Authors note: this is my first attempt at writing horror so please let me know if you got spooked; in other words review review review;thanks.

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Valentine Visitation

Nina was a career woman. There was nothing in her life, which she could do without that, had not been sacrificed to serve her vocation, so if she stood on the glass ceiling as the marketing executive of a communications company, it was on account of her merits and she was careful to brag about it. Of course when corporate affairs got dull she allowed herself some romantic escapades, yet ultimately, even the most poetic flings had to be offered at the altar of her sacred career. As years went by and the appeal of her job waned she thought more and more about one forfeited romance. Raphael Njoroge.

She had met him for the first time two years ago at an official end of year party held by her company. As the marketing executive it was her duty to mingle with the guests but she had learnt from experience that all she needed to do was arm herself with a glass of her favorite wine and stay in one spot and all in good time she would get to meet with all the rotating guests without having to move around herself. On this night however, she had not been in a mood to chat and thus she had sat musing at what she considered an inconspicuous table, but apparently the sight of a young lady alone at a party was bound to attract attention and it wasn't long before a rich deep voice cut through her train of thought.

'Excuse me, but I didn't quite catch your name' he had said

Annoyed at the interruption she had replied without as much of a glance at him

'It's okay I don't remember throwing it either'

There had been a stunned silence, then as comprehension dawned on him a roar of laughter

'that was a good one' he had gasped moments later still trying to contain his mirth, 'know any more?' he challenged and they had spent the next hour with him spouting cliché pick up lines and her shooting them down. She had never met a man who could laugh so hard, his obvious delight at her witty comebacks was infectious and she found herself laughing along. By the end of the evening they had exchanged phone numbers and promised to stay in touch. And that had been the beginning of a short lived but passionate love affair.

In retrospect Nina realized that the warning signs had been there all along but in her infatuated state of mind she had ignored them, besides Raphael with his handsome god like features, complete with mesmerizing brown eyes that twinkled when he laughed and a smile that shamed those in the toothpaste commercials, exuded charm from every pore and knew how to treat a lady. There was however a flaw in this otherwise perfect Adonis and the harder she had tried to ignore it the more glaring it seemed. Raphael was possessive. His devotion to her bordered on obsession and as a result he became insanely jealous of anyone she interacted with especially her male colleagues, given the nature of her job it was inevitable that the break would occur but it wasn't until a week to what would have been the first valentine together that the storm broke forth.

Raphael had come to pick her up from work in what had become a routine for them but she had declined on the basis that she had some work to catch up and had to remain behind with James, her colleague, to complete it. He had accused her of seeing James behind his back and she had retorted that he was just being insecure, a trait that had been irking her daily. Soon what had started as small disagreement escalated into a shouting match and ended with her marching back into her office and slamming the door in his face.

Her phone had rang even before she reached her desk, and in her agitated state she had picked it up without checking the caller ID, it was Raphael.

'This isn't over yet,' he had declared his voice quiet and impersonal despite the apparent underlying anger and thinly veiled threat, she had hung up before he had a chance to say anything more and immediately screened his number then while her anger lasted she deleted all the text messages he had sent her before dropping into her chair and breaking down in tears.

Nina shook her head to clear her thoughts of the painful memory, she glanced around at the quiet living room and her eyes fell on the wall clock, it was ten minutes to nine still too early to go to bed, besides she knew even if she attempted to she would lie awake tossing and turning till midnight.

'Come on Rex,' she called setting down the glass of wine she had been sipping on the table and standing up in one decisive movement 'we are going swimming' The large German shepherd that had been lying on the soft wall to wall carpet sat up at the mention of his name and padded softly after his mistress as she left the room. Rex was Nina's pet and companion, she had acquired the dog two weeks after her break up with Raphael and she had never regretted her decision. Rex was fully house trained and followed her around every time she was home, she had gotten into the habit of speaking to him like one would speak to another person and from the way he would look up at her she could almost swear he understood.

Ten minutes later Nina was in the pool. With enough money and no responsibilities she was able to afford to build the mansion she lived in, and no mansion was complete without a swimming pool, hers was her pride and joy. She enjoyed the exercise and swam every morning before she left for work it helped to keep her fit and upbeat, she only swam in the evening as a means of releasing stress and tiring herself out enough to sleep.

After an hour she headed for her room and as if on cue her phone began beeping, a signal that she had a new message, with a puzzled frown she picked it up and read:

hi, honey, remember what day today is?

'It must be a wrong number;' she thought to herself as she deleted the message and threw her phone on to the bed, it was exactly a week to valentine, what would be so significant about that? She mussed as she prepared for bed, then it dawned on her, it was exactly two years since her acrimonious parting with Raphael, could it be that the message was intended for her? The thought made her blood run cold, what could Raphael want with her? She had never set eyes on him since that day and as far as she was concerned he had dropped of the face of the earth, why would he turn up now? Or maybe her earlier assumption had been correct in which case she wasn't the intended receiver, there was only one way to resolve this issue and that was to call the sender, but since she had already deleted the message she decided to call Raphael's old number.

