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collapsing back onto the couch. “I’ll call them in a minute.”
    “So, wait,” said Kaitlyn. “You said somebody saved you. Like some random guy, or what?”
    I fiddled with the tv remote control while I tried to remember everything that had happened the previous night. It came to me in flashes like I was trying to remember the details of a dream.
    “I was just walking home. I mean, there was this guy in line behind me at the gas station who gave me the creeps. It was weird too because I never even looked at him in there. He was just kind of off , you know?”
    Kaitlyn nodded her head. It wasn’t often she stayed silent. She was hanging on my words like they were the difference between life and death. In a sense they were.
    “Then,” I continued, “I tried to brush it off like it was my imagination getting the better of me. I convinced myself he was just some drunk in there to buy cigarettes.”
    Kaitlyn’s brow furrowed. She could tell what was coming.
    “Anyway, I started to walk home. I was thinking about things, kind of in my own world, you know? It was stupid but I wasn’t even paying that much attention to anything around me.”
    “Dude,” Kaitlyn interrupted, “you always should pay attention when you’re out alone. Even I know that.”
    Thanks for the great tip. I thought, sarcastically.
    “Yeah, well, it was my bad, like I said.” The words came out with a bit more of an edge than I would have liked but she understood.
    “So I was about halfway home when the psycho started chasing after me.”
    “The guy from the store?” she asked.
    “Yeah, I told you I didn’t look back but I could just feel it was him.”
    “Oh my God!” she exclaimed in a low whisper.
    “I ran and ran as fast as I could. He kept gaining on me. He caught up to me when I reached the corner at my street and tackled me.” Telling the story to her was more draining than I would have imagined. My stomach was starting to churn just thinking about it.
    “He dragged me to his car and took me over to the other side of town. I didn’t even really recognize the area. There were a lot of empty office buildings and factories and stuff, but mostly I just remember it being really dark.”
    “Was he saying anything to you?”
    “Not really. He told me his name was Rick for some reason. I knew I was in deep shit though because he kept looking at me like I was some piece of meat or something. Kept licking his lips and staring at my chest.”
    “What happened next?”
    “Uh…,” I searched for the best way to describe what happened next. My head was starting to pound. “He started to grab me. He had a knife and was holding it to my neck while he tried to pull my pants down with his other hand.
    The blood drained from Kaitlyn’s face. “Did you fight back?”
    “At first, yeah, but he was too strong. I kicked and squirmed as much as I could be he was big. I could hardly breath under all his weight let alone get away. He had my door blocked in too, so there was no jumping out and running.”
    “This is disgusting,” she said.
    “But then, right when I was about to give up, I saw him.”
    “Who?” she asked, now with a bit more life in her voice.
    “Some guy. He was out for a run when he heard me screaming in the car. I guess he wanted to help me so he came over. He just threw open the car door and ripped the asshole off of me. It’s like, one-minute I was ready to accept the horrible thing that was about to happen to me and the next my problems were gone.”
    “What happened after that?”
    “He beat the shit out of him is what happened. That fucking wannabe rapist probably has a few broken bones and his face is all busted up from what I could see.”
    “But what about the other guy? You said there was two of them?”
    “I didn’t see the other guy… I think Rick was waiting on someone in the alley but I didn’t see him until he almost ran me over with the car.”
    “Did the cops get anybody?” Her questions