Lead the Way

Copyright 2016

All Rights Reserved

Chapter 1

              It’s been a good night.  She really needed time out with her girls.  It’s been a hectic day and she really needed some time to unwind and relax.  The loud music and loud talking drown out all the worries of the day.  The soothing booze in her system helps her forget the way her boss yelled at her in front of everyone and tore up her presentation.  Her friend’s encouragement has helped her feel like a new woman.  Their kind words have rejuvenated her spirit and tomorrow she will be able to return to work with her head held high.  She hates to leave, but it is time for her to go home.

“Eva, are you sure you want to leave?  We’re only going to be here for another hour and then we can take a cab home together,” Mira says, taking another shot of Vodka.

              “Yeah, I’m going to go home now.  I have a huge presentation tomorrow and I should really get a good night’s sleep.  I don’t want to screw the presentation up; especially after the day I had today.  My boss will kill me and then fire me,” Eva says, putting her cell phone into her purse.

              “Are you sure?”

              “I’m sure.  I’m going to walk home.  It’s only a few blocks.  It’s fine.  I’ll be fine.”

              “Okay, well, call me when you get home, okay?

              “I will.”

              “Love you,” Mira says, hugging her goodbye.

              “I love you too, girlfriend,” she replies, gathering up her things.

              After saying goodbye to the rest of the girls at the table, Eva makes her way through the crowd at the bar.  When she is almost to the door, a man bumps into her and knocks her purse off her shoulder onto the floor. 

              “Excuse me,” he says and bends down to retrieve her purse.

              “No problem.  Thanks,” Eva says, taking her purse from him. 

She continues through the crowd and after a few more bumps and “Excuse mes,” she makes it outside to the sidewalk.  She takes a deep breath of the cool air and contemplates whether she actually wants to walk after all.  The heels she picked out are killer and her feet hurt, but she decides she needs the exercise.  Plus, she’s not in the mood to deal with a rude cab driver tonight.  She just wants to make it to her apartment, safe and sound, and get into her nice warm bed.

              She takes off her high heels.  It’s not the most hygienic thing, she decides, but her feet can’t take another second.  They just need relief.  She gives them a quick rub and starts on her journey home. 

If she had been paying attention to her surroundings, she would have noticed the man she bumped into inside the bar, who knocked her purse off her shoulder, followed her out of the bar.  She would have noticed him watching her.

              It takes three blocks before she finally notices that someone is following her.  At first, she thinks it’s just her imagination.  There are so many people on the street at this time of night; it’s not unusual for someone to be following behind her, as they too make their way around the city.  However, when the sidewalk clears and it is just him and her on the street, she can’t help but notice that when she quickens her walking speed, he does the same.  When she starts to run, he chases after her. 

              She runs as fast and as hard as she can, but he is too fast for her.  He catches her and drags her off the street and into an alleyway.  He has a knife to her throat.  “Please, don’t hurt me,” she begs.  “Here, you can have my purse.  Take whatever you want.”  She’s always been told that if someone mugs you, don’t resist.  Give them whatever they want, which is usually money.

              “I don’t want your money.  This is not about money, bitch,” he snarls and punches her in the face.  He punches her in the face repeatedly.  She can taste blood in her mouth and feel it running down her face from her nose. 

              He lifts up her skirt and pulls down her underwear.  She can’t believe what is happening.  Is he going to rape her? 

“Please don’t do this,” she begs and cries. 

              “Save your breath, whore.  This is happening,” he says, breathing heavily.

              She starts to fight.  She has to at least try to protect her life, but it is a losing battle.  She suffers several knife wounds to her hands and arms.  He is too strong for her, too physically powerful.  When he threatens to cut her throat, she stops fighting.  She is in serious pain from the knife wounds that he’s inflicted on her.  She is bleeding a lot.  She can’t endure any more.  She starts to worry that she is going to bleed out. 

The attack becomes too much for her to bear.  She leaves her body.  It is the way her psyche responds to what is happening.  Her only defense against the pain is mental escape. 

When she thinks that he is finished and might stop his brutal assault, he starts to strangle her.  Suddenly, she is fully present again.  She can’t believe that this is the way that she is going to die.  She always hoped that she would die peacefully in her sleep.  She never imagined it would be at the hands of a stranger.  She never imagined that she would be raped and then murdered.  She doesn’t want to die.  She starts to lose consciousness.

“Hey!  What the hell is going on down there?”

These are the last words she hears before she passes out.

Chapter 2

5 Years Later

Eva sits in her kitchen and looks at her scars.  It has been five years since the attack, but it feels like it just happened yesterday.  The attack left her broken and bruised physically, but the real damage was done mentally.  Since the attack, she has been plagued by nightmares, but that isn’t the worst thing that she has to deal with.  She has been stricken with anxiety so severe that she can’t leave the house.  She hasn’t been outside for five years.  The doctor’s call it ‘Agoraphobia’.  She calls it, ‘Hell’.

