Two figures, standing at the end of the bed. Watching.
Familiar faces.
My chest tightens—not with fear, but with something softer, more fragile. Recognition. Relief. They found me, saved me from whoever did this to me. I don’t know what happened but right now, they’re here. I’m safe. And that’s enough.
“You found me.” My voice comes out in a broken rasp, like gravel being churned in a dry well.
"Wh—...what...?" I grab my throat with my free hand as I struggle to swallow. My throat’s so dry it hurts.
“Here, Baby.” Roxy moves from where she stands beside Ezra, a bottle of water in her hand. She twists off the top and places it at my lips. “Slow, don’t try to drink too fast.” I cough, one that’s weak and shuddering, each swallow torture.
“Are you done?” Roxy asks as I pull away and I nod.
“Wh-what happened?” My voice strains to just say a few words.
Roxy looks back to Ezra, their eyes locked on each other, almost as if there’s a mutual understanding between them about something.
Ezra moves around the bed, sitting down beside me, the mattress dipping beneath his weight.
“Let’s get you comfortable. We can stay here or go downstairs. Your choice. Then we’ll tell you everything.”
“Here is fine.”
“I don’t know where to start. Whether Ezra should speak first or me. All I ask is that you listen and wait to say anything until we’ve told you everything.” Roxy’s voice is lacking her normal confidence.
“I’ll start first, and we can go in pieces.” He reaches out, taking my hand in his, gently rubbing the pad of his thumb along my skin. “I want to apologize for how I reacted when you confessed the feelings you had for Roxy. I was hurt, jealous and afraid.” He gulps, scooting closer to me.
“But why—”
“Shh, Baby. You promised to let me finish.”
“Okay,” I say reluctantly, afraid that my world is about to crash all around me.
“I shouldn’t have cut you off. But I had to think. I’ll come back to that, though. For you to know what happened, I have to go back to the beginning. Before we met.”
My eyebrow raises in confusion. What could something that happened before we met have to do with him ghosting me the way he did?
“I knew about Behind the Lens before you told me. I’ve known about the site for a long time. Subscribed to many channels on it. I was ready to leave it, bored of the same type of woman, when I came across you.” My eyes widen in disbelief. “You drew me in and I fell in love with you, and I didn’t care who you were. You gave little information about yourself. But I paid attention. Every detail pulled my focus. It’s what helped me find you. I could make out the logo for the school on your ID that was justbarely hanging out of your bookbag. From there, I looked up the courses for the books you were studying and waited.”
This can’t be real. This is something straight out of a book. A movie. This isn’t real life, yet it is.
“I heard your voice, and when I saw your smile, your eyes, I knew it was you. It’s then that I decided to put myself in your path, and nature took its course. You were always meant to be mine.”
Roxy clears her throat. “While that sounds creepy, how I met you wasn’t any better. I’ve seen you around Behind the Lens but you were always quiet, kept to yourself, not letting anyone in. Much like this psycho over here, I fell in love at first sight. That day I met you for the first time about the calendar wasn’t the first time I watched your live streams. I’ve watched all of them.”
I go to open my mouth, but stop. I promised to listen to them, but I’m suddenly rethinking why I’m still doing it. What they’re telling me is so far off from the way the people I know would act. They’re sounding more like stalkerish serial killers.
My mind begins to race, running through recent events. Are they the ones who took me? Who knocked me out?
I can’t help but shudder at the thought.
“I was following you one day when I saw you pull up in the parking lot. I overheard you and Lorna talking about the calendar. When you told her your boyfriend only felt comfortable with you being with a woman, I knew that was my chance.” Roxy looks away from me, biting her lip, then breathes deeply. “I waited for you to leave then I went to her, begging for the chance to be your partner. She saw right through me and knew exactly why I was doing it. She knew I liked you. Lorna told me I was playing with fire and should be honest with you. I wasn’t, and now I wish I was.”
The room is quiet for a moment, then Ezra’s deep timbre fills the space. “I’m not good at sharing, Felicity, and I know what Iwant. You’re my obsession. I knew I couldn’t be in the calendar, because of the tattoos and the chance of someone recognizing them. I couldn’t risk my career. A woman was the best solution to give you this opportunity and Lorna what she wanted. I just didn’t think you’d develop feelings.”
“In hindsight, you should have factored that in. Knowing we’d be spending a lot of time together. But if you hadn’t pushed her to be with a woman, I wouldn’t have her in my life,” Roxy adds.
“Tonight I was fully willing to do anything to get you back. But when I saw you and her together on the live stream, I knew you had moved forward in your plans. I didn’t think. I reacted. It wasn’t smart, it was dumb, but people do stupid shit for love.”
