Chalk by Lily J. Adams

Chapter Twenty: Last Call

 

Lucinda

 

I was back in my apartment on a Wednesday night, as we would pack my things over the next two days since I would be working a long shift. I would be moving in with Chalk and Sarah.

As I imagined what this would be like, living together as a family again, I was reheating pasta leftovers. The whirring of the microwave continued as I stared off into space, waiting for the machine to beep at me. Being that it was after seven, except for the light buzzing in my apartment it was quiet.

Too quiet.

The microwave signaled me with its beeping urgency as I pulled the plate out. I took a fork out of the cutlery drawer and stirred the contents. Then I stopped suddenly.

Footsteps were shuffling around out in the hall beyond my apartment.

Delicately, I put the plate down on the counter, hoping I didn’t hear what I thought I heard. Echoing voices giggled in the hallway and my heart stilled as I listened.

Paranoia is setting in. The quicker you get to Chalk’s house the better.

I sighed as I picked up where I left again, but this time I watched the door.

A shadow.

Did I see that? Or did just imagine it? Shadowy footsteps walking in front of my door.

My body realized the truth before I did… my fingers were unable to hold onto the plate any longer. I had to set it down as my pulse doubled up. I tried to open my kitchen drawers a few times so as to deter the person near the door. Someone was there. I could feel their presence. A darkness lurking on the other side of the door. The alarm wasn’t on because I was in the house. I only turned it on when I left, more for burglary than someone who was blatantly trying to break in like now. But I’d heard the women laughing on the other side. Wouldn’t they have called out to the person? I couldn’t look away now, even though my heart was in my mouth and my tongue was stuck, swollen in place.

The feet shuffling sounded again.

My phone. I had to get to my phone. Chalk. My phone. Panic alarms went off in my head as I gulped down the large lump in my throat. I saw the door shake. Whoever was on the other side of the door wanted to get in. I located my phone, it was in the charger where I left it on the coffee table. I scrambled to it as the door handle visibly twisted.

“Get away from the door. I called the cops!” I screamed.

Still, the violent shaking of the door continued.

I watched on in horror as they kept going. There were cameras in the building, but that wouldn’t help me. The intruder was attempting to break in right now.

Thumbing a message to Chalk as fast as I could, I chastised myself in frustration, as it looked like a bunch of scrawled up letters.

Oh, my god. Please. Get away from my door.

I screamed out again, “Get away from the door! I’ve called the cops.”

A large banging sounded now. Harder. Harder on the door like with the strength of a man. No woman would bang on the door like that with such blunt force.

I called Chalk instead as my fingers weren’t cooperating.

Please Chalk. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up.

Chalk picked up on the first ring. He was on high alert. “What is it?”

I tried to speak and coughed instead, my throat was clogged. “I – there’s somebody here, Chalk. Come. Please. T-they’re playing with the lock. Chalk— get over here.”

“I’m on the way. Keep talking to me, Lucy! Tell me what’s going on.”

“They’re banging on the door and they keep trying to force the lock. I told them to get away from the door, but they don’t speak. Chalk, hurry.” I didn’t recognize my own voice. It sounded like a small, timid little girl. One that didn’t know what to do. I wanted to know what to do, but I didn’t. Holbeck wasn’t that big, and anywhere you needed to get to was at most, only 20 minutes away. From Chalk’s house to mine was a five minute drive, give or take.

Chalk was talking and I was speaking to him on auto-pilot as the person who I assumed to be a man on the other side fiddled with the door.

“Get away from my door now!” I screamed.

No answer. None.

“Do you have the number for the neighbors?” Chalk asked.

“No, no. Chalk, hurry. I don’t even know what this is about.”

“Hang on baby, I’m on the way. Still there?” Chalk asked in a desperate tone.

The sound of a car door slamming shut came over the phone and I knew he was in the car on his way over.

The shaking of the doorknob stopped.

My mouth hung wide open in shock and terror. “It’s stopped. He’s stopped.”

“Okay. Stay on the phone. Stay with me,” Chalk commanded.

I watched the shadow of the feet as they moved away from the door. Someone was trying to deliberately employ scare tactics and it was working. My chest tightened up and I felt as if I couldn’t breathe. I had trouble swallowing.

After a couple of minutes, I gathered the last of my senses and went to the front door. I put my ear to it and listened. No sound. I waited to be sure. My heart kept pounding in my body as if it was my only functional organ. I knew it wasn’t, but it sure felt like it.

I wanted to open the door, but my fumbling hands wouldn’t let me. I turned and slumped down the door in distress. My knees were tucked against my chest as I cried into my hands. I wanted to leave the apartment immediately.

A flat hand against the door had me scrambling away from it with its thump.

“Lucy! Lucy! It’s Chalk. Open up. Come on, open up.”

“Oh, my god it’s you. Ok, ok.” I tried to get up, but my legs were like wobbly sticks and my head was spinning in orbit. Took me another minute, but I got up and opened the door. I felt exhausted from all the stress of the attempted break in or scare, whatever the perpetrator was trying to do. I wanted to fall back down.

“Lucy, are you okay? Come on, lean on me baby. Lean on me. Everything’s gonna be all right. Come on.”

Chalk’s face was like a light shining into my world. Now that he was here and I had support, I broke down into a weeping mess. “Chalk, he kept—he kept playing with the door. I thought he was going to break it down. I-I didn’t do enough. I didn’t—” Gasping for air, I tried to explain.

