Chapter 8—Questions
Click Here for
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Note: Because of a warning I received from SteemCleaners, I'm going straight to chapter 8, which is where I stopped the last time. To get the two omitted chapters, please refer to my older posts
Chloe
Hurt. Distraught. Blindsided.
That’s how I feel as I watch Don and the unknown girl walk away from me, hand in hand and without a backward glance. I’m absolutely flummoxed. I don’t understand. My head is so full of webs of confusion, it literally feels heavy.
Whiplashed. That’s another one. Because Don’s transition from how he was in the apartment last night to his behaviour now has happened to fast to be real. Could a person really change so drastically so quickly? Could this have been happening behind my back the entire time? I can’t bring myself to believe that. After the last douche bag I dated, I’m sure I would’ve recognized the signs. This here… this is new.
“You’re making a mistake, Chloe!”
I’m startled as the man-in-the-cloak’s words ring loudly in my ears. I glance around jerkily, but there’s no one there. It’s only a memory but it had been so sharp, almost as if someone had said it beside me.
I realize I’ve been standing shock still on the same spot for almost five minutes, although Don and the girl are long gone.
He had been on to something – the man in the black cloak. He had known. It hadn’t been a scam. This was what he had been trying to warn me about, but like a fool, I had stormed away. I hadn’t listened.
But yet, how could I have known? The whole thing makes no sense! What on earth could have happened to Donnie to change him in this manner? The best option I can think of is brainwashing, and I don’t think that could have been done in one night.
Unless he had been somehow charmed.
I shake my head. That’s even more ridiculous than brainwashing. But my brain won’t work, and neither will my legs. I’m still on the same spot. Maybe I am going into shock.
I need to talk to someone. I need to talk to someone at once or I will spontaneously combust. Jan would have been best, but unlike Don, she doesn’t work near the college and she has a tendency to ignore her phone during working hours. Which leaves only one other person. My best friend and colleague, April Churchill.
“When you need me, I’ll be near!”
My head jerks up. It’s the man’s voice again, clear as a bell. And this time, I see him, staring at me from the pavement across the street a fair distance away, surrounded by a crowd of passersby that who walk on without acknowledging his presence in anyway. But—and I’m reluctant to admit it—I’m afraid to talk to him. At least, not yet. I need to talk to someone I know first.
Suddenly, he’s gone. I blink rapidly and glance around, but he’s nowhere to be found. The passersby walk on as though nothing happened and no one had been in their midst just a moment ago. Am I seeing things?
In any case, I have to get to April’s at once, before I hurt myself or do something crazy. Someone in my condition should definitely not be out on a busy street.
Watch here for Chapter 9—Answers
Find more of my original works as Peter M. Ogwara on Amazon!
