It was chilling.
And the chill turned my body ice cold when I finally comprehended the words in the note:Meet me in the back if you want to see your plaything again.Come alone.
Fuck!
The stalker had called Hector myplaythingat the corn maze. Did that mean he’d somehow gotten toHector? This whole plan was based on using myself as bait. I didn’t consider the fact that someone else could get hurt.
My mind raced, trying to think of when the last time I saw Hector was. He was sitting at the bar with Becca.
He’ll still be there.
I tried to calm myself with that thought. The stalker was grasping at straws now that the entire town was on the lookout for him.
Besides, Hector was strong and double the size of the stalker. He could take care of himself.
But what if Hector had let his guard down?
I’dbeen the one to tell him the stalker wasn’t violent.That he was nothing more than an obsessed pervert.I’dbeen the one to say that this plan was safe. A low-pressure plan to snuff out the stalker, and if that didn’t work, it was a fun night out with friends.
I was so fucking foolish. And when I scrambled out of the bathroom in search of Hector, he wasn’t at the bar.
My stomach rolled. Nausea was the tamest thing I was currently feeling. My body burned, and my head was dizzy with a headache that came on too quickly.
I surveyed the entire room, hoping to catch sight of Hector and reassure myself that the stalker was bullshitting. Hector was perfectly safe. But the more I searched and failed to catch even a hint of him, the more I lost hope.
God, I’d been so fucking stupid thinking a childishplan like this would work. If anything happened to Hector…fuck!
I couldn’t even bear to think about it. All I knew was that I’d never forgive myself if Hector was hurt in any way.
A rational part of my brain told me to find my friends. They probably knew where Hector was. But what if the stalker wasn’t bluffing? What if telling others of the situation put Hector in more danger?
I would have sprinted into the patio area if not for trying not to draw attention to myself. The late October air was a cold splash to the face. It wasn’t nearly as cold as Christmas Falls, but the wind might as well have been blades of ice with how chilled with fear I was.
There were a few groups out on the patio, all doing their own thing and seemingly not paying attention to the world around them. I was disappointed to see that Hector was still nowhere in sight. The stalker wasn’t there either.
I looked around, thinking I might find another note that would point me to where they were. I was rewarded with one taped to a tree on the outskirts of the woods that lay behind the bar.
The fucking irony of my plan banking on luring him into the woods, and in reality, the fucking stalker was now the one luring me away for somefresh air.
Of course, he was one step ahead. I was so stupid to think I could outsmart someone who’d stalked me for months.
I didn’t hesitate to enter the woods and snatch the note.
You’re getting warmer.
I took that to mean he wanted me to head deeper into the woods. Well, he was going to get exactly what he wanted. If it meant keeping Hector safe, I would willingly walk into the trap.
I kept walking until the light from the bar’s patio barely lit my way anymore. I turned on my phone’s flashlight to illuminate the path in front of me.
The first rule of survival was never give away your positioning, but I had no doubt the stalker had already started tracking me the moment I walked into the woods. I could practically feel his eyes on me, so there was no point in my walking blindly in the dark and potentially tripping and breaking a leg.
Another minute in, and there was finally another note, once again taped onto a tree. I swirled around, phone in hand, to try catching the stalker off guard, but that was wishful thinking. Only darkness and the shadows of trees surrounded me.
I took a shaky breath and turned back to the note. I snatched it from the tree and quickly skimmed it.
Behind you.
Hector
