The Professor

"None of that, no screaming. I want to talk, uninterrupted. That's all. Come sit down," he whispered, pulling her to the bed.

She struggled, but he gripped her tight to his chest with one arm, the other holding her mouth and head to him. He sat on the bed, her on his lap.

"There we go now. See how nicely you fit?" he asked, laying his cheek on the top of her head. "As if we were made for each other. We were, Kinley, I just have to show you is all. You are too young to understand it, to know, so I will show you. You will understand soon, how perfect we will be together. Nnnn, Kinley. I have to admit I have never held a nude woman before. Your skin feels... so good. So silky smooth and soft. You smell amazing. I have imagined doing things to you, Kinley, things I have never imagined with anyone else. I want to take you, for you to be my first. Would you like that? Knowing I have held myself back, waiting for you? I am fairly certain you have held yourself for me as well. No known boyfriends or even dates. You aren't the type for a one night stand. Have you saved yourself for me, Kinley?" he asked as his hands gripped her and he rolled his hips up against her bare bottom. "I've never wanted anyone so badly as I want you right now! I watched you sleep, my sweet girl. I watched your angelic face, your beautiful, perfect limbs. I even moved the towel just enough to see your perfectly round little ass. You are truly perfect for me in every way. I'm going to show you, Kinley, then you are going to come back home with me and be my perfect little wife. Aren't you? I didn't even know it but I have been waiting my entire life for you."

Kinley only struggled and sobbed into his hand, trying to fight him off.

"As soon as you calm down we can talk, sweet girl," he whispered, his lips in her hair.

Kinley went as still as she could, only trembling now.

"There you go my sweet girl, see how easy that is?" he asked, then eased his hand down to her throat.

"Please! Please, I will go on your date with you! I will! We can go right now and I..."

"Shhh shhh shhh, sweet girl. It's too late for that, isn't it? You will just try and get away, you aren't thinking rationally yet. Not until I make you understand that I deserve a chance. You have it so ingrained in you to say no, I have to show you that it's ok to say yes to me. We are perfect for each other, I have to make you see that."

"I... I have always admired you Professor Gates..."

"John, sweet girl, call me John. You have?"

"Yes, John, I have. You are... strict and demand order. No nonsense. You do everything on a schedule."

"Just like you," he breathed.

"You were my favorite Professor for that reason. The others were too relaxed, they let their classes devolve too often. They always moved dates for assignments and catered to the lazy. They never kept lectures on track, always letting it get sidetracked. You never did that."

"See how alike we are? Why I admired you as well? You aren't just stunning, you are perfect for me in the way that you are like me. And so smart. So incredibly smart. Tell me, sweet girl, have you saved yourself back for me?"

"I have never been with a man," she whispered, unable to keep the fear out of her voice as tears fell.

"See my sweet girl? We were meant for each other, truly. We will belong to each other. Completely. Are you beginning to see?"

"Yes... somewhat. But what about our different life goals? I want to be..."

"Only because you did not know your real destiny! We had never met, so you made other plans. Now that you know, you can make your true plans. With me, as my wife. This is what I need you to see! We need to alter our life goals now that we have found each other! Think about it, sweet girl. We both need to alter everything now, rethink our plans to include each other."

"Do... do you think that would work? I think... I think my job pays a lot more and you can probably retire, right? We could stay here and see if..."

"No, no sweet girl. I have a nice house already set up and you won't need to work. My wife will not work. You will stay at home for me and I can show you how perfect life can be. Don't you want a perfect life, sweet girl?"

"Y...yes, but... couldn't I also work? I want to work," she said, knowing he wouldn't buy her giving in without some argument.

"You will be working! We will both be working. We will be working to see each other happy!"

"What will I do while you are at work?"

"Whatever you like! I know you love to read. There are so many things you could do! Don't worry, you will never want for things to fill your time, sweet girl."

"Maybe I could work from home?"

"If you feel you must work, you can help me grade homework and essays. It is tedious but if we both do it we will have more alone time together."

