Lance woke with a startle, his heart was beating fast, and he was seemingly out of breath, he was dazed for a second , he sat there in his king size bed looking around.
"Who's there?" He said . . . no answer. He felt his chest where he swore he felt someone's cold hand touch him.
"Who the hell is there?", he said again, still no answer.
He sat silently for a moment trying to listen to any sound, all he made out was the sound of the ocean outside and the slow ticking of his alarm clock.
He got up and walked to his bathroom, checking there, he thought to himself how crazy this must look, cause he lived alone, and knew no one could be there, yet he felt something touch his chest.
He crept slowly to the closet, ready to fling it open and catch whom ever may be hiding in there by surprise, but not before he grabbed a vase off the dresser as he passed it first.
He stood in front of the closet door for a second, maybe checking for a sound coming from inside, there was nothing...he flung the door open with a force, no one was there...he stood for a moment and had to laugh at himself for being so silly.
‘I need a dog or something, this living alone thing is for the birds!', he thought to himself.
He went to the bathroom again, this time to do his morning business, pee, shower and shave.
After he peed, he showered, after he showered he stood in front of his wash basin and mirror and began to shave, thinking about the day ahead.
The mirror reflected the entrance door to the bedroom, and while concentrating on not cutting himself, something, a shadow passed by the door, seeming to be headed toward the bedroom door. His peripheral vision picked it up, it startled him and he cut himself on the chin.
"What the fuck?" he said turning around quickly, pinned by fear.
He set his razor down and headed for the door, he peeked his head out of the bathroom and glanced toward the bedroom door, it was open, as it had been.
He crept closer to the door, hoping to god nothing would jump out and eat him alive, ‘I gotta stop watching scary movies', he thought to himself. He peeked slowly out of the bedroom door, glancing down both directions of the hallway,.toward the steps there was nothing..and toward the guest bedroom also nothing.
He sighed to himself, "ok that's it Im DEFINITELY getting a dog", he said quietly to himself.
He had just bought this house in Malibu about 3 days ago, it was sold to him by a friend of Jc's who moved to Europe to model, she was in a hurry to sell, and gave Lance a great deal, he was dying to own a home in Malibu, and now he did. And he was still getting used to the idea of living alone.
For awhile he lived in Orlando with friends..but since he is doing a lot of work in L.A. he figured a home here would be more comfortable than friends houses or hotel rooms.
It was located on a sloping canyon over looking the ocean, Jc's friend ,Alison was her name, kept the place beautiful and spotless, so he bought it furnished, the decor was perfect for his tastes and comfortable as well. She lived here with two other girls, also models but he didn't know where they were, he just knew they weren't coming back.
He went back into the bathroom to finish shaving, he noticed the cut on his chin, it wasn't very bad, but he still bled a bit, he cleaned it up, finished shaving, dressed and went downstairs, while he sat on his patio overlooking the Pacific, eating cereal, his mind wondered back to that shadow he swore he saw. ‘Maybe it was just a plane passing overhead, or maybe it was my over active imagination', he thought to himself, but his thought was interrupted when he saw her.
This was the second day in a row he saw the girl sitting on the beach near the shore, she was just sitting there..staring off into the ocean, the long sea grass growing high above the sand interfered with most of his vision of her.
He knew she had to be in her early 20's maybe mid, and she had long dark brown hair, thick, that danced in the oceanbreeze...occasionally she would glance to the north or the south up the shore of the beach and he could see her profile, from here, he knew she was beautiful.
His phone rang just as he was about to go walk down to her and strike up a conversation, as he got up, he glanced up shore to see if maybe she lived in one of the other houses about 1/4 of a mile in either direction.
He stepped into the kitchen to retrieve the phone, he picked it up..."hello", no answer....."hello" he repeated still no answer, just a click then the dial tone.
He looked at the phone, shrugged his shoulders and glanced at the caller i.d. it said ‘out of area'. ‘Wrong number' he supposed.
He went back out onto the deck, he was gonna go talk to the girl, he had a few minutes before he had to leave for rehearsal with the guys..but just as he was ascending the steps, he noticed she was gone from where she was sitting, but now diving into the ocean, swimming out in long strokes.
He could only see the top of her head, her arms and a glimpse of the one piece yellow bathing suit she had on, he thought maybe he could wait and see if she were gonna come back right then, but then he didn't want to seem like a weirdo out there watching her swim, besides he had to go he couldn't wait for her to swim back.
There would be another chance to talk to her. He didn't know how he knew this, he just knew.