Your Guardian Angel

A few hours later, Jesse drove me back to Amanda’s house.

“Are you going to be ok tonight? Do you need me to stay with you?” asked Jesse.

“No. I think I’ll be ok now. Matt is in jail, so he can’t get to me, but that’s so sweet of you to ask.”

“But you’ll be totally alone since Amanda and her parents went away for the weekend. Are you sure you’re ok with that?”

“Yeah I’ll be fine. I need to get over my fear. Thanks for this wonderful day. I love you so much.”

“I love you too.”
We kissed each other goodnight and I got out of the car. Too bad the night had to end…

No time for goodbye he said
As he faded away
Don't put your life in someone's hands
Their bound to steal it away
Don't hide your mistakes
'Cause they'll find you, burn you
Then he said

I went in the house and took off my coat and laid it on the chair, smiling and thinking about how lucky I was to be this in love, but then I looked around. Something was off, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. The house felt…different. It was pitch black when I walked in, so I turned on the hall light.

That’s weird, I thought. I could have sworn I left some lights on when I left. I guess I must have forgotten to put them on this time. I always like to leave at least some lights on when I leave because I hate coming home to a dark house. I turned on some more lights and walked up to my room. When I walked in, I noticed that something was different. The picture frame of Josh and me that I usually kept on my night table was now across the room in pieces on the floor. I ran over and picked it up as tears came to my eyes. How could this have happened? At this point, I knew something wasn’t right. There’s no way I would have ever broken this picture. I picked up my cell phone and called Amanda.

“Hello?” she said as she picked up the phone.

“Hey it’s Riley. You didn’t accidentally break the frame with the picture of me and Josh in it and didn’t tell me, did you?”

“No.”

“Did your parents?”

“I don’t think so. Why? What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing. It’s just that I think the frame might have fallen off the night table and broke by accident.” Ok so I lied. It wasn’t nothing and the picture did not just fall off the table; it had been thrown across the room.

“Oh I’m sorry. Well I’d better go because I’m really tired. Night.”

“Night,” I said as I hung up the phone. Ironically, my cell phone went dead at that very moment. The fear was setting in. I began to shake slightly and I could feel my breath becoming shallower. Someone had been in my room.

I went back downstairs to use the phone to call the police and then Jesse. I picked up the receiver and heard nothing; the line was dead. Someone must have cut it, I thought as tears of fear sprang to my eyes. I need to get out of here…I need to go…

If you want to get out alive
Run for your life
If you want to get out alive
Run for your life

I ran as fast as I could towards the back door, but then I stopped dead in my tracks. The door stood ajar and there was a small hole in the glass; someone must have stuck his hand through the glass and unlocked the door. I covered my mouth trying desperately not to scream. I felt a firm hand clap over my mouth, so I finally screamed and kicked as hard as I could. He let go of me and I made a beeline for the door, but then he tackled me to the floor. I felt my lip start to bleed as I hit the ground.

I felt my body leave the ground as this person carried me over to a chair and shoved me down on it. He grabbed my hands and feet and tied me to the chair with rope that he pulled out of his pocket. Meanwhile, I was screaming hysterically as loud as I could, hoping maybe that someone would hear me and try to help. That didn’t last long because he put tape over my mouth so that the loudest sounds that came out sounded like mere mumbles. He walked in front of me and I finally saw who he was. His eyes were the coldest, most unrelenting eyes I had ever seen. His face was red with anger and he was dressed in all black, so that was really all I saw of his body. As I stared into his hard face, I finally realized who was staring back at me.

**FLASHBACK**

Jesse squeezed my hand as I got up and walked over to the witness stand and put my hand on the Bible and gave my oath of honesty. As I sat down on the witness stand, I could feel all eyes in the room on me. I looked around the room and saw Jesse looking at me encouragingly. Josh’s parents were in the first row; his mother was crying, but she gave me a small smile to show that she appreciated that I was there. I looked to the other side and saw Matt’s family looking completely crestfallen, except for his brother who looked utterly threatening, which startled me temporarily.

**END OF FLASHBACK**

Matt’s brother Jeff, I thought. I continued to make as much noise as I could.

“Shut up, bitch!” he exclaimed, slapping me hard across the face. Blood trickled out of my nose. “Ever since you came into my brother’s life, you have been nothing but trouble, but tonight that’s all going to change. He loved you so much and you got him thrown in jail. For that, you deserve to pay, but how do you want to do it? Do you want it to be quick or slow and painful? I think slow and painful will work.” He took a knife out of his pocket and held it up to my face.

“Look at this pretty face,” he said as he wiped the side of that cold piece of metal perversely up and down my face. “It’s a pretty face that ruins lives. First Josh’s and then my brother’s. No more. Maybe we should take advantage of that beauty before it is no more. What do you say?”

I screamed “NO!!!!!” as loud as I could, but it just came out as a mumble. Tears streamed down my face and he enjoyed watching the fear rise in my eyes.

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” he said. He picked me up out of the chair. I jerked and flailed and kicked as hard as I could, but to no avail; he had a tight grip. “Oh you’re a feisty one, aren’t you? I like that.” He carried me upstairs into my room, turned out the lights, and threw me on the bed. At this point, I was crying so hard that I could barely breathe. He pushed up my shirt and started groping me all over. He worked his way down to my pants. He was going to rape me. At this point, I was crying so hard that I could barely breathe.

This is my last time she said
As she faded away
It's hard to imagine
But one day you'll end up like me
Then she said

At that moment, Jesse appeared in the doorway. He quietly walked over to the dresser, picked up the lamp and hit Jeff over the head with it. I felt his head land on my chest; he was knocked out. Jesse got him off of me and untied me as quick as he could. As soon as I was free, I grabbed Jesse and pulled him in to me and sobbed on his shoulder harder than I ever had.

“It’s going to be ok,” he said, patting my back as I cried. “We just need to get out of here. Come on.” He took my hand and led me out of the room. We both ran downstairs as soon as we could. It wasn’t soon enough though because Jeff quickly regained consciousness. As soon as we reached the front door, he yelled, “Freeze or the guy dies.” I turned around slowly, scared to death of what I was about to see; Jeff was holding both of us at gunpoint.

If you want to get out alive
Run for your life
If you want to get out alive
Run for your life