What would happen if Ididn’twear the clothes?
What would happen if Idid?
I hovered in front of the chair, mind racing.
Would doing what this stranger asked be enabling them?
If I didn’t obey, would they escalate?
They seemed to be escalating either way…
I didn’t know what to do.
My phone dinged, and I jumped nearly a foot in the air.
God, I hoped it was Melanie.
She was supposed to be picking me up shortly to take me to see my mom at the long-term care facility I’d recently enrolled her in.
Melanie would know what to do.
I scurried over to my bed, snatching my phone up from where it was still plugged into its charger.
Hurrying to unlock the device, my heart sank when I realized it wasn’t Melanie who’d texted me.
It was a message from an unknown number.
Unknown:
Put it on, Milo.
My eyes bulged, and I glanced frantically around the room as if I might find whoever this creep was standing in the corner, leering at me. Obviously, they weren’t anywhere to be seen.
Milo:
Who is this? Are you the person who keeps breaking into my apartment?
My fingers trembled as I typed out a response, and I rushed to my bedroom window, quickly drawing the curtains closed in case this stranger was somehow watching me from outside. My phone chimed again, and I opened the new message to find the stranger had completely ignored my question. Instead, they’d just sent another demand.
Unknown:
Don’t ask questions when I tell you to do something. Do as I say, or there will be consequences.
An uncharacteristic flair of anger licked the base of my stomach at the stranger’s response.
Who the heck did this person think they were?
I didn’t have time for this.
I had my hands full enough with my mother as it was. The last thing I needed was some psychopathic stalker ordering me around.
I wasn’t interesting enough to have a damn stalker anyway.
My entire life, I’d either been invisible or the butt of most jokes.
Milo Murphy—the Biotech nerd who was so accident-prone that everyone had called himMurphquakesince he was a small child.
This was probably just some stupid prank from Dylan or one of his mean friends.
