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She turned off the radio as he walked into the door. Trisha’s shift was over and it was time for her to go home. She was glad there as an unusually large number of drive offs. She didn’t connect it to the attacks she heard from across town. Gas price had gone up about thirty more cents in the last couple of days.

"Are you going to be alright?" Rick asked. He clocked in for his shift.

"Yes, tonight was just a little chaotic," she replied. She didn’t bother him with all the details of the evening. She wanted to get home and did not feel like talking to another person.

She grabbed her jacket then bought a couple of items.

"Are you going to be alright?" he asked. "Because I’ll lock the doors so I can drive you home."

"Yes, I just live a half mile away," she said. Trisha figured he liked her or at least the way she looked with her shoulder length blonde hair and somewhat athletic body, but she thought there was nothing else. "I’ll see you tomorrow."

She walked out of the store. The street was quiet. It was almost twelve on a Friday so people should be driving up and down the street like usual. She ignored the news from the radio and started the walk to her apartment.

The street was dark, several of the street lights were out especially the ones on the right side of the street. A car sped pass her and jumped the curb as it turned a corner. Trisha was glad she was already a block away.

She then heard something from between two buildings someone stepped out. She decided not to look back. She was afraid of the things a man might do to her. Trisha kept walking forward. She didn’t look back or slow down. The man shambled behind her. He tried to keep up as she sped up. She was a little bit faster.

Trisha stopped at the crosswalk and pressed the button. The light finally turned green for her, but before she could cross a police car sped pass her. Trisha waited a second more then walked pass. The person behind her was gaining on her.

She figured if the man wanted to attack her he would waited for the police car to turn the next block. The car stopped and slowly backed up. Trisha suddenly became fearful as the man approached, she sped up.

She soon passed the house that scared her. It was on the same block as her apartment. It was a two story house with a chain link and iron bar fence around it. It was another property of the owners of her apartment building. In the yard were two Rottweilers and a Pitbull. They tried to get out every time she walked pass. The man following her stopped and looked in the yard. He tried to reach in at the dogs. They only barked at him.

The police car backed up and the officers stepped out. They walked up and shone lights into the man’s face. The man lunged at them and they backed off. Trisha opened the gate to the apartment. A second police car drove up. One officer stepped out. Trisha stepped through the gate and shut it securely behind her.

The three officers with him with their nightsticks and it had no affect. He tried to attack all the cops but they stayed out of arms reach. One walked around and unlocked the iron gate. The dogs tried to get out but he sprayed them with mace and they ran off. The officers forced the man into the gate and they then locked it with handcuffs.

Trisha unlocked the door to the building and went in. She went to the mailboxes. She had checked them earlier. Trisha glanced down the hall. She remained quiet as a man stumbled down the hallway and turned down a corner.
Her mail was the two letters sent from her parents. Her father sent her cash wrapped construction paper and her mother sent her a check. Her other mail was Cosmo magazine, even though she only read a third of the articles.

She had hoped a letter from her cousin Cecelia. Her cousin had disappeared when she turned sixteen and Trisha was thirteen. Cecelia reappeared a few years later with an unbelievable story of just running and living on a farm.

Cecelia’s disappearance and reappearance caused her own parents to become over protective. Trisha pressed the elevator button as she read the letter from her mother. In it she complained about Trisha’s grandparents and how her father was working longer hours and spending more time with friends and how she should move home when the semester was over. Trisha thought about it and figured her parents would pay for her apartment while she was at home.

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