Chalk held me up, being the tower of strength he was. “Hey, it’s okay. I got you. It’s okay. I’m here now. Come on. I’m here,” he soothed in a light whisper. He held me quietly in the cavern of his muscular arms letting me cry.

“Thank you. I can’t stay here. I can’t be here. Chalk, who are these people?” I exclaimed.

His blue eyes sought out mine. “A person that has a walking target on his back. He will not be breathing anymore by the time I’m finished with him,” Chalk growled through gritted teeth. “I guess your move date has been pushed forward to now. This is it. You can’t be here. Whoever it is ‒ and I have a few suspects in mind ‒ knows where you live.”

 

The next day, I was moving. The lease had been broken due to the attempted break-in, a police report filed, and an unlikely ally had taken care of me – Angie Carmichael.

“You don’t have a lot of stuff, so I think you’ll be good. That’s the last of it right?” Angie offered her hand in order to help me move when she heard about the break in from Chalk. Hawk had just taken a few boxes out and all I had left was what we were about to grab.

At first, I wanted to tell her what Holbeck wharf pier to jump off of, but Angie was a straight up, no chaser kind of woman so I knew she meant it when she offered the help. “Thanks Angie. I’m surprised we can be civil to one another. I don’t know how that happened,” I admitted reluctantly.

Angie guffawed as she dropped off the last cardboard box inside the living room. Chalk was down at the club and my little munchkin was at school. “You’d be surprised how many enemies have turned out to be my friends. I’m glad you’re one of them. You helped me in the hospital when you could have gotten another nurse to do it. You’re a real one and my friends are real, top-notch women. We had our little misunderstanding, and it’s over now. You and Chalk belong together.” Angie winked and stuffed her hands in her back pockets.

“Aww, well damn Angie – you can be nice. Thank you for your help and yeah…I think we can be friends. Took us a while, but we’re here now. You really should not be lifting with that arm too much.” I scolded her. “How is it?”

Angie scoffed. “Yes, nurse. It’s fine now. Full movement, and don’t worry I will be back to being a bitch in no time.” She rotated her shoulder with a wink at me. “I’m just glad Rocky didn’t get to you too. If that’s who it was. Anyway, duty calls for me. Take care, Lucinda, and say hi to Chalk and Sarah for me.”

“Bye, Angie.” I grinned as I waved her off as she got in her car. I shook my head at the circumstances. Funny how we’d come full circle. I still had to pinch myself.

 

 

Two weeks at Chalk’s house showed me that we could be a family again. The routine was a little different, and I had to make some adjustments. But I felt happy to make them, considering my life was on the line. Not once while being here did I feel I was in danger. I saw him put the bulletproof vest on every day and attach the holster belt that no one else could see except for me. I watched as he loaded the bullets into his gun and slid the clip in. Scary. But I knew Chalk would protect our family at any cost.

It took a while for me to adjust as I settled back into normality. Chalk was due back any minute, I moved to the sink to grab a drink of water.

Chalk walked in. “Honey! I’m home,” he called out. Here he was…my light haired, tanned, two-day stubble man.

Damn, the man was hot. I flushed a bit and drank down the cool water. “Yep, and so are you. You were gone for a while, what was taking so long?” I wiped the excess water from the glass with my fingers. I looked a little closer at Chalk, and I could make out a line of sweat on his brow. His eyes were shifting around a little too much for my liking.

“They say timing is everything in life,” Chalk mused as he moved towards me slowly.

“They do?” I tilted my head at him, perplexed by his statement.

Chalk nodded as the dimples on his face emerged. “Uh-huh. But you know what I say?” he added with confidence as he inched towards me.

A frown hit my face because he was looking a little too smug and it was freaking me out.

“You know what I say?” he repeated while he stood a few feet away from me now.

I sat my water down on the counter and stared into his eyes. “What do you say, Chalk?” I asked with an amused smile on my face.

“I say don’t let precious moments pass you by, because you never know when they’ll come around again.”

I had no idea what Chalk was getting at, but I was enjoying the journey.

The moment revealed itself as Chalk got down on one knee, pulling a small velvet jewelry box out of his back pocket. He popped it open to reveal a small diamond cluster with a platinum gold band.

It was perfect, and just right for me. My eyes widened as my whole body flooded with emotion. I put my hands to my mouth in awe. “You went out to get a ring?I can’t believe it!” I gushed. “When did you? How?”

“Uh-huh. I’ve had it for a while now…just waiting for the right time. Right now, feels like the right time,” he confessed as the blue in his eyes was illuminated by simmering emotion. “Lucinda, I’ve loved you for so long and it’s taken me some time to admit to myself, but I can’t hold this in any longer. I want you. Us. This. Our future together. I want to be that man for you when you need somebody to lean on. I love you so much. So, my dear Lucy, will you marry me?”

My heart burst into a thousand pieces as a lone tear flowed down my cheek. I nodded my head fiercely, extending my hand. “Yes, yes of course I will marry you. I love you too, Chalk, so much. You were always the man for me.”

He slid the ring onto my finger while looking up at me in earnest.

I held my hand up and looked at the gleam of the ring and the man who’d declared his love for me.

“Then we’re on the same page.” He hugged me tight to his chest with our hearts beating in time.

Sometimes dreams do come true. Right here in Holbeck was where I belonged.