Kinley bit her lip and looked at the floor as if thinking. "How soon? Now? I would have to pack and cancel my lease. Turn off my utilities... Let me get my notebook," she said distractedly, sliding out of his lap to go to her nightstand. She picked up her notebook and pen, then ran to the wall and pounded. "SOMEBODY HELP ME! PLEASE! HELP ME!"

He tackled her against the wall and put a hand to her mouth and she jammed the pen to his face as hard as she could. He turned at the last second and it glanced off of his skull, but ripped a gash in his head. He roared in anger as he wrestled her down to the ground.

"That was unnecessary! Why would you do that?" he demanded angrily. "You LIED to me!"

Someone pounded on her front door. "HELLO? YOU OK IN THERE? I'M CALLING THE POLICE!"

Kinley let out a sob of relief.

John jumped up, pulling her up too. "Damnit Kinley! This is NOT over!" he growled, then shoved her to the bed and ran.

Kinley slid to the floor, sobbing hysterically as she tried to wrap her blankets around her.

A moment later, a man looked in her room and turned on the light. "Are you ok? I called the police. I saw that dude run and I got his plates. Are you ok? Ma'am? Are you hurt? Do you need medical attention? Ma'am? The police are on their way, an ambulance too. I need to know if you are hurt? Bleeding or anything. There's a lot of blood on the floor."

"Not mine," she managed through chattering teeth. "Not hurt."

The man hung around even after the police arrived, telling them what he heard and saw. Twenty minutes into the statement she was trying to get through, her uncle arrived, rushing in to hug her.

"Kin! What happened? Did you know him?"

"She says he followed her here from college two states away. He was her professor and he asked her out. She said no, twice and he came here. Followed her to a club last night and she called the bouncers over. Tonight he broke into her apartment while she was asleep. Scared her, groped her, hurt her. She got away, yelled for help, stabbed him with that pen there. That's his blood. He took off when her neighbor checked on her and the neighbor got plates," the officer taking the statement told him. "We have a name, DNA and plates."

"I want this guy found now," her uncle scowled. "Kin? Can you look at me? You're in shock sweetheart, you should probably let the ambulance take you so you can be sedated. And don't worry about coming in on Monday, you can..."

"No. No, I want to. I just need a restraining order and him caught. I will be fine. I'm fine. Just scared me is all... he's... insane."

"Most stalkers are. You want to come stay with me and Carol?"

"No Uncle Hank, I will be fine. He won't come back here. Tomorrow I will get new locks and a deadbolt."

"If you want to, sweetheart. First thing Monday I am issuing you a weapon, though. We'll get this guy, ok?"

"Thank you Uncle Hank. And sir, thanks," she said to her hovering neighbor.

"Yeah, no problem. Just, you know, you ever feel unsafe again or even just need a walkthrough before you go in, just knock or bang on the wall. My bedroom is right on the other side. I will give you my number in case I'm not home, hell, I will give you a key for emergencies in case you need a place to hide. Stalkers are no joke, my little sister had one for three years and no one would do anything until they finally got DNA evidence of the perv on her bedsheets. Sick bastard. I'm Ron by the way, I'm home almost all the time. Sometimes I have friends over, but we're quiet. If you need anything, I am right there, ok? Even if it's..."

"Thank you Ron," her uncle cut in. "That's nice of you and I appreciate it. I will keep a unit outside the apartment building until we get this guy, ok?"

"Thanks Uncle Hank, sorry I am so much trouble already."

"Hush it with that, noodlehead. This isn't your fault. It's that sick bastards fault, not yours. Look at me. This is no trouble, it's what we do. Why we are here. To protect this city, Got it, kid?"

"Thanks," she half smiled, her eyes still spooked.

She had to sit there a while longer, filling out paperwork and convincing her uncle that she would be fine. Her uncle led the awkward and geeky Ron out of her apartment.

Kinley locked her door, then wedged a chair under it. She even checked her windows though she was four stories up. She shut her bedroom door and used a shoe to wedge it shut, then took a long shower and let herself have another good cry. After, she scrubbed the blood off of the floor and remade her bed and tried to bring a little order to everything that had been upset.

