You know I’m always down for a fun game.
Emily
This is the first time all week I’m completely free to stalk Atlas as I please. With Trevor gone and me being off of work, I don’t have anything better to do. This is actually the first Tuesday I’ve followed him, so I honestly have no idea where he’s going. He left his office at nine-thirty in the morning today. Looking pretty good in a light blue dress shirt, might I add. Any other day, I’ve watched him, he doesn’t leave until time for lunch. This is exciting! It’s like an adventure. I note the date and timein my notes app and trail behind him.
We turn down third street and my heart beats just a little fast.This is the street we met on. Where we bumped into each other. This is the street that started everything. We’re getting close to my favorite place in this town. Pages is right next to my job at the bakery. I was going to head there before my shift that day, but didn’t have the chance because of him.
He slows his pace as he texts away on his phone. I match my pace to his for just a second before an idea forms. Opening my bag, I rip out a piece of paper from my notebook and scribble a quick note.
While he’s distracted by whoever he’s currently texting, I get close enough to slip the note into his pocket before retreating back to a safe distance. It’s risky but he didn’t notice, so I think it was worth it. I can’t wait to see his face when he finds it.
He enters the bookstore when he gets to it and my steps falter a little bit. I didn’t think he would ever go to a place like this. Was this where he was leaving or headed to when we ran into each other? I wasn’t paying attention that day. I didn’t see him until after it was too late. I get close enough to the glass to peek inside and freeze in my tracks. He is sitting in my spot. That’s MY SPOT– my chair, my pens, highlighters, my quiet corner, my SAFE SPACE– and he’s sitting in it.
I take a deep breath and try to shove the chaos back down. I don’t actually own the spot, he’s allowed to sit there. It doesn’t matter if that’s my safe space, maybe it’s a safe space for him as well. The panic starts to settle as I keep talking myself through it. Is it possible he needs that space just as much as I do? What does a man like him run from?
He reaches for his phone and I see the moment it registers that it wasn’t the only item in his pocket. His brows furrow as he pulls it out and his eyes flash with interest the moment he understands that it’s from a stalker. I probably shouldn’t have drawn his attention to the fact that someone has been watching him, but I wanted to make it interesting.
He unfolds the note and laughs. He fucking laughs, and it’s mesmerizing. It’s real, and I now know that I have to do everything in my power to make that man laugh again. I want to be the reason for it.
He might not know it yet, but that laugh belonged to me. I think it’s time I step up my game. Today’s going to be fun.
∞∞∞
He walks past the candle shop where I’m hidden at exactly twelve-forty-five PM. It’s the same time every weekday morning. Always with something to eat that he gets from the Cuban place. I wait until he’s far enough away before I make my move to follow after him.
This is usually what I do when I have free time. I don’t understand my fixation with Atlas, but I stopped trying to figure it out. I think I make a decent stalker. He hasn’t found me yet, if that counts.
There were a few times I came close to revealing myself, but I always managed to save it at the last second. I follow him for a few minutes when he makes a left at the corner where he normally goes straight at this intersection. That’s odd. I’ve been following him for weeks now and his routine is pretty solid, and pretty repetitive. Why is today different from the rest?
I speed past the few people in front of me to catch up. I don’t want tolose his trail. I’m almost sprinting when I round the corner, but before I have even a second to look for where Atlas went, my head connects with the brick wall beside me. The impact isn’t hard enough to do any real damage, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t currently see black spots in my vision. I try to shake my vision clear and attempt to look for what caused me to become one with this stupid wall, when a hand wraps around my throat, keeping me pinned to said wall.
Tingles shoot down my spine as I focus on how warm the hand around my neck feels. My eyes bounce around, trying to get the whole picture. It’s definitely a man holding me here, and the moment my eyes stare into the light blue ones across from me, I know exactly who captured me. I felt my lips tip into a smirk. Those eyes could only belong to Atlas. Don’t ask me why this man makes my body react this way, because I don’t have an answer for you. Then it clicked, fuck, he caught me. How do I explain why I’m following him? What’ll be the consequences? Do I even care?
He shoves the left sleeve of my hoodie up to my elbow. His fingers tighten when he catches sight of the heart shaped birthmark near my elbow. “I fucking knew it,” he seethed through clenched teeth. He chuckled, but it was laced with malice. “Oh Darling Chaos, what have you done this time?”
I met this man once and he’s already giving me a nickname. I thought the stalking was crazy, but I guess I’m not the only delusional one between us. But why did that nickname give me goosebumps? For a moment, it felt like my brain glitched. Almost as if someone else’s memory was trying to fight with my own. I tried to shake the fog away but it only increased the growing pressure in my head.
I take a deep breath to calm myself slightly when I catch a familiar scent. Orange and clove. It was the same scent that always lingers in my spot in the bookstore. The same chair he was sitting in earlier today. This whole time, it was him. My obsession also happens to be the cause of the scent that makes me feel a little less alone in this world. The pressure continues to build as my mind struggles for answers.
What the fuck is actually happening here?
Atlas
I slammed her up against the wall before she even saw me standing there. Thanks to my suspicion recently, and Gavin being my eyes, I knew I was being followed by a female who matched her description. This whole time, I thought I was being stalked by a man. I probably would’ve figured it out sooner if I weren’t being biased.
Imagine my shock to see that my stalker was Emily. Or should I say Maizyn? Now that I’m looking at her again, there’s no doubt in my mind that she played me. I thought I was hallucinating this whole time, but that wasn’t really the case.
If she has no idea who I am, then why the fuck has she been stalking me? She really thought she could play me? She should know I’m smarter than that. The fake name was clever, but pretending to be someone else was low. How could she run and let me think she was dead for months now? Fucking months! I was slowly losing my mind while she was reinventing her life. A life without me. Does she think that little of me?
I stare at her cataloging all of the tiny emotions flickering across her face. I freeze when I don’t see the one I’m looking for.
She is scared, sure. I can feel how her heart is racing against the thumb I have pressed against her pulse point. Maybe she’s a little excited if that smirk that touched her lips meant anything. But she’s not scared that I caught her lying, no it’s way worse than that.
She’s confused. I can see it in the furrow of her brows that something isn’t adding up for her. She shakes her head like she’s trying to block something out. My anger towards her starts to melt away.
How am I supposed to look at her when she holds my entire soul and blacked heart in her hands, yet no sign of recognition flashed in through those hazel eyes of hers? She looks at me like I’m a stranger. She looks lost in her own mind, and that fear I thought I saw, could’ve been because, to her, a stranger had his hand wrapped around her pretty little neck. While I want to hurt her for leaving me, she doesn’t seem to remember that she even left me behind.
I’m not sure what hurts more, me thinking she was dead or her no longer knowing who I am while everything I have left shatters in front of her on this side walk.
