Too Late: Day 14

 Word Count: 84,039

Summary of Events:

Amarina revelled in the pleasure of her visit to Callan's flat and actually dared to hope that he might be willing and able to help her. After practise Callan went to see if his former coach was home to chat, but found he wasn't, so he told himself he needed to arrange a meeting soon. Amarina headed for work, being forced to buy a lunch on the way because her sister took what she'd been planning on eating. Callan prepared to leave for a game in Manchester against Manchester City and decided he would ask the teammate who shared the hotel room with him about whether two weeks was too soon to propose marriage. Amarina was tired from a busy day at work when she got a message from the monster telling her he was coming over to kill her, in a panic, she fled her house . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Reaching the entrance of Highbury Park, she wrenched the door open and rushed inside. Immediately she did her best to calm herself, as there was a reasonably young couple coming from the inside whom she didn’t really want to have to talk to.

She turned toward the keypad, but didn’t press the number right away; instead, she decided to feign looking for someone so as to give her a few moments to calm down.

Inwardly, however, she swore when she saw the man deliberately push the door shut, as she could’ve snuck inside and rushed up to the flat in question without having to buzz him that way, but at least by having to buzz him he’d know she was coming.

He’d probably want to go out and defend her too, if she was honest, should she find a way to reach him in too panicked of a state, so it was probably just as well that she was taking a few moments to calm herself down, as she didn’t want the young man to go out there and get killed for her sake.

The monster would surely kill him, after all, seeing how the monster was heading over to her house right now to kill her.

Once the couple were gone she pressed the four digits and listened to the tinny ring as it rang five times before shutting off; the little screen flashing back to the instructions.

What did that mean? Was there some sort of error? Had he cut off the call? Why?

She pressed them again and listened as there were five rings, then it shut off. Feeling the anxiety start to rise in her again, she tried more times, desperate to hear a sixth ring, or to hear his uniquely-pronounced ‘hello’, but she got nothing, just five rings before it shut off.

What did that mean? Why wouldn’t it ring through to him?

Was he deliberately ignoring her? After all he’d done? Why? What would induce him to betray her? She wanted to talk, to tell him everything. She wanted his help, she wanted his protection, and now he wasn’t here? Where had he gone? Why hadn’t he told her he’d be gone? Why hadn’t he given her a means by which to contact him that was more reliable than a buzzer?

Tears flooded her eyes and she slammed her fist into the keypad angrily before she turned and fled. She didn’t know where she was going to go now, but she certainly wasn’t going to stay here and wait for him to come back. She needed him now, not later, and she wasn’t going to hide here and consider herself safe when the monster had clearly told her he had every intention of killing her.

She ran south, not stopping until her weariness finally caught up with her and prompted her to drop down onto a bench and weep. How could she have been so stupid? As much as he was a young man, he was still a man. It shouldn’t surprise her that he’d failed her in her time of most desperate need.