by Mercy Amare
I fall back onto my bed and stare at the ceiling. I feel like I’m waiting in my house, trapped like a prisoner on death row. Times like these it is hard for me to be optimistic and see a happy ending, because I don’t. I see this ending very badly for me.
I look over at the window and see something taped to the inside. My hand is shaking as I get out of bed.
There is another note. I pull it off and read it.
You’re definitely not safe.
Below the note is a picture of Brian and me out by the pool yesterday. This person has gotten past the security guards. They’ve proved that nobody can keep them out if they want in.
I’m definitely not safe.
Tuesday, April 17
12am
Happy Birthday.
I am clutching the note in my hand as my door opens. On the other side is Brian and Toby. They both look excited.
“Happy birthday!” Toby says.
As soon as Brian sees me, the smile drops from his face. “What’s wrong?”
I hold up the note, and without a word he walks over and takes it from me.
“You’re definitely not safe,” he reads the note out loud. I can hear the fear and anger in his voice. “Where did you find this?”
Zack hears what was read, so he too steps inside my bedroom. “Did you get another note, Miss Evers?”
Brian hands him the note.
“It was on the outside of my window,” I tell them. “It wasn’t there when I came in here tonight. I went to my computer and I had a chat with Ariana. Then a chat popped up from an unknown source. It was my stalker. Sometime between the short conversation I had with Ariana and them, the note appeared.”
“How long ago did this happen?” Zack asks me.
“Anytime between twenty minutes ago, and five minutes ago,” I answer.
Zack pulls out his phone, and then steps closer to me.
“We have a perimeter breach,” is all he says, and then ends the call. He turns to me. “Miss Evers, I think it would be best if we all go down to the foyer.”
Brian grabs my hand. Toby walks out first, then me and Brian. Zack stays uncomfortably close to my back.
On the way down, I’m not sure what to think. Zack obviously is shaken up by the note, which is probably the scariest part. I felt so safe here, but it’s obviously not true. I’m not safe.
“At least we know we got them on camera,” Dad says.
I think about the day the stalker broke into my room. The security cameras were blank during that time period. I hope that’s not the case, but I doubt my stalker is getting careless now.
Brian and I take a seat in the foyer, and I rest my head on his chest. The steady rhythm of his heartbeat is oddly comforting.
“Some birthday, huh?” he says.
“I can’t believe I thought I was safe,” I admit. “I guess I was just fooling myself. Obviously being here isn’t doing anything but pissing off my stalker.”
“But you’re safe. I’m here.” Brian tightens his grip on me. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
His words should be comforting, but they’re not. Not even Brian can stop this from happening. The cops can’t. Bodyguards can’t. Nobody can stop this.
I let Brian hold me, as all the family comes into the foyer. Within minutes, Robert shows up.
“Miss Evers,” he says to me, “how are you feeling?”
“Scared,” I answer him honestly.
“I know that this was a huge slip up, but this might be a good thing. We are checking the perimeter, and if they are within two miles of the mansion, we will find them,” he reassures me. “Also, I can assure you that this will not happen again. We are going to have two cops here at all times to keep watch.”
“And I’m hiring more security,” Dad says.
“We really underestimated this person,” Robert says. “But it will not happen again.”
“It shouldn’t have happened this time.” My dad is raising his voice. I’ve never really seen him get mad before, so this is different for me. He’s always so calm and sure of himself. This is the first thing he really can’t control, and I didn’t realize how bad it was bothering him before.
“I think we need to monitor those coming in and out more closely.”
“So what about tonight?” Toby asks. “It’s Kihanna’s birthday… Can we still have her party?”
“Party?” I ask.
“We were going to throw you a birthday party,” he explains. “It was going to be a surprise.”
“I think the party should wait,” Robert says. “Let’s see how things go this week with the vamped up security. If things go well, you can reschedule for this weekend. But if you do plan to follow through, there definitely needs to be a lot of security… Somebody needs to be by Kihanna’s side the whole time.”
“Come on,” I say. “This person was outside of my window tonight. They had the chance to kill me, but they didn’t. Why would they risk it when we’re at a party?”
“I can’t even begin to understand the pattern of this person,” Robert says. “What I do know is that you’re not anymore safe by yourself than you are around a lot of people. For all we know, your stalker is invited to your birthday party. I’m interested in seeing how your peers interact with you. I am thinking this person does something that makes them stand out from everybody else… Something that you probably don’t even notice.”
“So you don’t think it’s Gabe?” I ask.
“I definitely think that Gabe Johnson is involved,” Robert answers. “But I don’t think he’s working alone. Like I said, the pattern is weird. There really isn’t a rhyme or reason to anything they do, which is what leads me to believe there could be two or three people involved.”
“Two or three?” I ask, suddenly feeling sick to my stomach.
“I know this is hard hear, but you need to know what you’re up against. The road ahead of you is long and lonely,” Robert says.
