Storm of Adventure

The smell of popcorn filled my house as the microwave popped the last few kernels of the delicious treat. I looked out the window and thought wistfully of the days when I would be outside playing in the blizzard, instead of staying inside to watch a movie. Sometimes adulthood really sucks, but then I remember I can drink. So I open a bottle of wine and gather up my snacks.

My phone pings, it's my mom texting me. "Valerie, please let me know that you're home and safe. It's your mom." As if I hadn't saved her number in my phone as that. Sometimes I wonder if parents should be allowed to access technology, it didn't seem like it was worth the aggravation.

A one-word answer was all she was getting; I wasn't in the mood for a long conversation. The video that I had picked up on my way home from work stared back at me, Cruel Intention. Ryan Phillippe has a yummy tush and the movie isn't half bad either. The Blu-ray player spits out the disc holder and I place the movie in it.

"Valerie, poor predictable Valerie." Instead of Ryan's pearly whites flashing to the girl he was about to seduce, a picture of me dancing with the man I had married and ran away from played on the screen. "How long did you think that you could hide from me? Now you are trapped in the house during the blizzard of the century, with me."
How had he found me? Every precaution that had been given to me was taken, Valerie isn't even my real name. I twisted my hair around my finger, the one habit that I couldn't break when I was nervous. Though since my hair was darker and a facelift had taken many years off of my age, it seemed impossible that he had found me.

Thinking fast, I grabbed my phone and text my mom, "He found me!" My heart was racing, how in the world would I get out of this mess? For years being found was only a remote possibility but now, somehow my ex-husband had found me.

"I know, I told him where you were at. I always thought you guys made a cute couple." Something was off with my mom's response. Before I had time to think about what it was, a bottle came hurling through my window. A long piece of string covered in some type of powder made up the fuse. I grabbed it and ran to the front door, when I opened it I was terrified by what I saw.

Lying face down in the snow, with a pool of blood painting the snow. Words were lost somewhere in my body, everything around me went blurry. The sizzling sound of the bomb brought me out of the haze, I threw it into the street. Just as it hit the ground, it exploded! It sent shards of glass everywhere. From the upstairs of my house, I heard maniacal laughter.

In my purse was my gun, for years people thought I was a gun nut for no reason. But something in my gut had told me that one day I was going to need this. Holding the gun in front of me, I creep up the stairs. The bathroom door is shut, something that I never do. In a move that is straight out of Buffy, I karate kick the door open. To my surprise there is no one there.

I hear the laugh again, but it sounds like it's coming from my guest bedroom. Quietly I move towards that door. The closer that I get, the louder the laugh seems.

The door is slightly ajar, but there is no movement in there. As I pushed the door open, everything went silent. There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to die. I flipped the light switch to on but nothing happened. Carefully I lowered my gun, shoving it into my jacket pocket. My cell had a flashlight on it, so I brought that out and light the room up. Once again no one was in the room but the laugh sounded again. I looked around and found a tape recorder hidden under the bed.

Quickly I switched the flashlight off, and grabbed my gun out of my pocket and headed to my bedroom. The only sound echoing through the house now was the wind blowing outside. As always my bedroom door, stood open. I crept in there and turned on the light and screamed. Hanging from the rafters was my ex-husband. How could this be the same man, whom I had just watched my younger self dancing with? Had he done all of this to traumatize me?

A bullet smashed through the window, narrowly missing me. If it wasn't Kyle chasing me, I had no idea who it could be. One would think that a single psychopath in their life would be enough. Before my train of thought could get carried away, I heard the front door open. Swiftly, I made my way downstairs.

When I got to the top of the stairs, my tormentor was at the bottom. It took me less than a second to realize that it was my first love, Josh. "Well hello, Valerie. Or are you going back to Rachel now that the evil husband is dead?"

"Josh, what the hell are you doing here? Why did you kill my mom and Kyle? We broke up a long time ago."

"Romance." Josh started to advance, I pulled out my gun to show him. "Please you won't shoot me. You don't have it in you. I have loved you forever and now that you don't have to run, we can be together."

"You killed two people and nearly murdered me! You are going to jail! There is no chance for you and I."

"Have you never heard of conjugal visits?"

Talk about a storm of insanity!