Threat- Chloroform- One Woman Who Was Attacked ... -

“No,” she said, her voice flat. “But I am.”

Silence. Real silence this time. No breathing. No movement. Threat- Chloroform- One woman who was attacked ...

He took the bait. He leaned in, the sweet reek of chloroform wafting ahead of him like a ghastly cologne. He uncorked the bottle, doused the handkerchief, and brought it up to his own nose for a second—a rookie mistake. His eyes watered. He blinked. “No,” she said, her voice flat

She saw the shadow first—a thickening of the dark by her window, which she could have sworn she’d locked. The figure was patient. He held a small brown bottle and a folded white handkerchief. He was waiting for her to fall back asleep. No breathing

It was the hush that woke her. Not a noise, but the absence of one—the soft click of a lock, the sigh of a floorboard that had just been stepped on and had settled back into place. Maya’s eyes snapped open in the blue-dark of her studio apartment. She didn’t move. Her breath, shallow and controlled, fogged the air. The heater had clicked off an hour ago.

Then she smelled it. Sweet. Cloying. Like overripe pears soaked in nail polish remover.