The Element of Fear

PUBLIC BETA

Note: You can change font size, font face, and turn on dark mode by clicking the "A" icon tab in the Story Info Box.

You can temporarily switch back to a Classic Literotica® experience during our ongoing public Beta testing. Please consider leaving feedback on issues you experience or suggest improvements.

Click here

"I see. So, you had a concussion I heard? Any more damage?"

"No, not really, couple of bruises and scratches. I was quite lucky apparently. According to the doctors, everything is more or less fine again, and they are going to release me on Monday already."

"Well, that is good news. You see, that was one of the reasons I wanted to speak to you. You are still coming to our Valentine's do I suppose?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Glad to hear that. Listen: I think we found the perfect match for you. I spoke to Carol, and we found one of her friends who is also single and not only that, the description of your ideal woman you have given me could have been of her, in any respect."

A cold sneer appeared on his face. Everything seemed to be going according to plan, despite his little mishap.

"That sounds too good to be true."

"I know her too, she is a quite a close friend of Carol's actually and goes by the sweet name of Darlene. I am sure you are going to love her. She is really attractive, you know, and not stupid either."

"Thanks, that will get me out of this fucking bed in no time. I am really looking forward to this. You have no idea how much."

"Well, glad to help an old friend out. Shame we lost touch for such a long time. We'll have a decent chat and an untold number of pints at the party. Gotta run now, just wanted to see how you are doing, and whether we can tell Carol's friend that she can expect a special Valentine's gift."

"Oh, great, thanks for setting me up, mate. And sure, you can tell her that, she is going to get quite an extraordinary Valentine's gift."

"Hah, I see your confidence didn't suffer from the blow to your head. Righteo mate, see you on the party then, around eightish, but you can come around earlier and we have a few pints on the side and reminisce about the good old times if you want."

"Thanks, well, we see how it goes. See you at the party then. Bye."

"Bye, get better soon."

Ron kept the receiver in his hand for a few seconds before putting it back on the station. So, the game was on. Unless there was another friend of his school-friend's wife that looked exactly like sweetprey and had the same first name in real life, his little scheme had worked.

He lit the bedside lamp and had a quick glance at his bed neighbour, who had rolled to the other side and had stopped snoring for once. Outside it was almost dark, the illumination of the room was solely coming from the TV and some lit windows of the opposite wing of the hospital. The smell of disinfectant hung in the air. The bed was somewhat uncomfortable. He changed the channel on the TV without really looking at it. His mind wandered back to his last encounter with his prey.

She just wouldn't give him what he wanted; so he took it. It wasn't difficult to find the right software on the net for his purposes. And it was easy to use. She had been rather careless as far as security is concerned, like most women seemed to be. He had found all he needed when penetrating her system, letters with her name and address, some pictures of her and her friends and even a few pages of her diary. She was scared of him, and yet feverishly attracted, which was exactly how it was supposed to be. He had all he needed to go on, and when looking at the pictures he saw that chance had dealt him an extra trump for his hand – she was apparently a friend of the wife of an old school mate, he had not seen for years, but who had always been eager to hang out with him in the past.

It was almost too easy. Getting back in touch with him, learning of the party, moaning about his loneliness, getting invited. Everything was running like Swiss clockwork. And then … the burglary. Well, no harm done, it would seem. Still all signs on go, tomorrow would be the last day he had to spend here, the release was scheduled for Monday, which gave him another two days to regroup before the party. Valentine's Day. Yes, that was the perfect day for it …

***

14.Feb.2007 – Valentine's Day

"Darlene! There you are! You look great!"

Carol put an arm around her to pull her closer and kissed her once on each cheek. Her mouth still close to Darlene's ear she whispered:

"He's already here. Roger was right, he's absolutely gorgeous. Good thing you're finally here, any later and I couldn't have kept the other girls off him any more. I'll introduce you to a few other people first, so it isn't quite as obvious."

She let go off Darlene and added in a louder voice, "You can put your coat on the bed. The bedroom's over there. Oh, and in the kitchen we have a fantastic spinach-zucchini-soup. So I'll meet you there in a minute."

With that, Carol shoved her on in direction of the bedroom door.

