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Charly moved to the kitchen, dumped out her coffee, and poured a fresh one. Her doorbell sounded.  Another cup of coffee was going to die freezing to death, then get tossed over the metal cliff known as the sink to the lower level of hell, which would be in truth, the drain.

She sat the coffee down on the counter and headed to the door.  She looked out the window from between the closed blinds and saw a strange man. Her stomach lurched to her throat and memories of her obsessed and stalking fan plagued her.  She had moved her daughter and her life from New York back to California because some fan wouldn’t leave her alone.  It was scary, considering that she had no idea what the crazed fan she was running from looked like.  She whimpered and sounded like a scared kitten. Bravery at its best.

She glanced at the locked door, thankful she had remembered to do that. The doorbell went again and Charly’s heart picked up speed.  She needed a weapon and looked to the stove where the wooden block held the sharp knife set.

She scooted over to it in an ungraceful, cowardly shuffle and grabbed the first knife she could.  It was a steak knife. Not the biggest knife, but it wasn’t the size that mattered; it was how it was used. Charly paused as she returned to the door, thinking that it wasn’t in reference to knives when she’d heard that. With the knife concealed behind her back and newfound courage, she opened the door. She smiled in a way that undoubtedly resembled serial killer patterning.  “Hello?”

The young man on the step smiled and revealed a mouthful of metal.  She was stunned and slightly confused. Weren’t braces clear these days?  If only they were  when she’d been in middle school. She probably would have had more confidence. “Charlene Josephine Jamieson?”

Charly’s heart hit the grey flecked tile in her front entrance that desperately needed to be mopped. She clutched the knife tightly behind her back, knowing that she was prepared to use it without hesitation since she had to mop anyways.  “Who wants to know?”

The young possible assailant that she would kill in a heartbeat raised his brows and widened his eyes in what looked like... fear? “Always Safe Alarm Company.”

After releasing the breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding, she smiled.  “Oh, thank heavens.” She pulled open the door further. “Please, come in.” She waved with her other hand. His face turned ashen as his eyes fixed on the knife.