Chapter 38

“William…” Rebecca smile awkwardly, recalling the strained circumstance under which they had parted earlier that morning.

William smiled back, his eyes bright and alert as he stepped into her apartment. He scanned her place quietly as she closed the door.

Her phone rang again, it was John. Rebecca silenced her phone and placed it on the kitchen countertop.

Rebecca noticed how wet William was. Water was dripping onto the wooden floor, creating yet another puddle much like her backpack did.

“You’re wet. Did you come by yourself?” She wondered why he hadn’t called for Tony as he usually did. William nodded silently, taking in the sight of her place.

Rebecca suddenly felt very conscious of how shabby her apartment was in comparison to his glorious penthouse. Her dirty clothes were still piled up high like a mountain on her bed and stacks of papers and notes were strewn on the floor of her coffee table. The wires from her laptop, handphone chargers and headphones lay tangled in a heap near the kitchen. She sheepishly went over to her bed and pulled her blanket over her pile of clothes, “I um…I’m usually not THAT messy.”

William looked at her, the smile still plastered on his face. He remained where he was, near the entrance. An awkward silence hung in the air.

That’s odd.

He seemed different. His eyes were cold and foreboding. Rebecca could not sense any warmth in them. And William never smiled like that. This smile was eerie as if his mouth was pulled by wires.

Rebecca inhaled sharply. She had seen this smile before.

William’s hand reached for the door and he locked it. Funny how she did not notice him wearing gloves when he came in.

This is not William.

On the countertop, light illuminated from her phone. John’s name flashed across the screen.

Thomas Silverman. This was the man she saw the other night with William. This was the supposedly dead twin.

“William?” she eeked out as she backed away, edging closer to her bathroom. She had a baseball bat in the bathroom.

Thomas walked towards her, “You know I’m not William.”

Rebecca made a mad dash for her bathroom and quickly slammed the door shut, locking it from the inside. Thomas pounded at her door as another set of lightning flashed across the evening sky. The god of thunder must have been enraged, for the roaring booms never ceased. No one would hear her screaming.

Frantically, she grabbed her baseball bat and crouched at the corner of her now cold and clammy bathroom. The lights were off, and she could see nothing but flashes of lightning and the light from under her bathroom door.

Thomas pounded on her door again, “Come out Rebecca….” His voice was nothing like William’s. Whereas William’s was deep and soothing, Thomas’ was high pitched and strained.

Rebecca was scared, amidst the thunders, she could hear the sound of her rapid heartbeat as beads of cold sweat formed across her forehead. With trembling hands, she tightened her grip on her baseball bat. She would fight her way out if she had to.

It seemed like forever before the shadows of Thomas’ dripping wet feet disappeared from behind the bathroom door.

Did he leave? She wondered anxiously. She contemplated climbing out her tiny bathroom window, but it was way too small to fit her. Her only escape route was through the main door or the fire escape route near her kitchen window. Both were at the moment, out of reach. It was psychological, but the darkness seemed to be getting thicker, crowding down upon her. She even began to have trouble breathing.

Damnit! Stop it! Calm down! Think!

Then she saw the shadows of his feet approaching again.

No…please no.

“Stay away!” she screamed. Then the doorknob rattled.

Thomas had found her keys! Why on earth did she have to hang all her keys at the key rack behind her main door? Why on earth did she have to be so stupid?!

The door squeaked to an open and the light from her living room poured into the darkened bathroom, momentarily blinding her.

“Hello beautiful, “ Thomas said, but there was no beauty in his voice. It was dripping with malice.

Rebecca froze for a split second and then leapt to her feet. But she had jumped up without figuring out what she wanted to do. She charged head-on, intending to bash her way out of the bathroom, but she had failed to take into consideration Thomas’ size compared to hers.

He easily disarmed her, grabbing her by the arm and twisting it back so hard that her baseball bat dropped onto the floor before he punched her in her abdomen. Pain exploded within her like a bomb, and she doubled over, crumpling onto the ground.

Before she even had a chance to react, a pair of powerful arms lifted her off the ground. Rebecca pounded wildly at Thomas with her tiny fists but to no avail. He dragged her towards her bed. Suddenly she knew his purpose.

“No!!!” she screamed. But no one heard her.

Calling upon every muscle in her arm, she yanked at his hair, pulling out some of his roots, and abruptly his grip loosened. John had taught her some self-defense moves in the past, but all she remembered was him laughing at her flimsy moves and jokingly telling her to poke at her assailant in the eye as a last resort—and that was what Rebecca did.

She poked Thomas’s left eye and he yowled in pain, finally letting her go.

"Bitch!" he screamed.

She broke free and crashed onto the floor. The pain from her fall was intense, but there was no time to lose.

Rebecca dashed towards the door but never made it out. For just as she was about to unlock her door, a heavy object came crashing down on her head. Then, everything faded to black.

On the kitchen countertop, light illuminated from her phone again.