Closing Time...Chapter 3

Closing Time...Continued from the previous two blog posts

Amber screamed.

"Hey." Someone outside her car knocked again. "Are you okay?"

Amber stared at the window, positive she'd see Todd's haunting grin looking back at her. A stranger peered back at her.

"Miss, miss? Are you okay?" a man said.

Amber sat, confused at the events around her. She scanned outside to see if Todd had somehow appeared. She then feared for this man's life.

"Run!" Amber screamed at the window.

"What?" he said.

"Get out of here! There's a killer chasing me!"

Amber saw confusion on the man's face change to first surprise, then resolve. 

"Where?" The man asked looking up to where Amber had just been.

"I don't know, but you'd better get out of here." For a moment, Amber forgot about her own safety and focused on someone she didn't even know. "Hurry--there's a killer out there!"

Amber saw the man move away from the car. He scanned the parking lot, even walking around the car, alert. She also noticed his size--huge, probably a football player, or used to be. His blond hair and wide shoulders exuded confidence. Just watching him Amber felt safer. She started her car. The man knocked again, this time on the driver's side window.

"I don't see anyone. Whoever it was must have left."

Amber lowered her window.

"Maybe, but I'm leaving and I think you should, too."

"I was walking to my car from the gym and I saw you sprinting, like the devil himself was after you. Girl, you're fast."

Even as scared as she was, Amber felt the blood rush to her cheeks. From the stranger's reaction, she Amber knew he saw her blush.

"Uh, thanks. I used to run track--probably broke my personal one-hundred meter sprint back there. Too bad no one timed it," Amber said, her words met with a chuckle."

"Track, huh? Me, too. Decathlon."

Figures, Amber thought.

"But I'll bet you never sprinted and caught your flying keys at the same time before." The man placed his large forearm on the hood of the Subaru. He peered into the car and smiled.

Beautiful smile.

"Ha...you saw that?"

"Yup--first-rate catch there. Real Sports Center stuff, there."

Amber smiled back. She felt her face grow hot again, but didn't care. For a moment, all memory of Todd and his evil grin disappeared.

"I think I need to get to the police station." Amber knew she should leave, but the attraction she felt for this man was undeniable.

"Good idea. Tell you what, I'll follow you in my car. You know where the police station is?"

"On Maple."

"Right. I'm in the green Land Rover. I'll be right behind you."

"Thank you...um--"

"Bret," he said. Bret Simmons."

"Thank you, Bret Simmons." 

Bret nodded and jogged to his car. Amber followed him as he picked up a his gym bag on the way. He had obviously dropped it help her out.

"Land Rover..." Amber said to herself as she watched him go.

Amber put the car in reverse and glanced over at Bret to watch him climb into his green Land Rover.

He never made it.