Free Eternal by H. G. Nadel Page B

the monster, a bolt-necked, 1930s Boris Karloff type, started touching every student he passed, turning them into zombies in a horrifying game of cat and mouse.
    Now, as she stared at her laptop inside her apartment, Julia couldn’t keep herself from reframing that dream—where she wandered around a hospital touching patients who had died before their time, watching them jump up to hug surprised and laughing families, and then following them as they walked out of the hospital on their own two feet.
    What kind of scientist was she, hiding in her apartment when there was more research to be done? She took a deep breath, tried to push the image of the hooded man out of her mind, and stood up. She went to her dresser, opened a drawer, and began to grab an old T-shirt.
Then again, maybe Austin will come back to the lab,
she thought. She shut the drawer and went to her closet, where she picked out a lacy tank top and a short skirt—not quite a mini, but one that showed off more leg than usual. It was one of Nadia’s old skirts, of course.
    Julia walked into the bathroom to get ready, taking her lukewarm coffee with her and setting it on the vanity. She sloughed off her nightshirt and jumped in the shower. When she stepped out, she reached for the coffee and was surprised to find the cup full. When had she brewed another cup? She raised it to her lips. It was hot and smelled fresh. As the taste washed over her tongue, she could swear that she tasted nonfat milk instead of her usual soy.
    She lowered the cup and stared into it. Then she looked up at the mirror and saw faint lines revealed by the steam, letters drawn with a finger. “I’ll never leave you,” it said. Julia hitched in a shuddering breath and tried to say “Mom?” but no sound came out. She ran a flat palm across the steamed mirror, erasing the words. But the strong smell of coffee remained.
    Julia got ready quickly, eager to leave the apartment that had seemed a safe haven until a moment ago. Fifteen minutes later she exhaled in relief as she locked her car door behind her. She drove away, her mind still full of what had happened in the bathroom, but not so full that it could ignore the return of the sensation that someone was following her. She glanced into the rearview mirror a couple of times, sure she saw a repeating glint of sun reflecting off chrome. But when she looked over her shoulder, she only saw the impatient surge and crawl of all the other 8:45 A.M. drivers late for work.

E LEVEN
     
    J ulia thought about the words on the bathroom mirror as she drove. She began to wonder if maybe the man who had followed her last night had gotten into her apartment somehow and written those words: “I’ll never leave you.” Did she have a stalker?
    She pulled into the parking lot in front of Research Building Three, stepped out of the car, and felt two hands cover her eyes. She didn’t scream but, instead, ducked and spun around, her arms bent in a circle, the way she remembered from the self-defense class her father had made her take in preparation for the uncertainties of campus life. Her left arm swept up and under the arm of her assailant then down across his back as she stepped to the side and whipped around, throwing him off balance and sending him staggering to his knees.
    She was ready to deliver a kick to his stomach and run screaming for help, when he grunted, “What the hell, Julia! It’s just me! It’s me!” She took in the basketball uniform before Tyler turned his face up to hers in stunned surprise.
    She stepped back and hunched over her legs, hands on her thighs, gasping for air. “Holy crap! You scared me!”
    “I scared
you
? Jeez, GI Jane, where’d you learn to do that?” He rose from the ground and started to laugh.
    “Are you crazy? Why would you sneak up on me like that after all that’s happened the past few days?”
    “I’m sorry, babe. It’s just a habit. I just wasn’t thinking.” He stopped laughing. “Why so tense?