Toby clears his throat. “So did you check out Ty Newman? Him and Gabe are best friends, and he probably knows something.”
“Ty is one hard guy to talk to,” he answers. “His Dad has a lot of pull, and we are trying to get him in for questioning, but we are being fought the whole way. Once we get him in, I do believe we will get some of the answers we are looking for. Until then, we just have to be patient.”
“Come on,” Toby says, putting his hand towards my dad. “Kihanna’s dad is freaking Mark Evers. Certainly there is something that he can do… that we can do. I want to help put an end to this.”
“I’m working on it,” Dad tells him. “I haven’t been to work since Saturday, and I’ve been meeting with my lawyer every day. Senator Mike Newman will let Ty be questioned soon, or else it will be leaked to the media. That’s the last thing that he needs with the election coming up.”
“We are making progress,” Robert agrees. “We just don’t want to give you guys false hope on anything until we are one hundred percent certain.”
I look at Veronica. I can see the concern on her face, and she is holding her hand over her stomach.
“What about the baby?” I ask. “Is it safe for Veronica to be here?”
“I need to be here,” Veronica says to me. “I’ve been worrying about you so much. I know this is where Toby wants to be, and this is absolutely where we belong.”
“But isn’t the stress bad for the baby?”
“I’m stressed no matter where I am,” she answers. “I have been so worried about you, and it’s comforting to be here. I feel better being here.”
“I like you being here,” I tell her.
The detective stands up and shakes my dad’s hand. “I’ll be contacting you as soon as we know something. Hopefully we are able to find the person who left the note on her window.”
“Thank you, Robert,” Dad says.
Once the detective leaves, we all sit there in stunned silence.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I, of all people
, know what my stalker… or stalkers, are capable of. The police haven’t been able to find them after nearly four months. They are obviously very smart and good at hiding.
“We should probably all get to bed,” Veronica says. “Staying up all night isn’t going to help matters.”
I don’t want to go to bed alone. The thought of being in my room alone after that scares me.
Brian grabs my hand. “I’ll sleep on your couch,” he whispers in my ear, as if he knows what I’m thinking. I feel relieved.
“Thank you,” I tell him.
Everybody heads to their separate rooms. Once Brian and I get to my room, I turn to him.
“I can sleep on the couch. You can have my bed.”
“No,” he says. “I’m taking the couch.”
“But…”
He cuts me off. “I’m the gentleman here, and this is an argument that you’re not going to win.”
I smile. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
After that, I have no problems falling asleep.
9am
Romantic.
After searching all night, the cops found nothing… Besides the note, there was no evidence that anybody was here. The security cameras go blank for exactly ten minutes, and we didn’t catch a thing. That scares me. This person can so easily get by the security and get out completely undetected.
There also hasn’t been any new information on Gabe. It’s like he’s completely disappeared without a trace. It’s kind of scary.
Brian went to school earlier, so he’s not here when I wake up. I’m glad that he went. He’s so close to the end of the semester, and I’d hate for him to start skipping class now after working so hard. He doesn’t even have a whole month left before summer break.
I’m so close to graduation too. This is my senior year, and I’m spending the last part of it at home. It absolutely sucks. I don’t understand why I can’t just go to class. What difference does it make if I have a bodyguard here or there? But I am not going to argue about it any. Everybody is stressed out enough as it is.
Once I get dressed, I head to Toby’s room. Yesterday he slept until noon, and I was bored until he woke up. Since today is my birthday, I’ve decided he can spend the whole boring day with me. When I get there, I open up the curtains covering his patio doors. He has a balcony in his room, which I am extremely jealous of.
“Wake up,” I tell him.
He groans and throws the covers over his head.
“It’s my birthday, and I don’t want to be bored today.” I pull the covers down from his face.
“Your birthday was postponed until Friday night,” he says in a groggy voice. “Wake me up when it’s time to party.”
“Don’t you want to spend the whole day with your favorite sister?” I pout.
“My favorite sister hasn’t been born yet,” he replies.
I gasp and jokingly cover my heart. “That stings.”
Toby smiles. “I’m just kidding. You’ll always be my favorite sister.”
“You only like me because we’re not actually related.”
“You are pretty hot,” he says. “That, and our little sister is basically going to be an only child. She will be so spoiled.”
“Nobody will have more pretty dresses than her.” I laugh and think about my own closet full of dresses. I haven’t even worn most of them, but that doesn’t stop Veronica from buying me more whenever the opportunity presents itself.
“I will never forget the day you saw your closet,” Toby says. “You looked ready to run.”
“I was ready to run. I could never afford clothes like this before, and my wardrobe mostly consisted of jeans. It was weird, and Veronica came off so pushy in the beginning.”
“Mom is pushy,” he says. “But you’re really stubborn, so she knew she couldn’t win.”
“Looking back, I probably overreacted a little,” I say.
“Augh, yes… The devil-worshiping clothes.” He laughs. “That was the day I found out you were a virgin.”
