Prologue
Playing with fire had finally caught up to him. He supposed it was karma’s way of teaching him a lesson.
Karma never seemed to be on his side.
He glared at his computer screen and feverishly moved the mouse across its pad. The screen saver of him and his girlfriend, sitting arm in arm on the beach, presented itself and brightened the dimly lit study. The picture often made him smile, but tonight, he grimaced at the array of emails hidden behind it.
The image faded, and he frantically began deleting each email, one by one. He didn’t want to look at them anymore, and he couldn’t risk his girlfriend of one year discovering them. They were reminders of his reckless behavior. If she was going to find out about them, it would be on his terms.
He reached for his phone, selecting her name from his list of contacts. He started to text her, when a loud noise distracted him. He finished the text, hit send, and stood up from his desk chair, still holding the phone tightly in his right hand. He stood still, waiting for another sound to follow. Other than the quiet hum of his computer, it was silent.
It could just be something outside.
Thinking nothing of the sound, he started to sit back down to finish deleting emails, when he heard another thump coming from his bedroom. He pushed back his chair and walked out of the study toward the noise.
If one of those good for nothing bums are in my house, I’m going to lose it.
Stepping into his bedroom, he turned on the light switch to the left of the doorframe. He had left his bedroom window open.
I should know better than that. She would have a fit knowing that I left it open.
A light breeze caused his white, transparent curtain to shift and caught his gaze. His eyes shifted from the curtain to his bed and stopped at the blackness of his bathroom. He couldn’t see into the darkness from where he was standing. He hesitantly approached the bathroom while gripping his cell phone tightly. As the room came into view, he stopped dead in his tracks.
“Why the hell are you here?” His eyes widened as he took a step back.
The bathroom was dark, but he could clearly see the silver blade of a knife, just inches from his face.
