Truly, Madly, Like Me - Jo Watson Page 0,9

shut the front door, and made my way to the side of the road. I looked around. Not another car in sight. I would have to do it quickly though. And so I did.

But just when I’d finished, Purena face-wiped and all (which I must say was actually rather refreshing), I felt a definite, looming presence. Someone, or something, was watching me. The feeling was so strong, so overwhelming, that I didn’t second-guess it. This was not in my imagination, and so I jumped up, pulled up my panties and looked around. I swung my head from side to side, my stomach bubbling with panic and my heart racing.

Something was there.

And it was watching me!

CHAPTER 4

“Hellooo . . . Who’s there . . .?” I scanned the sides of the road . . . no one. Not a car, not a person, not an insect as far as I could see. I looked behind me. Still nothing. I felt the sudden need to arm myself, but all I had was a packet of facial wipes and the car key. I held the key in my hand, pointy side out—not that it would inflict any kind of a significant wound should I need to defend myself. Maybe a small poke at best. But I gripped it nonetheless and tiptoed along the side of the car. I could feel I was getting closer to whatever was there. I could feel it in the air, some unspoken communication was happening between us. I knew that it was there, and it knew I was there. We knew. I carried on tiptoeing and when I finally reached the front of the car . . .

“Oh God!” I jumped onto the bonnet so quickly that I must have grown wings. I scurried up the windscreen, breaking a wiper as I went, and half pulled myself onto the roof. My heart was beating in my throat as I looked at the thing standing in front of my car.

It was huge.

It was huge and black.

It was huge and black and had one big, yellow eyeball fixed on me.

It was huge and black and had one big, yellow eyeball fixed on me and a massive tooth sticking out of the side of its mouth.

Oh God. I didn’t want to die. And certainly not at the hands of this big, black dog that was staring at me with its one eye . . . Where was his other eye? I wanted an open coffin when I was dead. I wanted to be beautiful in death. I’ve worked too hard in this life to be thin and beautiful, and I didn’t want to die mangled and ugly. Is that too much to ask? I took a deep breath and tried to relax a little; can’t they smell fear?

“Hey, doggy, doggy, doggy,” I whispered sweetly.

“WOOF!” it replied loudly, a long trail of spit dripping through the big open gap on one side of its mouth where it had the worst snaggletooth I’d ever seen. And then something happened. The beast and I locked eyes—well, eye and eyes or whatever you would call it—and I swear it was trying to look into me. Trying to scan my insides with its one yellow eye. We stared at each other for a while. Locked in some kind of stare-down, like we couldn’t pull away if we tried, and then it stepped towards the car. I closed my eyes tightly and shook my head.

“Please don’t bite me, please don’t bite me,” I repeated over and over again with my eyes tightly shut, as if closing them would somehow minimize the pain of those huge teeth sinking into me! I don’t know how long I stayed like that, eyes closed, perched on the windscreen, hanging on for dear life, but, finally, I forced my eyes open. And when I did, he was gone. Gone!

I whirled my head around again, left to right, front to back. No sign of him. Unless he was under the car, ready to nip at my ankles with his horrible snaggletooth. I looked over the side of the car, hoping to get a sense of his whereabouts, but couldn’t. Okay, I would have to do this quickly. I would have to slide off the bonnet, climb into the front seat—the door was still open which would make it easier—and then drive away. I could do this, in 3, 2, 1 . . .

In one swift movement, moving faster than I think I’d ever