In the dark, we stumbled toward the living room. I almost tripped over arge vase in the corner of the room, and Ava bumped into a side table, jostling amp, but she managed to catch it before it crashed to the floor.


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    Finally, we made it to our purses. Quickly, Ava made the call to the police and put her phone on speaker so that I could hear it.


    “Yes, please send over someone as quickly as possible,” Ava said after she quickly exined the situation. “The knocking on my door is bing so loud, I can barely even hear you and…” She paused and swallowed, but she rolled her shoulders back, trying to remain brave. “And I think there might be someone in the house.”


    The pounding on the door was bing so loud that I could barely hear myself think. Whoever was trying to get in alternated between knocking and ranging the doorbell repeatedly.


    “I’m sending someone over to your location right now,” the operator assured us. “Go to a room that you can lock and stay there to wait for the officers to get to you. If you have any weapons to protect yourselves, bring them with you.”


    Herst sentence made a jolt go through me. The room spun. This whole thing was all happening too fast.


    After Ava hung up, she grabbed my hand and dragged me to her bedroom. She locked the door and used the light from her cell phone to look around the room. I shook my head to clear it. I couldn’t afford to go into shock right now. I had to help Ava. As I got my phone out of my purse, we heard a noiseing from the other room.


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    It was the unmistakable sound of a door being unlocked.


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    Ava’s terrified gaze met mine. “They’re inside!” she whispered, her voice high with anxiety.


    This time, I was the one to act first. I grabbed onto her wrist and led her into her bathroom that was connected to the room. We shut the door and locked it. The fact that there were now two locked doors between us and the intruder made my shoulders rx slightly.


    After a moment of eerie silence, Ava quietly gasped.


    “What is it?” I whispered.


    “If someone has a key to open the door, that means that they can get into my bedroom and the bathroom,” she quickly exined. “It’s a master key that unlocks any room in my apartment!”


    My heart dropped. “So, we’re sitting ducks, then?”


    Ava nodded.


    At the same time, we sprang from the floor and ran out of the bathroom, through her bedroom, and back out into the hallway. It wasn’t smart to be cornered by the intruder.


    “Do you hear that?” Ava whispered as we crept along the dark hallway.


    I stopped walking and listened closely.


    In the direction of the balcony doors, there was a small creaking sound. The door to the balcony was slowly being opened, and a man’s face came into view.


    Ava and I held each other as we screamed at the top of our lungs. We were almost loud enough to crack the ss. The pounding on the door continued as the man came slowly into view.


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    Once I got a good look at him, I immediately stopped screaming.


    “Ava!” I said and shook her because she was still yelling with fear. “It’s. Richard!”


    Alexander’s new bodyguard was standing in the doorway with a sheepish expression. “I’m sorry,dies. I didn’t mean to frighten you. That was the opposite of what I wanted. Mr. Green has put me in charge of protecting you two for the night, but to do it discreetly. So, I found the extra key to your balcony on your patio and have been watching over things. I’m so sorry to scare you. I’ve been making sure to lock it each time I leave.”


    My heart was still mming against my chest. “Were you also pounding on the front door?” I asked Richard.


    His head tilted to the side. “No, that wasn’t me.” As if on cue, the knocking started again. Richard volunteered to see who it was. Turned out, it was just Ava’sndlord who hade around to inform all the tenants about the power outage. It wasn’t just Ava’s apartment. It was the whole building. Thendlord had heard us screaming, and that was why he had been pounding on the door. He had decided toe in with his master key when she hadn’t answered to make sure we were alright, but when he didn’t find us, he left.


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