She dialed the number and waited, after five consecutive rings she hung up, both relieved and annoyed, the former because she wasn't eager to talk to Raphael since it meant dragging up memories she would rather forget and the later because she now had no way of confirming the identity of the sender. With a sigh of frustration she dropped her phone back on the bed and began to braid her hair.

The beeping tone that suddenly filled the room startled her so badly she dropped her comb with a clatter and glared daggers and the offending phone. With a self mocking laugh she picked up the phone, read the message and new fears immediately flooded her mind:

Have you figured it out yet? You owe me a date but don't worry i'll arrange it

'If this is some kind of practical joke it is in really bad taste, Nina thought angrily as she dialed the sender's number and waited. A minute of continuous ringing later, an electronic voice spoke telling her she was being connected to the voice mail, frustrated she hung up.

That night she didn't sleep a wink, by morning she is in a terrible mood, arriving at work she snapped at people left and right, threw a fit over every little mistake and was generally such a pain in the neck that her colleagues heaved a collective sigh of relief when evening came and she left. That night though she waited up, there were no strange messages or calls, she fell into a restless sleep and woke up feeling even more tired.

At work she was unable to concentrate long enough to do anything useful, five minutes into reading a report and her mind would wander and she would torture herself with grotesque theories in attempt to explain the phenomenon that was nagging her mind and costing her much needed rest. Giving up any pretense at working she got up from her desk and started pacing the length of the room.

Regina, her secretary, eyed her warily. In three years she had known her, she had never seen Nina so worked up. Finally she asked

'What's biting you?'

Nina stopped mid step and looked at her, aware for the first time that she was not alone. 'You are making me nervous with your continuous pacing and distracted actions, what on your mind?'

Nina glared at her for a moment as though she was responsible for her apparent agitation. Regina held up her hands in mock surrender

'Don't look at me like that; you don't have to tell me anything but I just had to ask'

That brought out a smile and the accusing look left her face only to be replaced almost immediately with a frown

'Someone is stalking me' she announced

'And someone has been watching too much TV' Regina replied attempting a joke but seeing her boss was serious quickly dropped the light tone and continued in a more serious tone 'why do you think so'

'I don't think so' She retorted ' I know so, and I have a pretty good idea who it is, what I don't know is why. Why me? Why now?'

I have never seen you this worked up before, why don't you take a seat and tell me about it' Regina offered, but her offer was refused

'And what will you do? Laugh at me, or worse pity me, I don't need anybody's sympathy' Nina declared, she turned and marched out of the door slamming it behind her, in her hurry to leave the building she bumped into James who was heading to her office, the impact sent the files he was carrying flying all over the place.

'Sorry' she muttered as she helped to pick them up. She turned to leave but James grabbed her arm

'Nina what's wrong?' He asked concern evident in his voice

'Nothing' she replied and disengaging herself from his grip she began to walk away

James followed

'It can't be nothing, when you charge down corridors and can't even remember to greet anyone'.

'It's none of your business. Okay? just let me be'

'Just tell me, I can help'

Nina's temper flared

'Just leave me alone, this is entirely your fault anyway' she exclaimed

'Really? What did I do?'

'Nothing, now go and leave me alone'

'You aren't going to tell me are you?'

'No'

'Okay, if you want it that way, fine'

James declared, getting angry, he turned and left.

The next two days passed in a blur, when nothing out of the ordinary happened Nina relaxed and began to act more like her old self. She apologized to James for snapping at him but she didn't explain why, she figured it was all a mistake on her part for reading too much into everything. little had she guessed it was the lull before a storm.

Nina woke up late on valentine morning, a glance at her bedside clock told her it was eleven o'clock but she wasn't worried, today was a weekend so she didn't have to worry about being late for work. Yawning she stretched her hand to check her phone but it wasn't there, she sat up and looked again, nothing. Where could it be? She looked all over her dressing table, she dropped on her knees and looked under the bed but her frantic search was in vain.

Still in her nightdress she headed for the living room hoping to find it there, flinging the door open she walked in and froze at the horrifying sight that met her eyes.

'Oh, my God' she screamed and shut her eyes to ward of the sight but the image of Rex's butcher body lying in the middle of the room with blood soaking the carpet had already be burnt into her mind. She ran to the bathroom and was violently sick, when her stomach stopped heaving, she staggered to the sink to rinse her mouth and in the process she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.

Her hair was in disarray, her eyes wide with shock and terror; she held her hands before her, they were trembling. Her mind was screaming at her to leave, to put as much distance between her and whoever perpetuated the horrible deed, she had to get out of the house now! Leaving the bathroom she headed for the back door but when she tried it, it was locked, the keys were missing from their customary place, she glanced at the windows but they were all grilled, albeit decoratively but grilled all the same, breaking them would just shatter the glass but would not provide a means of escape. She considered screaming until someone came to her rescue but her two neighbors were never home during the day.

