Chapter 40 - Alyson

A LOUD POUNDING SOUND WAKES ME UP WITH A START. I SIT UP, CONFUSED FOR A SPLIT SECOND, AND then remember I’m at Jim’s. I look at my phone; I’ve only been asleep for forty-five minutes.

Someone knocks on the front door again, hard, heavy, and desperate. I unlock my phone and call Jim, not expecting him to answer. He doesn’t, and I swing my legs over the bed, peering out into the hall. The door is locked. Jim made sure of it before he left.

A few seconds go by, and I think whoever was outside must have left. I let out a breath and prepare to go back to sleep. And then the person outside knocks again.

“Jim!” the man outside the door yells. “Are you in there?” They know Jim?

“I know you’re in there, man!” And they’re angry. What the hell?

The pounding on the door starts again, so loud I’m scared they’re going to bust through the door. Swallowing my pounding heart, I unlock my phone, thinking I might need to call the cops about this crazy guy.