Eileen Hesse

Blast from the Past

First of all, something about me. I’m Laura, 21 years old and I model for a living. I spent my childhood in Munich, where I had an idyllic life. I became famous there always felt loved and privileged. I had (so) many friends and my life was going the way I wanted it to go. In 2009, I met Jim and we moved to Berlin.
It was a sunny day in June when I got home from my modeling job in Berlin. I was booked because of my long brown hair and my long legs. People always recognize me on the street because I am a well-known model in the whole industry. I am rarely home because I am always working or working out to keep the shape that I am paid so well for. It was a long and exhausting day, so I was very anxious to get home and see my husband Jim. On Saturday it was our first year anniversary and I wanted to discuss with him what we were going to do that day. People told us that we were too young to get married since we were both only 21 years old but I just knew that he was the one. We lived in a small town near Berlin and just bought a sweet little house there.
As I walked up to my porch that day, I saw flowers lying on the ground and addressed to me but no sender. I picked them up and smiled suddenly. I ran inside to give Jim a kiss and a big thank you, since I thought they were from him - but I was wrong. Jim looked at me and said, “Who are those from?” “So they’re not from you?” I replied. Perhaps they’re from the agency, I thought since at my last modelling gig the magazine owner was extremely pleased with the photo-shoot. But Jim was persistent and wanted me to find out who the flowers were from. I agreed to that but in truth I more or less shrugged it off at that moment. After that we didn’t talk about it.
The next day I went to my modeling job as usual and mentioned it to my colleagues there. The photographer for the shoot said that he knew another model who had also received anonymous flowers recently. This got me to thinking – the flowers were delivered from the local flower shop around the corner from my house so after my gig I stopped by to see if they could tell me who sent the flowers. The florist couldn’t help me. The flowers were ordered over the phone and delivered by her delivery boy. Dead-end.
When I got home I checked the mail like I always do. There was a letter addressed to me but no return address. I was suspicious. I opened it anyway and read it.
…Your eyes as blue as an ocean
… Your scent, like roses
…Your hair, soft as velvet
…The most beautiful woman I know
…Why did you forget me?
Your admirer
 
That was it. I immediately dropped the letter and ran inside. “JIM! JIM! Where are you?”
My voice was shaking. Jim came running down the stairs. “What’s wrong?” he asked me. I went outside to get the letter and showed it to Jim. As he read the letter I felt him getting angrier each second. “Who is this admirer?” he shouted. “Is it someone from work?” I explained to him that I had no idea but that another colleague of mine, Julie, had also received flowers from an anonymous person. “Maybe we should talk to her and see if she also received a letter,” I said.
The next morning after Jim left for work I called Julie to ask her if she found out from whom the flowers were but there was no answer on her end. I was making my breakfast the phone rang. I thought it was Julie calling back. “Hello this is Anna”. No reaction. “Hello? Hello, who is this?” I said loudly. My nerves were a bit frazzled, I realized.  I hung up the phone. Weird, I thought. Two minutes later the phone rang again. “Hello, this is Anna,” I said again. “Go look in your mailbox!” Silence. That was it. The person on the phone hung up. My hands were shaking. Who was doing this to me?
I went outside to the mailbox. I looked around to see if there was anything suspicious and could hear a scratching noise coming from the mailbox.  I slowly opened the mailbox and WHOOSH – out flew a black crow and it fluttered around my face. It scared me practically to death! I screamed and ran back inside and called Jim at work. He called me down and said that we could decide what to do that evening when we met for dinner that evening. Our 1st year anniversary dinner.
It was so good to see him at the restaurant – I hugged him tight and I felt safe around Jim. I told him that I wanted to go to the police the next morning and explain to them all the events that had taken place over the past 2 days.  Jim looked at me strangely and said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea”.  Then he said abruptly, “Wait for me in the car, I’ll pay the bill.”
As I stepped out of the restaurant I felt that the air had gotten colder so I walked faster to get to the car. I was thinking about Jim’s strange reaction when I heard a voice behind me, “STOP!”
At first I thought it was Jim but something felt funny. The voice was eerily familiar so I slowly turned around but nobody was there.  I started to walk faster towards the parking lot across the street. My heart was beating faster and my legs were shaking. Suddenly I tripped on the curb. I started to get up and felt somebody touching me. “Do you recognize me Laura?” A man tried to turn my head to face him.” Look at me!” he shouted. I tried to escape but I couldn’t. I screamed on the top of my lungs: “Let me go! Let me go! What do you want from me?” “Don’t you recognize me? I’ve been following everything you do. You turned me down and pushed me away.” I don’t know you. Please, let me go,” I cried loudly. I tried to push him off me but he was so much stronger than me.
Gradually, I started to recognize him and the sweat ran ice-cold down my back. He had been at a couple of my gigs and he hung around in the back-ground watching the photo-shoots. I thought he was a cleaning person or something. I didn’t care.
Now I realized that he was intent on hurting me. He took out a knife and held it to my throat as he dragged me towards a dark spot in the parking lot. “If you scream I’ll slit your throat,” he said. As he pulled me I could see Jim coming out of the restaurant and making his way towards the parking lot. I was so afraid. “Should I try and scream or break free?” I thought. At that second he had to let go of my arm to open the car door to push me in so I kicked him in the groin, ran around to the other side of the car and started screaming.
Jim and another man heard me and started running towards me. My stalker saw them coming and took off running. By the time Jim got to me he was long gone. We had to go to the police station to file a complaint and when we were there we heard that my colleague Julie had been murdered. I broke down in hysterics. I was sure that it was the same man but the police had no proof yet.
It’s been months since this happened and I still can’t sleep well at night. Everything makes me jump. The police never found my stalker even after they questioned the people from the photo-shoots. Every time I leave the house now I constantly look behind me. I never know who’s going to be there. Perhaps he’ll turn up again. 

By Eileen

All rights belong to its author. It was published on e-Stories.org by demand of Eileen Hesse.
Published on e-Stories.org on 20.12.2014.

 
 

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