had broken her heart. Melissa cringed when she heard the hostile messages that Shanna continued to leave for Dirk. Shanna was not happy that Melissa was in his life, and she made her feelings clear. Shanna was such a complete opposite of her that Melissa wondered how in the world Dirk had been attracted to them both. Melissa was a hard worker, but Shanna didn’t have a job. Melissa was bubbly and optimistic, while Shanna always seemed angry. Even their hairstyles were about as different as they could be. Shanna’s black hair was cropped short, while Melissa’s long, straight hair was blond.
Shortly after she began seeing Dirk, Melissa was at his second-floor apartment one day while he was at work. “I was watching TV in the living room when I started to hear noises. It sounded like someone was banging on the wall outside of the apartment.” At first, she was more curious than concerned. “I didn’t think it had anything to do with me. I thought, ‘Oh, someone’s moving.’ ”
But it was not as if someone carrying furniture occasionally bumped against the outside wall. It was an intense racket, and it seemed deliberate. She got up and moved toward the door, hoping Dirk had remembered to lock it when he left. Suddenly she saw the doorknob wiggling and realized that someone was trying to open the door! “I was terrified!” But the door was locked, and whoever was outside gave up on trying to get in. Melissa crept to the door and peered out the peephole. “I saw items in the hallway, but I couldn’t really make out what they were. I wasn’t going out there to see! After a minute I heard the banging again.”
Through the peephole, she saw Shanna come into view with an armload of stuff. “She just threw it all down and then left, banging away. Shanna knew my car, and I’m sure she saw that I was there. About two or three minutes later, she came back with more stuff! I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was stuff that Dirk had left at her place. She was going crazy with it, throwing it against the door. It was like someone was literally banging down the door.”
Trembling, Melissa wondered when it was going to stop. Shanna continued to make trip after trip. Nearly half an hour later, the noises ceased. Had she left, or was she waiting out there for Melissa to open the door? There was no use looking through the peephole because something was blocking her view. “I didn’t know what she was capable of at this point. I felt she was so unstable, and I thought, Who knows what she’ll do? I called my friend, Valerie Ness. I said, ‘Valerie, I don’t know what to do! I think Shanna is going crazy! She piled a bunch of stuff outside! I can’t even see out into the hallway anymore!’”
Valerie arrived within minutes, but she didn’t knock on the door. Instead she called out, sounding somewhat muffled. “Melissa, can you hear me?”
“Yes!” Melissa yelled, wondering why her friend sounded so far away.
“Shanna’s not here!” Valerie shouted. “Go ahead and open the door!”
The door to the apartment opened inward, and when Melissa opened it, she was stunned to see that the doorway was completely blocked. “Shanna had piled everything in front of the door. It was weird things like barbells and dumbbells and mini cabinets and bookshelves. She pretty much built a fort! I wouldn’t have been able to get out of the apartment without help!”
Valerie had to dismantle the wall of items stacked seven feet high. She moved it, piece by piece. Finally, the doorway was clear, and Melissa was free. “I called Dirk and left a message. I said, ‘I don’t know what you want me to do. Shanna left a lot of stuff in the middle of the hallway. I’m assuming it’s yours.’ He ended up leaving work early and came home.”
Dirk glanced at the cluttered hallway. “Yup. This is the stuff I left over at her place.” Melissa was clearly rattled, and while Dirk tried to be sympathetic, he couldn’t understand why she was as upset as she was. He agreed it was rude of Shanna to return his things in such a reckless manner, but she hadn’t done any real damage. But Melissa felt threatened on a visceral level. Shanna’s dark energy was almost palpable, and the jilted woman wore it like a heavy coat. Melissa tried