“And then you announced it to everybody in the room. That was the most humiliating day of my life.”
He shrugs. “You survived. Though I probably shouldn’t have announced it with Gabe sitting right there. He probably wouldn’t have been so interested in you if you wouldn’t have been a virgin.”
“I wish I still was. Gabe was absolutely the wrong guy to lose it to. I was such an idiot.”
“I told you not to have sex with him,” he says. “I called that one.”
“Well, if I would have known how crazy he was, I wouldn’t have.”
“So what about Brian?” Toby asks. “Is he good in bed?”
“I don’t know,” I answer, blushing slightly.
“You haven’t…”
“No!” I shout. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. But I think he wants to wait until were married.”
“Wow,” Toby says in shock. “I like him.”
“Me too,” I agree.
“I really didn’t think it’d be possible to wait. Especially considering he’s dating you. I’m actually kind of shocked you aren’t engaged,” he says. “If I was waiting to get married before having sex, I’d already be married.”
I roll my eyes at Toby. I expected that kind of response from him.
“So wait, is he a virgin?”
“No,” I answer. “But he respects me, and he says I’m worth the wait.”
Toby shakes his head. “It’s a romantic idea, but man, I couldn’t do it.”
“It is romantic.” I sigh, thinking about how sweet Brian is. “Now you need to get up and come hang out. Let’s get our school work done so we can do something fun.”
“Fine,” he says. “I’ll be down in like ten minutes.”
“You better be.” I look at the time on my phone. “I’ll be watching the clock.”
3pm
Completely sucks.
After finishing up our homework for the day, Toby and I went swimming for a few hours, but now we are both bored.
“I never thought I would actually miss school,” Toby tells me.
“I don’t think it’s school you miss. It’s the whole getting out of this house thing,” I say. “How can this house be so big with nothing to do in it?”
“When is Olivia coming over?”
“Not until five,” I answer. “She is babysitting her nieces and nephews today, but her and Melissa are coming for dinner since it’s my birthday.”
“Who is Melissa?”
“Brian and Olivia’s thirteen year old sister. She’s really funny. You’ll like her.”
“Why can’t they have a hot older sister?” he jokes. “I seriously need to get laid.”
“Since when have you ever had problems getting laid?”
“Since nobody’s parents will let them come over here,” he answers. “I’m hoping people will still show up for your birthday party on Friday. I need some social interaction. I may go crazy before this is over.”
“I’m sorry.”
Toby looks up at me and smiles. “It’s not your fault. Besides, there isn’t anywhere else I’d rather be. We are family. We have to share each other’s misery, it’s the law.”
I laugh. “So do you think they’ll find Gabe soon?”
“I don’t know,” he says sadly. “I still can’t believe that he did this to us… to you. The both of us trusted him so much. I should have known better. I knew how he was before the accident, and he had changed so much. I should have seen right through his persona. But even in my wildest dreams, I never thought he could kill somebody.”
“We don’t know if he’s actually killed somebody.”
“Either way, he knew who was doing it. This whole time. He has had multiple opportunities to tell the police, and he hasn’t. He is just as guilty.”
My stomach churns. “Toby, I knew the stalker was capable of murder for well over a mont
h before I turned it into the police. If you go with that logic than I am equally guilty as well. Maybe I am.”
“No,” he says. “You did it to protect the people you love.”
“What if Gabe is doing the same?” I ask.
Toby shakes his head. “No. I don’t believe that.”
“Well, I don’t want to believe that I put my trust in a manipulative, piece of trash.” I trusted Gabe enough to give him my virginity. And I wish so much I could go back in time and talk myself out of it.
No. I can’t regret it. It happened, and looking back is only going to cause me pain. I just have to look forward. I’m not the only girl that has had sex with somebody and regretted it afterward. At least I can say that I truly thought I was in love with him at the time.
“I trusted him too,” Toby says, making me feel slightly better. “And obviously your dad did too, or else he wouldn’t have let you date him.”
“I’m pretty sure Dad never approved of Gabe.”
“I don’t think he will approve of any guy.”
“He approves of Brian,” I say.
“How could he not approve of Brian. He’s paying his own way through college by working his butt off,” Toby says. “Plus, have you seen the way the guy looks at you? It’s like you hung the moon and stars. I don’t think you could’ve picked a better guy.”
I can’t help but smile at his words.
Toby is right — Brian is perfect for me.
“The only thing that worries me about Brian is how old he is,” I tell him. “Brian is definitely ready for more out of a relationship than I am.”
“I think you will be ready for more after this whole stalker situation is resolved,” he says. “You’ve been so focused on this it’s hard for you to notice anything else.”
“True,” I agree. “I guess we’ll see how I feel. Hopefully the police find Gabe soon and can get some answers. I am ready to think about something else. My whole life has revolved around this issue way too long. I haven’t even got to enjoy my senior year.”
