Samuel's POV
I fold my arms in front of my chest and watch the mother stomp out of the house. She goes straight for her daughter, who is still standing at the edge of their driveway, waiting. And I know exactly who she's waiting for.
Me.
"I've had enough." The motherâMinaâgrabs her daughter's upper arm and pulls her in the direction of their house. "You need to come back in. Or I'll lock the front door and force you to spend the night outside."
"Go right ahead." My chargeâOliviaâtears her arm out of Mina's hold and turns back to the road. "He said he has another hour left, so it means he has to come back."
"Who?"
"Samuel," Olivia says.
I loosen my arms and glance at my left handâthe hand she touched. It doesn't make sense. She isn't supposed to be able to see me, let alone touch me.
There is but one explanation for the change and I'm sure it has something to do with the accident Olivia keeps mentioning. Something must have happened to her and in order for me to fix it, I need to find out what happened.
"Who is Samuel?" Mina asks. "Is he a classmate of yours? Or is he your imaginary boyfriend?"
I focus back on the open window in Olivia's bedroom I'm standing in front of, and lean against the wall.
"No," Olivia shakes her head and moves her injured foot for an inch to the side. "He's my stalker."
A cough erupts from my throat and I shake my head at my charge. After seventeen years I should be used to her thoughtless way of speaking, but right now I still can't believe she told her mother the truth. Or at least what she thinks is the truth.
"What stalker? We've already been through this. You don't have a stalker." Mina grabs Olivia's upper arm again and this time pulls harder on it. "What you have is a mother who will tie you to a chair if you don't put the weight off your ankle. You need to rest."
She's right. Since I reappeared in Olivia's bedroom, she has shifted her injured foot nine times already. She needs to put the weight off her foot.
"Fine." Olivia turns her crutches in the direction of the house. "But I'll rest beside the window in my room, so I can keep my eyes on the road."
"As long as you sit while doing that, you go right ahead. Maybe you'll even see a ghost fly by."
The moment they turn in the direction of the house I step away from the window. Mina might not be able to see me, but there is no more denying that Olivia can. I walk over to the single door of her square bedroom and lean against the wall next to the waist-high cupboard.
Two minutes later, Olivia swings the door open and hops into her room. Without turning, she closes the door with the crutch and then heads for her bed. But four steps in, she suddenly stops. Before I can take a single step forward, she spins around and points one of the crutches at me.
Again.
I glance from the crutch's tip to Olivia's white shirt and notice that she's wearing a dark bra underneath. I would consider it to be a deliberate tactic to distract me if I hadn't already seen her wear the same outfit on multiple occasions.
When I look back into her eyes, my hands tighten into fists. Never before has she looked straight at me, and right now she has done it for the third time today.
"How did you manage to break into our house?" She narrows her dark eyes while keeping the crutch raised between us.
I ignore the unusual weapon and focus on what matters right now. "Tell me what happened in that accident."
"I already told you that I can't remember. And if anything you should be the one telling me what happened."
"How would I know?"
"Because you were either already stalking me back then, or you're actually the driver who ran me over, which is why you're now stalking me."
"Someone ran you over?" I'm not too surprised because I expected it to be something like that. What I need to figure out is how, when, and why.
"You're really not the driver, are you?" She lowers the crutch. "Man, I thought I was so close to figuring out what happened."
For the tenth time since my reappearance, she switches the position of her injured foot, so I nod in the direction of the bed. "Sit."
"You really think I'm going to sit on my bed while you're in here with me?" Instead of her bed, she hops over to her desk and grabs a thick worn-out copy of the Encyclopediaâthe one she uses as a cover to pretend like she's studying when in reality she's playing games on her phone. "I will throw this at you."
"You can't throw that far." I shake my head at her.
"Then I'll settle for throwing the book to the ground so that my mom barges into the room. She'll definitely insist on calling the cops when she finds you in here."
"Go right ahead." I motion for her to continue, while I rest my elbow on the wooden cupboard beside me.
"I'm not bluffing." She lifts the book as high as she can.
"Neither am I." I eye the position of the book and wonder if she'll be able to slam it far enough without hitting her own toes.
"Shoot, I thought this was going to work for sure." With a sigh, she lays the book back onto her desk. Then she hops to her unmade bed and sits down at the edge furthest away from me. "You can also sit down if you want to." She points toward her desk chair, which is crumbling under what looks like a hoodie, two pairs of dirty socks, a pair of sweats, and a T-shirt. "Or not."
"Tell me what you know about the accident." I straighten my back and fold my arms in front of my chest.
"Not much." She rests both crutches against the bed. "Apparently I was run over by a car, but the driver fled. And I can't remember a thing about it."
"When?"
"Thursday night on the intersection of Southeast Bush Street and Fourth Avenue. Why?"
"Southeast Bush?" The name rings a bell as another one of my charges lives near the street. "What were you doing there?"
"You tell me." She shrugs, and when I open my mouth to explain to her again that I was nowhere near her on Thursday, she continues. "Okay, fine. You don't know. But neither do I. Do you think I might have sleepwalked all the way there? But why there? I don't know anyone who lives in that neighborhood."
"You don't sleepwalk."
"How would you know?" She snaps her eyes back to mine but then lowers them with a sigh. "Right, you're my stalker. I guess you of all people would know such a thing."
"I'm not your stalker." This time I can't stop myself from rolling my eyes.
"You keep saying that, but don't offer an explanation in return. If you're not stalking me, then why were you in my hospital room? Why did you follow me onto the bus? And what are you doing in my bedroom?"
From her perspective, all of that might sound suspicious, but for me, it's my everyday. It's what I'm sworn to do as her Guardian.
"I'm guarding you," I say.
"Guarding me against what? Other stalkers?"
"You wouldn't understand."
"But I want to." She stands up and reaches forward until she wraps her small fingers around the edge of her desk chair, and pulls it over to her. Once next to the bed, she rests her injured foot on the chair and turns back to me. "Is guarding what you stalkers tell yourselves you're doing? A way to rationalize your behavior?"
"No. We're not stalkers. We're Guardians."
"Guardians? Is that stalker slang?"
I sink my teeth into my tongue and push away from the wall. I always wondered why so many people lost their temper around Olivia, and now I have my answer. As her mother always tells her, she really is a handful.
In two strides I reach the only door in her room and pull it wide open. Then I move over to the desk, push the Encyclopedia to the side and lean against the edge of the desk.
"Call your mother." I pull the watch out of my pocket and notice that it's eight minutes until three in the afternoon, which means I have to suffer only through another eight minutes. Then I'm free to leave.
"What?"
I glance from the watch to Olivia, who is looking between me and the open doorway. "Just call her. It'll prove that I'm not human."
"Mom!" she shouts, while now probably looking at me the same way I looked at her the first time her eyes met mine in that hospital room. "Mom, the stalker is back!"
"What are you trying to pull now?" Mina walks into the room a minute later and looks at Olivia.
My charge points at me. Mina turns in the direction Olivia is pointing and her eyes land directly on me.
***
Since this is my first chapter in a male POV, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd tell me what you think of the chapter and my try at the male POV.
Good?
Passable?
Bad?
And as always, please, remember to vote and comment if you like the chapter.
Much love
- E