This silence feels like a deep inhale before an ear-piercing scream.
We get to my apartment without seeing another soul, and Roo slides her fob against the keypad of my front door. The light doesn’t flicker to green… Instead, it turns red, flashing its irritation. She taps the fob twice more before turning to me, a curious brow raised.
I notice the movement immediately.
The hallway camera twists toward us, as if it’s been watching the stairwell while we just stand outside my apartment, loitering for the hell of it.
Roo holds up her useless fob. “Did you?—?”
“No,” I drawl, eyes narrowing as I have a one-sided stare-off with the intrusive piece of technology fueling a distinct set of stalkers. “I didn’t change the locks.”
She turns until we’re face-to-face, glancing over my shoulder, guarding my back until I explain. I’m not as worried as she is, though. I know this isn’t Daniel’s doing. Roo notes my calm too. Her eyebrows go up, eyes widening, like a look alone should prompt an answer from me.
“Then who did?”
I continue glaring at the camera, and a second dot of green light blinks once, as if it’s winking at me.
I roll my eyes and open the HimLock app.
Eris:
I’m home.
The reply appears before I have a chance to glance away from the screen.
Locke:
I know.
We were waiting.
My stomach tightens, recognition pooling in my belly like a warning.You’re being studied, Eris.Catalogued. Wanted…
My door unlocks on its own, no fob needed to trigger the mechanism. The first thing I notice when I walk in is that my thermostat has been adjusted. It sits on the wall beside my door, so it’s difficult to miss… And it’s always set high enough, or low enough, to stop running while I’m not home.
But my air-con is decidedly on… Much cooler than I keep it.
I don’t like it.
As I tap the touchscreen on the wall, Roo moves toward the kitchen with a loud sigh.
“Want me to make coffee?”
I frown at her and shake my head. Did I enter a parallel universe this morning?
“You hate my coffee. It’s not bougie enough for you.” I slide my shoes off as I mutter, “And it’s not watered down or full of sugar and milk.”
“I hate whatyoucall coffee,” she corrects. I hear the smile in her voice as she opens my fridge. “But I’m all out of therapy degrees. And I figure you need something warm and bitter.”
“Coffee’s not gonna cut it,” I call back to her as I glare at yet another camera.
If I start ripping them off the walls, how soon will they show up?
I kind of want to hurl these cameras into oncoming traffic…
But the pettier part of me wants to be cruel. Start walking around in next to nothing. Bring a stranger home to give them a show. See how many buttons I can find and how fast I can push every last one of them.
Roo glances over her shoulder. “No black coffee to warm your frigid heart?”
