Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Finished with that, I turned my attention to one of the plastic totes.
But before my fingers could unclasp the top, there was a familiar clicking noise that accompanied one of the motion lights turning on.
My heartbeat tripped into overdrive, and my chest went immediately tight as I inched toward the open garage door.
There was nothing to panic about.
Other people needed to access their units too.
There was no reason to assume anything scary was going on.
Sucking in a shaky breath, I leaned outward to find one of the cross halls had a bit of light glowing somewhere down at the end.
Nothing.
Just another person accessing their unit.
Or, like, a rat or something.
Steadying my nerves, I went back out, leaving the unit open since there was nothing important in it, then went back to the car to grab another couple of boxes.
As I came back in, though, I noticed the lights rapidly turning off.
Leading away from my unit.
Like someone had come from that direction.
My stomach twisted as my heart punched against my ribcage. Adrenaline surged through my system, making my skin feel like it was sizzling.
What was I panicking about, though?
This was a public storage facility. Literally hundreds of other people had units and needed to access them. I had no reason to assume I was alone here.
And there were, like, security cameras.
Sure, the girl at the desk was likely scrolling on her phone and not watching the footage. But if something creepy happened, the footage could go to the cops, and they could find the person. Especially because there was a secure, coded gate.
Who would risk that?
I was being silly.
Taking a deep breath, I forced my feet to move forward toward my unit, ignoring the way it felt like a hand was closing around my throat with each passing second.
Diligence was good, I reminded myself; paranoia was not.
No lights other than the ones above me clicked on, so by the time I rounded my unit, my shoulders weren’t up by my ears anymore.
And there was no one in my unit.
I shook my head at myself as I brought my boxes over toward the others I’d brought in.
Everything was fine.
Until I turned to walk away again, and something nettled at me about the unit. Like something felt off. When I turned in a circle, though, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
Chalking it up to some lingering paranoia, I made my way back out to my car, fighting to get the boxes out of the cramped back seat without its own doors for a minute before making my way back in.
I paused this time, looking around. But the whole building was dark, save for the lights directly above my head.
Still, I couldn’t shake that little sliver of discomfort sliding down my spine as I made it to my unit once again.
I put my boxes down.
But when I turned, I knew immediately what was wrong this time.
One of the storage tubs was missing.
My belly flip-flopped.
And I suddenly realized what had felt wrong the last time that I hadn’t been able to pinpoint.
That same box, the one that was now missing, had the top askew. When I’d touched it, I’d just barely unclipped the top from the handle. I definitely hadn’t knocked the lid loose.
So when I’d seen those lights coming from the unit, it hadn’t just been someone passing by. Someone had come in, had touched things that didn’t belong to them.
Then, when I’d left to get more boxes, they had come back… and taken the same box.
What the hell?
Who would do something like that?
And, maybe more importantly, what was in the boxes?
I mean, they’d come once to snoop. Then they’d come back again to steal. Clearly, there was something valuable in the box. Possibly in all of the boxes.
With a cold sweat inching down my spine and goosebumps prickling up on my bare arms, I made my way over toward another of the plastic containers while trying to keep an ear out for any sounds in the building.
I tried to assure myself that if someone had stolen something, surely they’d already cleared out, gotten the hell out of there before I could go to the office and complain, had the police called.
I sucked a slow, deep breath in as I unclipped the lid.
But it was right then that I heard a door somewhere in the building slamming.
My stomach twisted.
Screw this.
I could come back some other time. Maybe with a bat. Or ask the staff to escort me. I dunno. All I did know was I felt like I was about to throw up. Whatever was in those boxes wasn’t worth a panic attack.
I rushed out of the unit, the padlock in my hand.
Reaching up, I dragged down the door, wincing at the racket it made.
I’d just gotten the padlock into the hole when the lights started rapidly clicking on.