Sweet revenge – I stalked my own stalker!

Things had gone too far – there was no going back

Iwas fairly certain that I had the right house. It looked like the sort of house you would live in anyway.

I wasn’t really sure what I was basing that on. Maybe the way you looked, the clothes you wore, the glimpses I’d caught of your car when you didn’t know I was watching.

It was all the little clues that made me feel like I knew more about you than I actually did.

I didn’t know what I hoped to achieve by standing there in the fading light, looking in. I just needed to know once and for all.

I needed to take some action, to do something.

It felt like I stood there for a long time before anything happened.

Maybe I’m wrong, I thought.

Perhaps I was just standing outside an empty house, like an idiot.

But after about 10 minutes, a light flicked on somewhere.

I did follow you back to the right house after all, I thought with a sigh of relief.

All my efforts not to let you out of my sight this time had paid off.

Then I caught my breath as you came into the room where the light had been turned on.

I couldn’t quite see your face as you moved about what was obviously your kitchen, but I could see the familiar way you walked and the light glinting off your striking red hair.

You had your head bowed as you rummaged around in cupboards and rearranged things on your worktops.

Finally you looked up and then I was absolutely sure it was you. How could I not be?

I’ve looked at you so much over the last few weeks. In the grocer’s, at the petrol station, the bank – all the places where I’ve managed to sneak a look without you noticing.

Although I don’t know you, I feel like I have intimate knowledge of every facet of your appearance.

We’ve never spoken so I don’t know how your voice sounds, but I know how you look so well that I can see your face when I close my eyes.

What should I do now?

I wondered.

I’d been waiting for this moment for ages – when I would have some sort of power over you. But now it was here, I wasn’t sure what the best course of action should be.

I’d discussed the situation with a trusted friend a few times since I’d first spotted you. That seems like a long time ago now, though it’s only been a few weeks. At first you were just a face in the crowd, but now I can’t think of anything but you.

‘I don’t like it, Al,’ my best mate, Sam, had said, when I’d first mentioned the following.

‘It sounds like stalking. People get into trouble for that sort of thing, don’t they?’

‘Maybe,’ I’d replied, then changed the subject.

I wasn’t sure then what the legal position was, whether a line had been crossed or not. But I realised I needed to find out.

‘Well, just be careful,’ had been Sam’s response.

I knew he was looking out for me and had my best interests at heart. He didn’t understand though, didn’t know that things had already gone too far.

In the end, I hadn’t heeded the warnings. I just decided to deal with things in my own way.

And that was how I came to be there, standing in the dark outside your house.

I tried to swallow a bubble

That’s why I was there, standing in the dark outside your house

I put my hand in my pocket and felt the firm edge of metal

of hysteria that was threatening to engulf me. I’d come this far, there was no point in losing the plot now.

I could still see you moving around in the kitchen. You looked so relaxed, so happy, that I almost forgot why I was there. I almost let myself wonder what it would be like if it was me you were cooking dinner for.

Sure, I could have just walked up to the house and rung the doorbell. You’d have let me in and everything would have been normal, just like hundreds of couples all over the country.

But I knew that things weren’t normal, they were about as far from normal as it was possible to be.

I put my hand in my pocket and felt the firm edge of metal against my hand.

Could I really do this?

What I was about to do would change your life forever.

I almost wanted to just leave you alone to go about your life in peace and forget everything that had happened. But as I stood there, I reminded myself that wasn’t possible.

I took my phone from my pocket, hesitated for a moment and then dialled the number on the little square of card I’d been given a few days prior.

It’d been given to me when I’d first decided I had to do something. ‘Hello? Inspector Evans. It’s Alison Murray,’ I said. ‘The man who’s been stalking me. I know where he lives now. He was hanging around outside my office again tonight, but I managed to give him the slip and then

I followed him home.’

The inspector’s voice came across the phone, low and reassuring. He was cross with me for taking matters into my own hands, of course. But he told me not to worry, his colleagues were on their way.

A sigh of relief escaped my lips. There’d be no more looking over my shoulder, no more silent phone calls, no more fear.

Then I stayed on the line just like Inspector Evans had told me to and I waited for the police to come.