There was indeed a huge pile of winter coats on the bed, and Darlene added her own to the pile. Next to the bed a couple was arguing in angry whispers, but went quiet as she entered the room. The woman had put her coat halfway on, apparently she wanted to leave; the man seemed to be trying to prevent her from this. The eyes of both of them were on Darlene now, still filled with the anger that was meant for each other. Quickly she backed out of the room, back into the noise of the party.

As she stumbled towards the kitchen, pushing her was through crowds of smiling people with glasses of wine or beer in their hands, she wished herself back out onto the street, into the cold and quiet February night.

In the kitchen there were yet more people, a huge pot full of soup simmered on the oven, opened and unopened bottles of wine stood on the counter, the table, everywhere. Darlene added the one she had brought to the collection. On the wall there was a somewhat silly looking decoration of red balloons and hearts cut out of paper. As every year, along with Carol's intention to set up all her single friends with each other, this was the only thing that reminded her this was a Valentine's Day party.

Someone handed her a plastic dish full of thick, green soup; a moment later a plastic cup with white wine found its way into her other hand. Then Carol was back, excited as always.

"There you are! I was just looking for you. The soup is fantastic, isn't it? Wait, I'll show you around a bit."

She grabbed a guy standing near her by the hand, and pulled him away from the group he was just giving a loud speech to.

"Adam, I am sure you remember my colleague Darlene?"

Adam grinned. "Of course. Hi Darlene, nice to see you again."

"Yeah, nice to see you again," Darlene murmured.

Adam gave her another grin, then returned to his little group to continue his speech. Carol put her arm around Darlene's shoulders and steered her out of the kitchen. It took all of Darlene's concentration not to spill any of her wine and soup. They stopped by another group, Carol pushed her right into the middle of them.

"Hi guys. This is my colleague Darlene … "

Before anyone could say much more than "Hello", they had left the group again, and Carol leaned closer to Darlene. She could feel her friend's breath on her ear as Carol whispered:

"Enough distraction manoeuvres. I will introduce you to him now. I'm sure you'll like him. Come on, he's over there."

With that, Darlene was dragged off to one of the darker corners of the room, in which a guy was sitting on one of the many chairs that were pushed towards the wall, and seemed to be watching his own feet with great interest.

Despite the fact that he was sitting in the shade, and even though his face was barely visible, Darlene's heart started beating a little faster. There was something about this guy – not only his dark hair, his tanned skin, and his tall, muscular figure. She couldn't quite describe it, but there was something even to the melancholy way he was staring down at the floor.

Darlene as obviously not he only one who noticed this. To the left of the guy there sat two girls, talking to each other, giggling, and every now and then they turned to him, smiled at him. He, however, didn't seem to notice.

"Ron," Carol said, "I think I mentioned my colleague Darlene before?"

Ron looked up, and the moment he spotted Darlene the melancholy seemed to disappear from his face. Darlene felt heat rising up to her face under his smile.

"Hi." Her voice came out somewhat weakly.

"So, Ron, this is Darlene, Darlene this is Ron," Carol said quickly, her thoughts apparently already somewhere else, "Why don't the two of you just chat a little? I am sure you will find you have lots to talk about … I have to go, Mary has just arrived, I need to show her around a little, don't want to be rude to my guests."

She gave Darlene a conspiratorial smile, and Darlene remembered that Carol's cousin Mary was supposed to meet Anthony today, since Anthony had just had a divorce half a year earlier, and so had Mary, and thus, according to Carol, they might … Darlene sighed, and sat down at the chair next to Ron. She smiled at him, but he was again looking down to his feet and did not seem to notice.

She didn't quite know what to say. What was she doing here? She took a sip from the wine that got larger than intended. She felt the drink arriving in her stomach and rising to her brain from there. Carefully she set down the glass on the floor, underneath her chair. But the stupid bowl of soup was still was still in her other hand. She should eat it, and then probably just get away. Ron quite obviously wasn't interested in talking to her. Maybe she could find Adam and let him talk to her – from what she remembered he was happy as long as someone listened to all he had to say.

