Chapter 20

"What do you have to tell me at this ungodly hour?" Haley asks, rubbing her eyes and sitting down on the couch. She watches me pace back and forth in her living room and sighs. "It's way too early for this Braska. I think maybe-"

"I know who the stalker is," I interrupt, finally coming to terms in who it is.

It's like I threw a bucket of ice cold water at her because the second I said that, her eyes immediately widen and she perks up. "Who is it?" she asks, grinning widely at me. The next thing I'm about to say is going to wipe that grin right off her face.

"Hales, he attacked someone," I tell her.

Her eyes widen in worry. "Who? Wait are you sure? Dammit! Why do the interesting things always happen when I'm asleep."

"Some girl showed up at my doorstep covered in blood and when I tried to ask her what happened, all she did was scream at me for doing that to her," I explain. "When I tried to tell her that it wasn't my fault, she wouldn't listen. I called 911 and they got her to the hospital just in time before she bled to death in my house."

"Wait, but did Jason..." she trails off, motioning to the sleeping child across from us on the other couch.

I shake my head. "Luckily he didn't see any of that. Anyways, the cops took me in and questioned me for hours until they finally believed that I'm just an innocent bystander in the whole thing. So when I went to the hospital to check on the girl to see if she could tell me what the guy looks like, you won't believe who I saw."

"Was it the stalker?" she asks, completely glued to the story.

"No. It was Zoey."

Her mouth drops open in shock and I nod. "Seriously? What was she doing there?" she asks.

"Turns out Raine was sleeping over at her house. Oh, and it was Raine who was attacked. Can you believe that?"

Haley stays silent for a few moments, and I don't say anything knowing that she needs time to process everything. Heck, I still need time to process everything and I haven't even told her the whole story yet. "What did she say to you?"

"She described what the guy who attacked her looks like," I reply. I don't really want to tell Haley everything Raine told me because it's not valuable to the story.

"Well, who is it?" she asks, leaning forward towards me.

"Okay, I don't think you know his name so I'll just explain. Remember that one time we went to the mall and saw Zoey and I completely panicked and ran off?" I ask.

She nods. "Yeah, I was looking for you everywhere until you came out of that one dark jewelry store."

Good, she remembered that. "Did you see who was in charge of the store?"

She thinks about it for a few seconds. "No, not that clearly anyways. When you ran out of there, all I saw was some tall guy. I couldn't see his features that well, although I know his eyes were either gray or blue. That's probably the only thing I saw about him," she said. Why is everyone so focused on his eyes? The first thing I noticed about him was his hair. How was everything just looking at his eyes when they were probably the last thing I noticed about him. "Why?" she asks.

"Haley, that's my stalker," I tell her.

She looks like I just took a pan and hit her over the head with it. She stands up and stares at me with shock and horror. "Braska, are you serious?" she asks, looking extremely nervous.

The looks she's giving me makes me suspicious so I stand up. "Yeah, I am. Why? What did you do?" I ask, feeling fear creep inside. Haley said she never officially met the guy so what could be so bad?

She pulls at her hair frustratingly. "Braska...I think that's Levi's brother."

I knew he had something to do with this! The way he acted the first day we met him, there's no way he just knew out of hand that there was a table in that corner of the cafeteria. There's no way he would have willingly decided to sit with people like us. So even while I thought I was safe at school, it was a lie. I wasn't safe. Even in school he had someone watch over me.

"I should have been more careful," Haley whispers, most likely to herself.

I give her a suspicious glare. "What do you mean?"

She looks at me surprised. Maybe I wasn't supposed to hear her say that. That only makes me more curious as to what Haley is hiding from me. "Braska, I swear if I had known it was him, I wouldn't have-"

"Haley, what did you do?" I interrupt, crossing my arms over my chest.

She visibly gulps and rubs her arm, a sign that she's nervous. "It was a few weeks ago, but remember the time Levi first came to school? I don't know how long after that, or that same day...I can't remember it was a long time ago. Anyways, he said he got a new phone and wanted our numbers. I swear if I had known about him I wouldn't have given him our numbers, please forgive me Braska," she begs, looking really desperate.

I stay silent. From what she said, my mind travels to that one phone call. Someone from an unknown number had called me but instead of talking to me, it sounded like two people arguing on the other side. Was the call those two arguing about something? I can't remember exactly what they were arguing about since it was so long ago.

Sighing, I look back at Haley. "Don't worry about it Hales, it wasn't your fault. Besides, I think I still have that number saved in my phone somewhere."

She perks up and lets out a sigh of relief. "Phew, thanks. I was worrying back there for sec. Seriously Braska, I don't know what I'd do if you decided not to be my friend."

"Maybe go find a new friend," I joke.

