Chapter 47

When I’d first arrived in New Middle Bluff, I’d talked to Lana about my panic attacks and nightmares. I was having the strangest responses to the panic—it was almost like I wasn’t experiencing fight-or-flight at all—I just became paralyzed. I couldn’t do anything. Couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe.

“That’s because there’s more than just fight-or-flight,” Lana had told me. “There’s also fawn and freeze. It sounds like you’re freezing.”

And that’s what I was doing now. Freezing up in this situation that had materialized right out of my nightmares. My stalker rounded the sofa and pushed my coffee table back until he could sit on it comfortably. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees with the gun sort of hanging from his hand casually.

He captured my eyes with his black stare, and I swallowed hard.

“This has been a lot of fun,” he said, the corner of his mouth ticking upward. “When my partner approached me to play this role, I was a little hesitant to take it on, but it’s be