It couldn't distract her. Her mind kept going back to his hands, his ravings, his fervor. What was wrong with him? Why was he so adamant about it being her? He was insane.

She curled up in her bed and watched a movie, then took something to help her sleep so she could get back on a sleep schedule.

She spent Sunday cleaning all over again, then went early to the dinner that her aunt and uncle invited her too.

The call came while she was talking to her aunt about college.

He had been picked up and brought in, he was being held. She felt relief wash over her, stress she didn't even realize she had in her shoulders.

She still had to go in and identify him and her uncle took her. She didn't have to see him, but he looked furious on the other side of that glass.

Work the next day started fairly normal.

Right up until her uncle came and got her out of training to talk to her.

"Sweetheart, the man has written a statement and some things aren't adding up. He is saying he didn't even know you were here, you lived somewhere else. He was visiting his grandparents, he put flowers on their grave and that checks out. He says he ran into you at the bar and approached you, trying to talk to you about the date you skipped out on back at college. You got angry and yelled for the bouncers before he had time to even say two words to you. He left, but saw you again the next evening as he was coming out of a bistro. You waved him down and apologized to him, said you were drunk the night before. Invited him to come talk at your place. You two were talking and one thing led to another and you two were making out. You undressed completely for him and climbed on him, then stabbed him and started yelling for help. Said you told him it was payback for all the sleezy professors who thought they could go after college girls. He has a spotless record, not a single complaint at the college and that he never even spoke to you at all until the week of finals before you were graduating. He asked if you would like to have dinner and you said yes, then never showed. Says he had never asked anyone out before, but he saw so much of himself in you and you had impressed him."

"That is NOT what happened! After brunch with you, I went home and passed out after a shower! I woke up and he was IN my apartment."

"There is no sign of forced entry. No one saw or heard anything. It is his word against yours here."

"He was saying insane things! That we were so alike we were destined to be together! He held me down and terrified me! Back at school he threatened to say I had cheated on my finals if I wouldn't go out with him! He knew where I was coming and he followed me here. He showed up to a club for people my age and cornered me!"

"Did you call campus security?"

"No... I didn't want it to mess up my schedule for going home."

"Why didn't you mention it at brunch? That he showed up?"

"I was going to, I was going to go to come in and file for an ex parte."

"Why didn't you?"

"I had been drinking, I just went home and fell asleep. I was late for brunch and it wasn't on my mind and you were talking about work. I forgot until I was home, but I just wanted to sleep off the rest of my hangover. When I woke up, he was there."

"Did you lock the door?"

"I... I think so... I can't remember."

"Sweetheart, this is going to come down to his word against yours and HE is the one with the wound. You don't even have a bruise. I know you are telling the truth, but the evidence is not in your favor here. Even you said he never kissed you or tried to rape you, he just talked and held you against him. I am going to see what I can do about this because I know you would never lie, but when it comes down to it, there isn't a lot he can be charged with. He has family that lives here and he signed in at the cemetery and is on camera putting flowers on gravestones. It's not illegal to go to a club, even if he isn't the same age as anyone else there. And he left as soon as you waved at the bouncer. This is... a fucking mess."

"So he is going to get away with it?"

"He said he ran from you, you were trying to stab him again while you were screaming for help. Told him you hated older men who thought they could use their positions to get with younger, impressionable girls. That all the male professors were just trying to get in young girls pants. He said you said something about a wall of shame in the teachers lounge and all the girls who were just scores for them."

"That is not where I said that! I said that back in his office the day he first asked me out!"

"So you did say it?"

"No! Not like that. Not all of that, just that I wasn't interested in being on the wall of shame."

"His story is you lured him in just to try and get him in trouble because you have a thing against male professors who date college girls. You attacked him and made up a story. That's why he was fully dressed when he left and you weren't."

"I wasn't dressed because I had taken a shower and fell asleep in my towel. This is insane! He is going to get away with it! I need a restraining order!"

"We'll get that squared away and if these charges don't stick, I will make sure he heads his ass back to that school and never sticks his nose here again."

"Thanks... this is just... unreal."

"Don't worry sweetheart, he will never lay eyes on you again."