She shakes her head at me. "No, I wouldn't be able to. Seriously, you're one of the best friends there is out there. Who else is willing to put up with my crazy self," she says, winking at me with a grin.

I smiled. I never knew I meant that much to Haley. She's one of the most popular girls in the school, despite everyone knowing I was her best friend, there's no doubt in my mind that she would be able to quickly make friends.

She must have seen the look in my face because she then adds, "Braska, I know you think you aren't anything special, and I'll impale Zoey for making you feel like that, but you should know how special you really are."

I decide to change the subject before we get into another argument over something as petty as this. "So, do you think I should call the unknown number?"

She shrugs. "I think you should. Ask to meet up-"

"I'm not meeting that creep anywhere by myself!" I exclaim. She's crazy if she thinks that I would ever decide to meet him alone. I mean, I've already been alone with him on multiple occasions, but this time it's different. This time, I know how dangerous she really is.

"Let me finish," she sighs, shaking her head at me. "I was going to say, that you should ask to meet up somewhere and tell the cops where that place is so that he'll be locked up." That does seem like a good idea. Once he gets close enough, they'll be able to put him behind bars, far away from me.

If things go south, then they can shoot him before anything happens to me. A sharp pain shoots through my chest at the thought of him getting hurt and my bracelet starts to throb while the gem turns into a dark gray color. My mind goes to when he had given me this bracelet. Back then, it was a sweet gesture but it probably has a tracking device, enabling him to know where I was at all times. I want it off!

I try to unclasp it from my wrist but after ten minutes, I switched to attempting to just slide it off. It seems like the bracelet is glued to my wrist since no matter what I do, it won't come off! "You okay there?" Haley asks, and I let out a frustrated sigh.

"Can you help?" I ask, holding my wrist out to her. She tries to take the bracelet off and starts pulling on my wrist after a few minutes, making me wince in pain. "Hales, I actually need this arm," I remind her, pulling my arm away from her.

"I don't get it, why won't it come off?" Probably because the creep super glued it or something. "So are you gonna call him?" she asks.

I nod and push my glasses up my face. I go through my recent calls and start going down to try and find the unknown number. It's a habit of mine to not delete recent calls or messages, and I don't have that many people to call or text anyways, so I know the number is here somewhere.

Before I dial it, I stop. What if he's angry at me? What if he lashes out? What if he attacks another stranger out of anger? "Are you okay, Braska?" Haley asks, interrupting my inner thoughts.

I nod. "Yeah, guess I'll just press call here..." After pressing the button, I put the phone on speaker and place it on the coffee table. Haley stares silently at the screen as if the guy is just going to pop out of it, making me roll my eyes.

It rings two times before someone answers. "Hello?" At this time and hour, I would have thought he would sound tired. But no, he sounds wide awake and like he just finished running a mile and eating a sandwich after. How is someone awake at this time in the night? It's three am!

"Er...hello?" I reply, grimacing when Haley covers her mouth to hide her chuckles at my pathetic response.

"Who's this?" he asks, making me furrow my eyebrows. Of course, act like you don't know.

"I um...I found your keys!" I blurt out, biting my lip. My cheeks burn at how awkward I am at talking to criminals.

I wait for him to call me out on my bluff and hang up, but he lets out a sigh of relief making me eyes widen. "You did? Oh thank God, I swear my brother acts like he's five sometimes. I'm gonna kill him for stealing that later."

I swallow at that. Levi? Is he seriously going to hurt Levi, his own brother? After what happened to Raine, I have no doubt that he will carry on with that. "Um, I'll give it back to you tomorrow? Noon around Ascension Park?" I suggest.

It's silent on the other side and I briefly wonder if he's suffocating someone right now. "Er, noon's not a really good time for me. Can it be around eight pm?" Right, of course he would pick the night.

Remembering that there will be cops there reassures me and I harden my voice to not sound too scared. "Uh huh, yep. That works. See you there," I say, before hanging up.

Haley opens her mouth to say something when I hear footsteps coming from the stairs. I turn around and my mouth drops open at the sight of Lucas in only his boxers. He's tiredly rubbing his eyes so he hadn't seen me yet. "Babe, when are you coming back to bed?" he asks, leaning against the staircase before opening his eyes and connecting with mine.

My gaze goes from Haley's guilty look to Lucas' shocked one. That lasts for a while, just me switching from staring from Haley to Lucas. "Braska-" Haley starts but I hold my hand up to her.

"Babe?" I repeat, crossing my arms. "Babe? You just called her babe, and I know you aren't referring to the pig! Someone better start talking right now."

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When I first started this story, I had a 5% chance of finishing it. I don't have the best reputation and starting something and finishing it. But for some reason, this story line just stuck to my head.

Not only that, but there's also a sequel to it!

That's just a pretty accomplishing feeling to it.

But tell me what you think about this chapter :)