Her life has changed completely.  She used to think of herself as a fun person.  She used to love to go out for a night on the town with her girlfriends; now, one-step outside of the apartment causes severe panic attacks.  If she wants to see her friends, they have to come to the apartment and see her.  Luckily, she has truly loyal friends.  None of them skipped a beat when her illness reared its ugly head. 

She wishes the same where true about her boyfriend at the time.  After the attack, he ditched her so fast, her head spun.  She was an emotional wreck and he just couldn’t deal with it.  He told her he wanted a ‘normal’ girlfriend, not some basket case.  Everyone said that breaking up with him was a good thing, because he had shown his true colors.  They said if he wouldn’t be there when she needed him the most, he wasn’t the right one for her.  She totally agreed with them, but it didn’t make things hurt any less.

After the attack, she moved to one of the most secure apartment buildings in the city.  The building has a door attendant and a security guard on duty during the day and only a security guard at night.  Her apartment itself is protected by an alarm system.  It costs a pretty penny for her to have such security measures, but luckily she comes from a wealthy family and her home business has taken off. 

The apartment building that she has lives in now is very upscale.  It’s probably more room than one person needs, but she loves it.  The apartment is encased in floor to ceiling windows and she has an amazing view of the city, especially at night.  She’s filled the place with expensive pieces of art and furniture that she ordered off the Internet and made it into her sanctuary.  It’s the only place where she feels completely safe now.  Her apartment is the only place where evil can’t get in and hurt her again. 

When she could no longer leave the house, she had to change professions.  She couldn’t go to the office anymore.  When she called up to resign, her boss was furious.  He yelled at her through the phone for twenty minutes.  He had no compassion for her or understanding of what she had been through.  He expected her to show up for work on time with a huge smile on her face.  He was completely clueless and totally unsympathetic.  She couldn’t help it; she called him an asshole before hanging up.  It was the first time she had ever talked back to him and it felt really good. 

When the deed was done and over with and she had officially quit, she

couldn’t say that she was really all that upset that she had to quit her job.  She hadn’t really been good at advertising anyway.  She was always screwing things up, and as a result, getting her fellow coworkers in trouble.  They had started to hate her.  She had been growing tired of their dirty looks and ugly stares, as she passed by their desks and in the hallways anyway. Good riddance, as far as she was concerned.  It was probably a blessing that she got out when she did, before she found their knives in her back.

She is a writer now.  She writes mystery novels and she’s found that she absolutely loves it on so many levels.  She always thought that she had a creative side, which is why she got into advertising.  She quickly found out that choosing advertising was the wrong avenue to unleash her imagination.  She found that advertising wasn’t the right way to channel her creativity. 

Being unable to leave the house doesn’t offer too many job opportunities.  One day when she was stressed out from complete boredom and venting, Mira suggested trying her hand at writing.  An acquaintance of Mira’s had found some success at self-publishing and Mira thought that the same thing might be possible for her. 

Eva didn’t have to think about her decision for very long before she started writing.  She quickly came to the decision that trying her hand at self-publishing a novel was worth a try.  She fell in love with the writing process immediately.  She loved being about to create worlds and live in them through her characters. 

She was terrified when her novel was ready to be published.  Mira had to push the publish button for her.  She was scared that people would think her writing was terrible and she didn’t know if she could handle the rejection.  She was completely taken by surprise when her first book was a success and sales went through the roof.  To her surprise, she made it onto the New York Times Bestseller List.  She quickly learned how hard that is, especially with a first book.  Suddenly she had fans and they were demanding the next book.  She quickly realized that she had hit a sweet spot.  After her success settled in, she threw herself headlong into writing and publishing.

The discovery of her writing ability has been an amazing journey and she has loved every single minute of it.  Agoraphobia forced her into her life’s purpose.  It forced her to discover her writing skills, which is something that she may have never discovered if life hadn’t intervened.  Discovering her love for writing is probably the only good thing that has come out of her disease.  Everything else surrounding it has been a nightmare.

She had to hire someone to do her grocery shopping and run errands for her.  She was lucky to find a woman named Rosa Martinez.  Her mother had asked around and Rosa came recommended by a friend.  Rosa was her mother’s friends’ nanny and when their kids were grown, they had to let her go.  Apparently, they were sad to see her go, but there really wasn’t much use for her services any longer. 

Her mother’s friend gave Rosa a glowing report.  She couldn’t say enough good things about Rosa.  She was loyal, responsible, an excellent cook, and amazing with their children.  They never had any problems with her at all.  She was an amazing employee, and lucky for Eva, currently looking for a job. 

Eva didn’t want to go through a long and tortuous interviewing process.  The thought of complete strangers coming into her apartment scared her to death.  She called Rosa, hoping that once she met her, it would be a home run and she wouldn’t have to look any further.  Lucky for her, she liked Rosa immediately.  Rosa’s bubbly personality and quick wit filled out the whole room.  During the interview, she found Rosa’s happy attitude rubbing off on her.  She liked that.