The realization that she was trapped sunk in and her knees gave way, she sat down. The tears came then. For a long while all that could be heard was her chocking sobs and ragged breath. When her tears dried she looked around and her eyes landed on a note she had not noticed before, it seemed as though it had been slipped in under the door and she had stepped on it in her earlier attempt to escape picking it up she read:

HEY HONEY, SORRY ABOUT THE DOG BUT HE GOT IN THE WAY;

I WILL SEE YOU TONIGHT. AND HAPPY VALENTINE

The note was handwritten and she recognized the handwriting right away and something more, having done a quick course in graphology as a way to fill in an otherwise empty evening Nina was quickly able to pick out traits that others would have missed. The beginning hooks at every word told of a strong desire to acquire things, the small I spoke of low self esteem. A left loop in the 'o' was a clear indication of massive self deceit, low crossed t bars testified to fear of failure and the slow round 'm' humps confirmed what she already knew that he was a methodological person. All things considered she had been right to dump him but it had been too late, she had stuck around long enough for him to consider her his property and her leaving had she had injured his fragile ego and this was his way of seeking revenge.

Nina stood up slowly and mentally accessed her situation; she was stuck in her own house with all doors locked, no means of communication with anyone, she had never seen the need to install a land line, after all she only needed one phone and her mobile phone had until then catered for that need. In addition to that there was a dead dog in her living room and a psychopath intending to pay her a visit later in the day. She almost expected a director to jump out of somewhere and shout 'cut' and she would walk off the set and the act would be over, but there was no such luck. This unfortunately was not an act it was reality, her life was in danger and she had no idea what to do.

If she couldn't run then she would hide, the house was large and she could think of many places to conceal herself, she settled for the broom closet figuring the first place he would check would be under the bed or behind the curtains. She went into the kitchen picked a sharp knife from the drawer and headed for her hiding place, she was almost there when she remembered her computer, a glimmer of hope flickered in her heart, she may not be able to call anyone on account of her missing phone but she could still send an email and hope someone read it in time to send help, she ran to her room quickly booted the laptop she kept at the bottom drawer of her dressing table and logged into her mail, scanning through her address book settled on James, a workaholic he was the only person she knew who checked his mail more than twice a day, praying she was right she quickly composed a message and hit the send button.

The sound of the front door opening startled her, instinctively she glanced at her bedside clock it was two o'clock in the afternoon. He had come early. Her time had run out. Without thinking she dropped on her knees and crawled under the bed.

'Honey I'm home' she heard him shout as the door shut behind him and the key was turned.

'You can't hide forever, if I have to find you I'll be angry and you don't want me angry'

She kept quiet, concentrating her energy on trying to breathe as slowly as possible but her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears she was surprised he couldn't hear. She listened as he searched first the kitchen, then the living room, then the study, then the bathroom, getting more and more frustrated and angry he walked into the bed room and saw the open laptop, she had not had time to logged out and on the screen was the confirmation notification that her message had been delivered. His roar of rage when he realized what she had done filled the room and he began to tear it apart.

Nina knew it was only a matter of minutes before he discovered her hiding place and she tensed, and sure enough seconds later the covers were lifted of the floor and his face loomed before her eyes, with a strength born out of desperation she punched him in the nose. He reeled back in pain and she quickly rolled away and crawled out of the other side of the bed and ran for the door, she was almost there when the first shot rung out.

She screamed in unbearable pain as the first bullet struck her in her lower back; she didn't hear the second shot fire but felt the additional pain as it penetrated her left shoulder, the force of the impact flung her to the floor where she lay bleeding. She was vaguely aware of being picked up and dropped on her bed.

'I warned you not to make me angry' She could heard him muttering that he but his voice seemed to be coming form far away

She could feel her strength ebbing away as blood soaked the beddings. The pain had receded as her body slipped into shock. Through her dazed senses she felt something digging into her back, she reached for it and was surprised when her questing fingers closed around the handle of the knife she had held earlier in the day; she had left it on her bed when sending her SOS message and had forgotten about it with Raphael's untimely arrival. Dragging it out but keeping it of sight she looked around the room for her attacker. He was seated on the edge of the bed facing away from her muttering to him self, taking the chance she gathered all her remaining strength and lunged at him, the knife held tightly in both hands.

Feeling her move, he turned around but was too late to prevent her from driving the knife deep into his chest. Her momentum threw them to the floor. His scream of pain ended in a chocking cough as blood flooded his lungs and blocked his throat. Nina rolled off him dragged herself out of the room, she made it until the living room before she collapsed near her dead pet, 'It's over, Rex, it's finally over ' was her last coherent though irrational thought before the swirling darkness claimed her.

She didn't hear the door being broken down or see James's face contort shock and horror when he stepped into the room with the cops behind him.

the end