EPISODE 4
873 Words
I didn’t call the police.
Not because I trusted the person texting me.
I just didn’t know what to tell them.
Someone had entered my apartment.
Someone had returned a necklace I’d lost months ago.
And someone was sending me messages claiming they were protecting me.
I sat on the edge of my bed, staring at the necklace in my hand.
There was only one person who knew how important it was to me.
Adrian.
I hated that my mind kept going back to him.
For three months, I had convinced myself that he was gone.
Maybe I had been wrong.
I opened my phone and finally clicked on his contact.
My finger hovered over the call button.
Then I pressed it.
One ring.
Two.
Three.
He answered.
“Hello?”
His voice sounded exactly the same.
My heart tightened.
“Adrian.”
There was silence.
“Are you okay?”
The question made me angry.
“Am I okay?”
Another silence.
“You’ve been watching me.”
He didn’t answer immediately.
That was enough.
My stomach dropped.
“Adrian…”
“I didn’t want you to find out like this.”
I stood up.
“So you admit it?”
“I watched you.”
My hands tightened around the phone.
“For how long?”
“Since you left.”
I couldn’t speak.
Three months.
Three months of thinking I had finally moved on while he had apparently been somewhere nearby.
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to know you were safe.”
“You don’t get to decide that!”
“I know.”
His voice was quiet.
“I knew you’d hate me if you found out.”
“Then why did you do it?”
“Because after you broke up with me, I promised myself I wouldn’t interfere with your life.”
He paused.
“But I also couldn’t completely disappear.”
I sat back down.
“Was the coffee you?”
“Yes.”
My heart sank.
“The necklace?”
“No.”
I froze.
“What?”
“The necklace wasn’t me.”
I stared at the wall.
“Then who was it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Adrian, stop lying to me.”
“I’m not.”
For the first time, his voice sounded scared.
“I never sent those messages.”
My blood went cold.
“But you were watching me.”
“Yes.”
“And someone else was too?”
“Yes.”
I didn’t know what scared me more—the fact that Adrian had been following my life from a distance, or the fact that he was telling me someone else had been doing the same thing.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I was trying to find out who they were.”
“How long have you known?”
“Since before the coffee.”
I stood up again.
“What do you mean?”
“I noticed someone watching your apartment.”
The room suddenly felt smaller.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because every time I got close, they disappeared.”
I looked toward my bedroom window.
“Do you know who it is?”
“No.”
Then I heard something.
A faint sound outside my apartment door.
I stopped breathing.
Adrian heard the silence.
“What happened?”
“Someone’s outside.”
“Lock your door.”
“It already is.”
“Stay away from it.”
I stepped backward.
The sound came again.
A soft knock.
Three times.
I looked at my phone.
Adrian was still on the line.
“Don’t open it,” he said.
I didn’t.
A few seconds passed.
Then something slid underneath the door.
A photograph.
My hands went cold.
I slowly picked it up.
It was a picture of me sitting in the café.
The same café from Episode 1.
The picture had been taken from outside.
On the back, there was a message.
You were never supposed to find out.
I stared at it.
Then another message appeared on my phone.
Unknown Number.
Now you know why I told you to stay away from Adrian.
I looked at the photograph again.
There was something strange in the background.
A reflection in the café window.
A person standing behind me.
I zoomed in.
My heart stopped.
It wasn’t Adrian.
It was someone I recognized.
Someone who had been around me for months.
Someone I had never thought to suspect.
My roommate’s older brother.
The same person who always seemed to know when I was home.
The same person who had asked me, weeks ago, whether I was still talking to Adrian.
I dropped the photograph.
Adrian’s voice came through the phone.
“What did you see?”
I swallowed.
“I know who it is.”
There was a long silence.
Then Adrian said something that made my blood run cold.
“Don’t tell him you know.”
But it was already too late.
My phone screen lit up again.
Look outside.
I slowly turned toward the window.
A figure was standing across the street.
Watching my apartment.
And this time…
I knew exactly who it was.
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