He hurried back down the hall and Kinley stood there a moment feeling stunned. He was going to get away with it. He was going to get away with it and he would still be out there.

She was pissed when she slipped back into training.

She had to retell her account of everything to the judge in a closed courtroom, then he went in after and told his account. He offered up his perfect records, character witnesses, awards and citations over the years and even statements from two of the students in the same class who said he had never once spoken to Kinley in class nor she him. He had never harassed her at all, all he had done was asked her for a date after she had graduated and was no longer her professor and she had accepted, then stood him up. At the bar, she had drunkenly told him how she hated sleezy professors who took advantage, then called the bouncer over before he could talk to her about why she had stood him up, the only reason he had approached her at all. When she saw him the next day, he'd had the immediate thought that she must have followed him to meet him outside the bistro like she did and invite him to her home, going back the way she had come when he accepted. He knew afterward that she had planned it, set it all up. She was trying to make an example of him and all he had wanted to do was visit family, pay his respects and enjoy his summer break. She was trying to ruin his life because she had a grudge against older men dating younger women, even if they were consenting adults.

Due to lack of evidence, it was dismissed and he was released.

Kinley wanted to go find him and kick his balls in.

The only upside was that her uncle had a uniform serve him the restraining order and follow him all the way out of town and a little further.

She was still half afraid to go home alone now. When she got to her apartment and put her keys in the door, Ron stuck his head out.

"Hey! Everything cool? You need anything?"

"I'm ok... umm... he wasn't charged. He got off scott free."

"Seriously? So he is out there right now?"

"I got a restraining order and my uncle made sure he left town to go back to where he lives. Thanks again for coming so quick that night."

"Sure! Yeah, no problem. Hey, I have a pizza coming if you're hungry? Hawaiian."

"No thanks, Ron. I just need to decompress and curl up with a gallon of ice cream."

"Ok. Well, I am here all the time, just step over if you need anything. Or want to talk or just feel lonely. Whatever. I'm a great listener! And I give great foot rubs. And back rubs. If you know, you're stressed. Are you? Stressed? I have a tea..."

"I'm fine, Ron, thanks. Enjoy your pizza," she said quickly, ducking into her apartment and quickly locking the door. She slid the deadbolt, then the chain lock and the sliding lock up higher.

That became her daily ritual, locking every lock, checking them again before bed.

Fending off Ron.

After a few weeks, she finally began relaxing a little. After a couple months, she let her coworkers talk her into going out on the weekends. As soon as summer was over and she saw classes were back in session and John Gates was lecturing, she felt much better.

Life became normal again, though she still locked her door every night.

A year and a half later, Ron moved out and she got a new neighbor. A girl this time, though her boyfriend basically lived there.

She was fitting in like a glove at her job and she had forgotten John Gates existed.

Two years and a few months later, she had actually accepted a date, finally, with a man she had met in passing. He was in for coding permits, he did construction. He also had a sister who was a dispatcher. He happened to start coming to see his little sister a lot more often and bring her lunch and coffee. After a few visits, he started bringing Kinley coffee too.

He finally asked her out and she had said yes. It was beyond her timeline to start seeing someone and she felt like she was ready for that stage in her life.

The evening went well and he walked her home from the restaurant instead of ordering an Uber. They held hands and walked slowly, both of them smiling shyly as they talked. He stopped outside of her apartment building and turned her, taking both of her hands in both of his.

"This is the part where I kiss you goodnight, right? Ask you for another date? If I asked... like am supposed to, would you say yes or should I not bother?"

"I guess find out."

He grinned. "And if I don't want to play it cool and text you in a few days to suggest next Friday night? If I say I don't want to wait that long, I want to see you tomorrow? Ask to take you to the music show they have every weekend in the park all summer? Have a picnic dinner and lay on a blanket, listening to live music?"

"What kind of music?"

"I'm not sure. I just know there is live music every Saturday night in the summer. There's usually a food truck and a wine truck and a desert truck. Does the music matter?"

"Of course. What if it's awful? Rap or thrasher metal and we can't even hear each other?"