She ate hastily, until she suddenly noticed a bit of soup dropping down her chin. How embarrassing. And of course she had forgotten to take a tissue with her from the kitchen. She gave Ron another glance from the side, he was not looking towards her still. Good. Darlene started to search for a tissue in her pockets.

"Can I perhaps help you out with one of these?"

Darlene looked up in surprise. She hadn't expected him to suddenly speak to her. Ron was waving a packet of tissues and smiling disarmingly at her. She wasn't sure if it was the fact that she couldn't even eat without making a mess, or his smile, that made her blush. After a moment she managed to stutter a "Thank you" and took one of the tissues to clean her face.

"Well, you are quite welcome. I bet our hosts will be thrilled to see that we finally live up to their expectations and talk to each other … Darlene, was it?"

"Yes …" She still needed a moment to get over her embarrassment. "It's pretty much Carol's favourite hobby … Have you known her and Roger for a long time?"

"Oh, Roger and I go way back … school actually, but I haven't seen him for a few years until very recently. I haven't been that sociable lately, so you must forgive me if I am bit rusty on the small-talk front … And you? Do you know them for a long time? You are a friend of Carol's aren't you?," he enquired.

"Well, we've been working together for four years now. She organizes Valentine's parties every year … Somehow she talks me into coming every time, even though I am not much of a party person."

"Oh, so we have something in common already, I am not really the party animal either. But really, I am glad she managed to get you here this time again."

"Thanks," she smiled. 'Well you are definitely not the only one who isn't good at small talk,' she thought to herself while wrecking her brain for what to say next. "So, is Ron short for Ronald?" she finally asked.

He looked somewhat amused, when he retorted, "No, not Ronald … it's Theron actually, the heritage of the Greek side of my family. My mates at school used to call me "The Ron" or just Ron … coming to think of it, nobody ever called me Theron except for my grandmother … I think she is to blame for the name in the first place."

"That is a nice name … Theron. Does it have a meaning?"

"Yes, of course. It means: The hunter, but don't worry, I am not here in an official capacity relating to my name."

Darlene smiled. "Hunter … That is an interesting name. Actually, I am quite fond of hunters."

"Hey, I found someone who actually appreciates me. So the evening is picking up already. Would you be totally embarrassed by the way, if I told you that they haven't exaggerated - you are every bit the ravishing beauty and great personality they advertised you to be …"

Darlene blushed. "Thanks … Though I suppose you can't have seen much of my personality yet …"

"That is something we can rectify in the course of this evening I suppose," he beamed and raised his glass a little before he drank, never taking his eyes off her.

She had put the empty soup dish onto a chair next to her, and now searched with one hand for her wine glass under her chair. When she found it, she took another large sip, to get some time to think about what to say next.

"Well, I see your glass is almost empty too - I was about to get myself another one - can I help you to another glass of white wine too, or maybe something else?"

"White wine would be great. Thanks!"

She handed him her empty cup, and looked after him as he made his way to the kitchen. Strange guy. At first he had been so quiet, almost as if he hadn't wanted to speak to her, and then all of a sudden he had changed his behaviour completely. But somehow just this intrigued her. There was something about him. He almost reminded her … Oh stop it! You weren't going to think of him any more, remember?

She smiled to herself, remembering the things he had said, when she noticed that the girls to her left, the ones that had been trying to get Ron's attention earlier on, had stood up and were making their way to the kitchen. One of them turned around and shot her an angry look.

She watched the various people at the party for a bit – some of them friends, acquaintances, colleagues, others of them people she didn't know. It was still early in the evening, but most of them seemed to have had more than a few glasses to drink already.

Then suddenly Ron stood in front of her again, two glasses of wine in his hand. She hadn't noticed him approaching, but smiled as soon as she saw him.

"Looks like we have some catching up to do … some of the chaps and girls are way ahead of us, drink-wise," he said when he handed her the glass, "Sorry, the glass is a bit too full … was even fuller initially, when I left the bar. I think now it will all come screaming back to Roger, why he didn't invite me to his parties any more … "

His smile was a blend of boyish glee and raw seduction.

