
Your post is a little older and the activity has slowed down, that is why I dropped this here, not an older one.
I would never flag you, @barrydutton. You're one of the cool ones. Thanks for the video. These are the kinds of things I like to know.
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