I\u2019d only been a waitress for six months when I tripped at work and tore a ligament in my knee. The hospital put my leg in a cast and sent me home with strict orders to rest. My husband, Collins, drove me back and helped me up the stairs with his mother. They were kind and gentle, fussing over me like I was made of glass. I was exhausted but grateful when they tucked me into bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As they turned to leave, I heard a sharp click<\/strong> \u2014 the sound of the door locking. My stomach dropped. \u201cHey! Hello? Collins?\u201d I called, trying to sound calm. No answer. I tried again, louder this time, but the only sound that came back was the creak of the floorboards retreating down the hall. I grabbed my crutches and hobbled toward the door. My hands trembled as I tried the knob. Locked.<\/strong> My heart began to pound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCollins! Why did you lock me in?\u201d I shouted. Silence. My phone was still in my bag\u2014out in the hallway. Panic clawed at my chest. I pounded on the door, my voice cracking. Still no answer. I could feel the air getting heavier, thicker, and something in me knew\u2014this wasn\u2019t a mistake. Then I heard it: a low whisper just beyond the door, followed by the sound of footsteps and\u2026 laughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I froze, leaning against the wall, my leg aching. The laughter faded down the hall. I didn\u2019t know what was happening or why they\u2019d locked me in, but one thing was clear \u2014 I wasn\u2019t as safe at home as I thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019d only been a waitress for six months when I tripped at work and tore a ligament in my knee. The hospital put my leg in a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":342,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11635,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11633\/revisions\/11635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}