Chapter 12 : The Thing He Still Controls.
887 Words
“Fear isn’t loud. It waits until you think you’re safe.” — Wendy
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Calvin didn’t send another message the next day.
That was how Wendy knew it was about to get worse.
Threats didn’t scare her as much as silence did. Silence meant planning. Silence meant patience. Silence meant he was enjoying the waiting.
She kept her phone on mute and face down during class, but it didn’t matter. Every vibration — real or imagined — made her stomach tighten. She flinched when someone laughed too loudly. She avoided mirrors. Avoided eye contact. Avoided herself.
Wayne noticed.
“You’re disappearing again,” he said quietly as they walked down the corridor after class.
“I’m fine,” Wendy replied automatically.
He stopped walking.
“Wendy.”
She stopped too, heart racing.
“You don’t have to lie to protect me,” he said gently. “But don’t lie to hurt yourself.”
Her throat closed. “I don’t know how to make this stop.”
Wayne didn’t ask what. He already knew enough.
“We’ll figure it out,” he said. “Together.”
She nodded, even though fear whispered that together was exactly what Calvin wanted to destroy.
---
That afternoon, Wendy found the note.
It was folded neatly inside her locker.
No handwriting she recognized. No signature.
Just four words.
Check your email.
Her fingers went numb.
She didn’t open it at school. She waited until she was home, door locked, curtains drawn, heart hammering so hard she felt dizzy.
One unread message.
From an address she didn’t recognize.
No greeting.
No explanation.
Just a sentence that made her chest collapse inward.
You’ve been acting brave lately.
Her vision blurred.
The message continued.
I don’t like brave. I like quiet.
Her hands shook violently as she scrolled.
Attached was nothing she could open — just blurred thumbnails, unrecognizable, intentionally obscured.
A warning.
A reminder.
Her phone slipped from her fingers and hit the floor.
She slid down against the wall, knees pulled to her chest, breathing shallow and fast.
He wasn’t threatening to share anything.
He didn’t need to.
The power was in letting her know he could.
---
At school the next day, Calvin didn’t approach her.
He didn’t speak to her. Didn’t text. Didn’t look her way.
Instead, he watched.
From across the courtyard. From the hallway. From places he shouldn’t have been.
Every time Wendy laughed at something Wayne said, Calvin’s gaze sharpened. Every time Wayne stood a little closer, Calvin smiled — slow and knowing.
During lunch, Wendy felt her phone buzz.
One message.
Unknown Number: He won’t always be there.
Her appetite vanished instantly.
She stood up so fast her chair scraped loudly against the floor.
“I need air,” she told Taylor, already walking away.
She didn’t realize Wayne had followed until she felt his presence beside her near the stairs.
“What did he do?” Wayne asked, voice controlled — too controlled.
Wendy showed him the message.
Wayne’s jaw tightened.
“That’s it,” he said. “I’m going to—”
“No,” Wendy said sharply.
He froze.
“If you confront him,” she continued, voice trembling, “he wins. He wants reactions. He wants chaos. He wants me scared.”
Wayne searched her face. “And what do you want?”
She swallowed. “I want control back.”
Wayne nodded slowly. “Then we do this your way.”
---
Calvin cornered her after school.
Not physically. Not loudly.
He waited near the gate, leaning casually against the wall like he belonged there. Like he always had.
“Relax,” he said softly when she stiffened. “I’m not here to cause a scene.”
“You already did,” Wendy replied, surprising herself with how steady her voice sounded.
Calvin smiled. “You’ve changed.”
“Not because of you.”
He tilted his head. “You really think he can protect you?”
“That’s not his job.”
Calvin’s eyes darkened slightly. “It used to be mine.”
“No,” Wendy said. “You don’t get to rewrite what you did.”
He stepped closer — not invading, just near enough to remind her he could.
“I still have proof,” he murmured. “And you still have a reputation to lose.”
Wendy’s heart pounded, but she didn’t step back.
“You don’t scare me anymore,” she lied.
Calvin chuckled. “That’s cute.”
He leaned in just enough to whisper, “Then why are your hands shaking?”
She hated that he noticed.
But she hated more that he thought it meant he’d won.
He straightened and stepped away. “Enjoy being happy while it lasts, Wendy.”
Then he walked off, calm as ever.
---
That night, Wendy sat on her bed, staring at the wall.
Fear pressed in from all sides — but something else stirred beneath it.
Resolve.
She picked up her phone and typed a message.
Wendy: He’s escalating.
The reply came immediately.
Wayne: Then we stop letting him control the pace.
She exhaled slowly.
For the first time, Calvin wasn’t the only one planning.
And he didn’t know it yet — but his silence had finally done something dangerous.
It had pushed Wendy past fear.
- Writer
