If the sound of the front door opening and closing rather harshly wasn’t an indicator that Caroline had seemingly had a long day, the way she threw her bag down and collapsed on the couch with a loud sigh was certain to give it away. She’d been in meetings all day with her manager, and though she adored the woman, god, could she be annoying. Caroline hated sitting still, and hated trying to please a bunch of people with no creative vision about what she wanted to do. She hated sitting through pitches of people wanting to pay her to promote their product, men in poorly tailored suits offering her well under the industry standard assuming because she was still relatively young that they could manipulate her. The whole day, even though she spent it sitting, was more exhausting than the hardest of work outs, at least for the rather tired and grumpy woman who was laying on the large white couch staring blankly at her phone while two large dogs seemed to fight for her attention.
The house was empty, aside from security, Abel was at rehearsals for his tour and that was another reason she’d been occupied most of the day. She’d forced her manager to plan her schedule based around his tour dates in hopes of spending the least amount of time apart. She knew that aside from just being together, it would ease his mind knowing she was safe near him with all the recent events with her stalker. She was simpler in her reasons, she loved him and loved seeing him sing, so it seemed like the only choice was to pack up and go with him. It also gave her time with him to plan their wedding that was coming up in just a few short months.
After exchanging a few texts, letting Abel know that she was home and safe, and she knew that he wouldn’t be home for a while, she didn’t plan on doing much. She’d been laying on the couch for probably about an hour before she heard a bunch of noise coming from around the house, a suited security officer walking through telling her that the system had just rebooted or something it was just making the sensors go off that were placed on every single door and window, he was assuring her that everything was fine, and he had let the dogs out for a bit why they fixed it. The dogs were more than protective, and they could be an issue when moving quickly through the house, especially when Caroline was home.
She didn’t think much of it, she knew that they were working on upping the security, to make it safer for her to be at home. The next little bit seemed like a blur, she’d found herself incredibly sleepy, the cup of coffee that someone had brought her not seeming to help, in fact, she was desperately sleepy, trying to close her eyes and feeling as if she was spinning. She couldn’t remember where the cup had come from, who brought it and if she asked for it. Caroline didn’t know how long she’d been there, or if there was even home until she opened her eyes and the spinning room was indeed in the home she shared with the love of her life. She felt like her body was trying to sleep but her mind was awake. She assumed that she was just having some weird form of lucid dreaming, and the soft caress that she felt on her face was just in a dream. It wasn’t until she started feeling sick that she started to panic, she tried to read the numbers of the time on her apple watch, and she couldn’t.
She didn’t know how long she’d been there, she didn’t know if the soft voice that spoke to her about taking her away, that she’d made terrible choices, that it’d be so easy for her to never wake up was just a nightmare. She tried to wake up, standing to her feet, walking towards the kitchen just wanting a sip of water before her vision was more blurry than when she’d been laying, she felt more unbalanced, walking as if she’d had entire bottle of tequila towards the kitchen before it all went back and Caroline fell to the floor, completely unconscious and motionless in the well lit kitchen. Unbeknownst to the passed out brunette on the kitchen floor, she wasn’t alone at all.
When Caroline opened her eyes, she wasn’t in her home anymore. She was at a crowded party, or event? It was familiar but a lot of these outdoor brand events seemed to look the same. She looked around, knowing that the people around her probably thought that she’d lost it, and perhaps that’s exactly what she was….lost? She tried to remember the last thing she saw, but she could’ve swore that she’d been at home, she’d been waiting on Abel, but here she was standing in the middle of a crowded place as people seemed to just move right past her, not even seeing her at all.
She took a few steps, looking towards the fully stocked and staffed bar for any type of branding, and that’s when she saw her. She, being herself, dressed perfectly in her own designs with her hair blonder. She remembered the event, she’d been there with a few of her friends, it felt like forever ago, yet here she stood in the middle of it, looking into the past as if she’d stepped into some weird marvel timeline. Rationally, Caroline would’ve perhaps realized that she was dreaming, but she couldn’t help but move towards the bar, where her past self was waiting patiently for her turn to order another margarita on the rocks, the empty glass sitting in front of her.
“What’s a pretty girl like you doing at a bar all alone?” A man asked her, her was dressed up, a full suit even though the weather was incredibly hot even as the sun had started to set. “Does that line work for you often?” she questioned, looking up at the man. His voice was familiar to Caroline, like this wasn’t the only time she’d heard it. It made the hair stand up on the back of her neck, and made her want to run from what she was seeing but yet she was forced to stand in place. “I am a man who rarely hears the word no.” he responded cooly, and perhaps that would’ve worked on someone else, but neither past Caroline or what she assumed to be present Caroline was impressed. The bartender noticed her coming over, “Put whatever she wants on my tab.” He said, and the bartender seemed nervous but completely agreed moving fast to get her drink as if he was scared of the man.
That’s when she finally turned to look at him, he was older than her but not elderly, of course. “So, you’re just standing here buying drinks for people who didn’t ask?” she countered, not wanting anything to do with the man and his aversion to the word “no”. “It’s my party, my yacht, my world, dollface, if I want to buy a drink for a pretty girl, I’ll do it.” he countered, his words light and airy but his eyes didn’t smile, he looked at her like prey, like she wasn’t sure if he blinked. “Have you ever seen a yacht?” he asked, gesturing with his glass and causing Caroline to look over past the water that surrounded the event, and she shrugged. “Plenty of times.” she said as the bartender returned with her drink, “and I don’t want to see one tonight. I’m not interested, and you can keep your drink.” she said before turning on her heels and walking away back to the group of friends. It was when the man turned to lean against the bar that she knew exactly who that was…this was the man who wanted to kill her. This was the moment that had started the whole thing, this was what her subconscious was trying to tell her.
Caroline didn’t open her eyes for some time, and when she did, and she was back in her own house and not trapped in the past of her mind, the first thing that fell from her lips was, “I know who he is.”
