from wandering. All the yoga, Pilates, and beach boot camp workouts had paid off, keeping her tight in all the right places. Her dyed-blonde hair was loose around her shoulders and though it was early evening, she used the warm weather as an excuse to wear a sports bra and high-waisted yoga pants. She was pretty sure she’d make a good impression, whether the new resident was a celeb or not.
Prissy rang the doorbell but heard nothing. It must be broken. She knocked on the door and waited. There was no answer. She tried again and still got no response. She was about to give up and was debating whether to leave the wine on the doormat. But she hadn’t brought a card and there was no way she was going to just leave the stuff without the recipient knowing who’d provided the gift. So she tried one last time. If no one answered this time, she’d just come back later. She banged hard on the door with the soft side of her fist. To her surprise, it opened inward slightly.
“Hello?” she called out loudly but tentatively.
There was no answer. Baffled by the oddness of leaving a multimillion-dollar home unprotected, she pushed the door open a bit more.
“Hi, it’s your neighbor!” she called out as she peeked in the foyer for a pen and paper, anything to let the resident know that she deserved credit for the wine. Just leaving the bottle inside the door as an anonymous gift defeated the whole purpose of coming by in the first place. Seeing nothing, she closed the door behind her and stepped further inside the house.
“Hello! Anyone home? I swear I’m not here to rob the place. I have a housewarming gift. I’m just going to leave it in the kitchen.”
She wandered down the cavernous hallway in the direction she assumed would lead to the kitchen. She felt slightly nervous. After all, she was trespassing. If someone was home and hadn’t responded because they were in the shower or had earbuds in, they would be justified in reacting badly to an interloper sauntering into their home. But she also got a delicious thrill out of sneaking around.
She didn’t meet a soul on the way to the kitchen. Every light in the house was off, which gave her the impression that the resident was gone and had just forgotten to lock or even properly close the door. She placed the wine on the kitchen island, found a pen, and wrote a short note on a nearby Post-it, which she stuck to the front of the bottle.
Slightly disappointed, she started back down the main hall when curiosity got the better of her again. As she reached the entrance to the large living room, she couldn’t help but step inside and marvel at the place, which looked like it had been picked up and transported here directly from Cape Cod.
She was just considering pulling out her phone to snap a few photos so she could steal some ideas when she heard a rustling sound in the corner of the room. Looking over, she saw that it came from behind a large plant. For a second, Prissy thought she’d frightened a pet that was staying out of sight for safety.
But then, in a sudden burst of movement, a man shot out from behind the plant and ran toward her with a look of dark intensity on his face. Prissy felt an unexpected rush of panicked terror consume her. She wanted to scream but her throat had gone completely dry. The man was barreling right for her. She finally snapped out of it when she heard his breathing, heavy and fast.
She sprinted down the long hallway toward the front door. But running in beach sandals was awkward and after only a few steps, she lost her balance and tumbled to the floor. She scrambled to her feet again, minus one flip-flop. The sound of lumbering footsteps behind her made her whole body fire with adrenaline.
She was just reaching out for the doorknob when she felt a hard shove slam her forward into the door. Between that and her momentum, she smashed roughly into it and slumped to the floor again, gasping for breath. Before she could get back up, she felt something wrap around her neck.
She tried to slide her fingers underneath it. But she couldn’t get any leverage and the man was twisting it tight as he yanked her back down the hall away from the