It was a day like any other. Davina had slept late. She didn’t have to perform that night, but she was in the habit of sleeping in because she was not only a natural night owl but also because when she did perform, it was at night.
Driving and owning a car never interested her. She preferred to ride her bike, walk, or occasionally use public transportation if something was that far away. Most things she needed were close enough to the apartment she shared with her two roommates and fellow trapeze artists, making it a convenient location.
She returned to her apartment building late in the afternoon, carrying a few things in a canvas bag she had picked up at the local grocery store: feminine supplies, bottled water, bananas, and a candy bar.
Davina’s brick building was shaped like a U and stood twenty stories high. She entered inside the U, where she could see floors rising up on each side of her as well as straight ahead where the front door was located. The quirky and spunky acrobat reached for the glass door to enter the lobby of the New York apartment building when she heard footsteps and shouting behind her. She had just slipped inside and turned quickly to look out the door at the commotion going on outside.
At first, she thought the girl and the guy were just playing around as the guy chased the girl, both of them shouting at once. But then Davina could see that this was anything but a game. The guy was pissed, and the woman was absolutely terrified.
Just then, the guy grabbed the woman and pinned her to the ground. With the woman on her back, the guy straddled her, pinning her arms beneath his legs. To Davina’s utter horror, the guy began to strangle the woman. She could hear him grunting with the effort even though he was thirty or forty feet away.
Davina’s brain told her to run, but her feet were frozen in place as she watched, horrified. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Then, in just a split second, the guy turned and looked directly at her.
Again, her brain told her to run, yet she was still frozen stiff in total fear.
Forgetting about the girl, the guy quickly rose and began moving toward her. The girl was motionless, and Davina feared she may be dead. Either way, she didn’t need to be a genius to know that she was the guy’s next target because she was a witness to the evil deed that he had just committed.
Now he was only twenty feet away as she ran to the elevators, glad the door automatically locked from the outside and hopeful as hell that the guy didn’t have a key. She’d never seen him around before, but it was a big building with hundreds of apartments. She didn’t know or see everyone who lived there or visited. This psycho could be anyone from anywhere, and she definitely preferred not to personally meet him.
She frantically pressed the elevator buttons on both the left and right sides of the lobby as the guy grabbed the door handle and tugged viciously. Davina was afraid he might try to smash his way in to get at her before the elevator could arrive to rescue her and hopefully carry her up to safety.
She glanced left and right at all four elevator doors, willing one of them to open.
Come on, come on! Hurry!
Her head snapped back to the door at the sound of keys jingling.
Oh no! This couldn’t be happening.
He had a key!
Unless he was just bluffing or hoping that one of his keys would miraculously open the door to her building, she had just seconds for an elevator to arrive, or else she would probably meet the same fate the woman outside had.
Davina’s heart was pounding by the time one of the doors finally slid open. She jumped into the elevator and quickly pressed the button to close the door when she heard the door open and heavy footsteps running toward the elevator.
Please close! Please close!
She must have had a guardian angel with her that day because the doors closed barely a nanosecond before the guy reached them.
She lived on the sixteenth floor but had actually pressed the button for the fifteenth floor to throw the guy off should he manage to follow her. She knew the lighted numbers above the elevator doors would show which floor she had gone to. She would take the stairs from the fifteenth floor up to her floor.
It seemed to take the elevator forever to reach the fifteenth floor, but when it did, she shot out of it and down to the end of the hall to the door leading to the stairwell. She had a fleeting thought of the door being locked for some reason, but it wasn’t. She rushed up the stairs and onto her floor. She ran a few doors down to her apartment, which she knew would be empty at that time of day. It was just a little after four, and the others didn’t usually get home until after five.
She pulled her keys out of her crossover purse just as the elevator doors opened. She glanced toward the middle of the corridor as a guy stepped out, first looking in the opposite direction and then in hers.
It was him!
She fumbled frantically to insert the key into the lock, thankful to be well-coordinated that day as she quickly pushed the door open, slammed it shut, threw the deadbolt, and added the chain they never used just as the killer threw himself against the door.
How the hell had he known she really lived on the sixteenth floor?
She expected a slew of shouts, swears, and threats, but he remained silent as he jiggled the doorknob, obviously not wanting to draw any more attention to himself.
Davina realized in the few seconds it took her to pull out her phone and dial 9-1-1 that had her apartment been one door closer to the elevators, she probably wouldn’t have made it to safety.
Now all she had to do was hope he didn’t kick the door in before the police arrived.
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