"Well, when I look at you, I think drink isn't the only thing I have missed out on lately … Why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself …"

Darlene grinned, and took another sip of wine. Already, she could feel a light spinning in her head, but maybe that was more Ron than the alcohol. She felt more at ease than she had with anyone for a long time, though, and even though she didn't particularly like talking about herself - she was convinced that her life was the most boring one there was - their conversation grew more and more lively.

It was getting close to midnight, when she finished her fifth or sixth glass. Her cheeks felt hot as they always did when she drank.

She suddenly noticed that Ron was sitting a lot closer to her than he had before, and that when he was talking she had trouble focusing on what he said. Rather, she kept watching his mouth, wondering what it would be like to kiss him.

Ron had stopped talking, and for a moment Darlene's thoughts started to wander. The touch of his fingers surprised her, when he brushed a strand of hair out of her face. Darlene felt her heart beating wildly, her face was glowing, and she was sure this wasn't just the alcohol. There seemed to be something mysterious to his expression, to his dark eyes, something that made her wish she could read his thoughts. Then, he smiled and she returned his smile.

"I hope I didn't startle you there … well, I don't know how you feel about this, but I don't think I want to stay much longer at this party … Actually, I'd love to be someplace a little more quiet and with less people around with you … what do you think?"

For just a moment, Darlene hesitated. After all, she barely knew the guy. Then again, he was a friend of Roger.

"Yes, it might be nice to get away from here. But you know, if we leave together, Carol is going to never again shut up about how she …" she hesitated, "how she managed to set me up with someone. I told you, it's her hobby …"

"You are absolutely right, we shouldn't give them the satisfaction … How did you get here anyway? I have my car outside, and be assured I am not too drunk to drive you safely anywhere you want. If you want, I could leave first and wait for you outside …"

"Hm … sounds good. I walked, my place isn't very far from here. I suppose if we drive just there the chance of there being any kind of control isn't that big either …"

She had another sip from her glass.

"So, I will be outside in twenty minutes. How do I find your car?"

"It's a white Ford and I parked it just around the corner. I will leave it running, so it'd be even easier to find. Oh, well, your place sounds like an excellent idea. You shouldn't walk home on your own in any case, God only knows what weirdoes are out there …"

"You don't have an idea how right you are about that," Darlene's expression grew serious, "I haven't really told anyone, but I think I am being stalked."

"Stalked? Really … "

His expression was a mixture of amusement and bewilderment, but he quickly continued, "All the more reason you shouldn't be on your own."

He got up and quickly kissed her on the brow.

"For our audience … so I have to find Roger and Carol and say my good-byes … and see you outside then …"

"See you soon!"

Darlene made her way back to the kitchen to get another glass of wine and pass the time until she was going to leave by listening to another one of Adam's speeches. She had to repress the urge to check for the time every other minute, but eventually it was late enough, leaving now wouldn't wake any suspicions on Carol's side. She went into the bedroom to get her coat, and then searched for her friend.

It wasn't hard to find Carol, she was standing in the middle of the living room and looked quite drunk.

"So what about Ron?" she asked straight away.

"What about him?"

It took all of Darlene's concentration to keep a neutral expression on her face.

"Well, he left the party about half an hour ago," Carol explained, "Didn't say a word about you. And I was so sure the two of you would get along great. Didn't I see you over there in the corner talking to each other for quite a while?"

"Yes, we chatted a bit. He's nice, but in the end I don't think he is my type," she grinned, "Sorry, Carol."

Carol's look seemed truly disappointed, as she hugged Darlene good-bye. "Maybe next year," she said, "My Valentine's parties have a reputation to keep, after all."

Darlene smiled. "Give it up, I am a lost case. But see you at work tomorrow."

With that, she left, her heart beat increasing with every step she took away from Carol's apartment towards where Ron would have his car parked.

Ron used the spare time he was waiting for her to throw away some trash and place his rucksack on the back seat. She wasn't supposed to look into it, that'd be spoiling the surprise. After all, it was her Valentine's present. The running engine of the car slowly warmed up the interior. Although the time passed slowly until she eventually emerged from the door, he was not nervous at all. Everything was working out exactly as he had planned it. She was even paranoid about being stalked. Well, he would have enjoyed doing that, but since he spent the allocated time for that in the hospital, he had not got around to it.