Alexis stood in her bedroom. The only light she had to see by was from the dim screen of her laptop. Her body tensed up as she slowly looked around and listened for any unusual noises. She had just done her nightly check of all the locks in the house. Every door and window leading to the outdoors was securely locked. As a single woman, even one living in a fairly safe part of town, she knew there was no such thing as being overly cautious. Despite Nicholas living with her now, she still felt a sense of comfort after making sure everything was locked.

A cold draft from the small air conditioning vent blew over her, causing her to shiver. She quickly jumped into her bed and crawled under her sheets. She refused to turn on her bedroom light because that would be admitting defeat to the nameless person that was tormenting her. She didn't want to be afraid in her own home. No one should have that sort of power over her.

She was in her bed trying to fall asleep when the door to her bedroom slowly opened, revealing a stream of light onto her face. "What the hell?"

"Are you asleep, Alexis?" Nicholas asked.

"Well I'm definitely not now," she muttered.

"Sorry. I just wanted to check on you."

"Just turn on the light, Nicholas. I can't sleep anyway."

He flipped the switch, causing the room to be flooded in light. "Stop trying to be braver than you are and admit you're scared shitless right now."

Alexis frowned. "Did you seriously come here just to tell me that?"

"I know you. You try to act tough and independent but you're not fooling me. This is exactly like the time when mom and dad died."

Alexis didn't respond so he continued, "You tried to act like you were okay but I saw you, Alexis. Crying in the kitchen...I saw you."

"So what? Our parents just died. Of course, I'm going to cry! Is there something wrong with that?"

"Chill, sister. No need to be so defensive. There's nothing wrong with it. I'm just saying that in front of me you were trying to be this brave and strong person...but you didn't need to be."

Alexis hadn't realized her eyes were watering. She stifled back a sob and wiped her eyes. "You're younger than me. I didn't want you to be more scared than you already were. It was just you and me. We're all we have left in this family."

Nicholas chuckled. "Alexis, I was twenty-one. Stop acting like I'm a kid. If you're scared then tell me. I can help you just like you would help me if our roles were reversed."

"And how can you help me? Somebody was watching me but I have no idea how. Hell, for all I know they could be watching me right now!" The thought sent a ripple of fear through her body and she hid her face in her hands.

"Well, you can talk to me. Also, there's this." He had been holding a red gift bag and he placed it in front of her. "Ta daaaa! Your baby brother is bearing gifts."

Alexis sniffled and wiped her eyes again. She looked at the red bag and back to Nicholas. "What is it?"

"Open it and see," he urged.

She opened the bag and sighed. "You're an idiot, Nicholas. I still love you but you're a nut." She pulled out a DVD of The Karate Kid.

He started laughing. "What? Everything you need to know about fighting is in that film Alexis!"

Also in the bag were a pair of brass knuckles, some pepper spray, and a taser.

Alexis was shocked. "Where did you get all this? Is it even legal to have?"

Nicholas shrugged. "I know some people."

"Bad people."

"Hey, they're not bad. Their behaviors are bad. Isn't that what all you psychologists say?"

Alexis rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Nicholas." Despite the fact that she wouldn't carry around so many weapons in her purse, he had once again cheered her up.

"You're my sister. Of course, I'm going to help you out."

Alexis gave a weak smile as she put everything back into the bag.

"Alexis, the police will catch this guy."

She nodded. "As long as that Winters cop isn't in charge of things, I'm sure they will. God, did you see the way he looked at me, Nicholas? Like I was pond scum? He practically accused me of lying. Why would I make any of this up?"

"He's an ass. Just forget about him. Besides, his partner seemed like she knew what she was doing and she was pretty cute."

"Will you stop? I'm trying to be serious here, Nicholas."

"So am I! She was cute. Maybe I'll ask her for her number."

"That's my brother folks...the perpetual horndog."

"Don't you mean corn dog?" He wriggled his eyebrows.

Alexis laughed and shoved him playfully with her elbow. "No! Are you sure you graduated college?"

Nicholas ruffled her hair. "See? You're not scared anymore are you?"

She shook her head. "No. Thank you, Nicholas. If you want, I can set you up with one of my friends."

"No way!"

"What? Why wouldn't you want to date one of my friends?"

"I can only imagine how horrible it would be. My sister, the love doctor, giving advice to her friend who happens to be my girlfriend? Hell no! That wouldn't work."

"Fine. I won't set you up. Try and get a girlfriend all on your own."

Nicholas scratched his chin. "How did we start talking about my love life?"

"I'm not sure but you should go to bed. I'll be fine. I have to see clients tomorrow morning so I need to rest."

"More wackadoos coming to the house," Nicholas muttered as he got up and left Alexis to herself. She felt better knowing her brother was there for her. She wasn't sure if she could handle this alone. She said a prayer that Officer Diaz would discover who was sending her e-mails and texts.

"Alexis, I'm meeting a friend. We're gonna grab some lunch at Jalisco's. You wanna come with us?"

Alexis was busy looking through some files in her study. "No, I have to see a couple, remember? They'll be here any minute so make yourself scarce. Eat an enchilada for me."

Nicholas smiled. "I'll eat a whole plate of them for you!"

"Just don't come crying to me when you have bubble guts!"

Nicholas scrunched his face in mock horror. "Do your clients know how nasty you are sometimes?"

"Do your girlfriends know how nasty you are?"

He winked. "If they're lucky."

She laughed and threw a stress ball at him. "Get out of here!"

He quickly left before she threw something else at him. Ten minutes later the doorbell rang. Alexis opened the door to see one of her more entertaining couples, Lilah and Chad Samuels. Chad was a total conspiracy theorist which drove Lilah nuts. When they had first started dating, she thought it was a small quirk but his theories began to evolve and escalate over the years. What she once thought was adorable was now annoying.

"Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Samuels. Follow me," Alexis said before leading them to her study.

Chad Samuels was looking around the office. "There aren't any secret listening devices in here are there?"

His wife Lilah rolled her eyes.

"No, there aren't any secret listening devices in here." Alexis smiled at him.

It was a long session for Alexis. She tried to help Lilah and Chad come up with a compromise of having a set time to discuss his many theories with Lilah. In turn, Lilah suggested Chad spend time with her exercising using an online website.

"No! I hate that idea, Lilah. It's just another way for the government to spy on us." Chad crossed his arms as he sat on the leather couch in Alexis' office. "They'll track how often we exercise so they know who to target when they want to start killing people."

"If you expect me to listen to you rant about how the president is really an alien...then you should do a simple workout with me," Lilah demanded.

"Lilah, I'm serious. Nowadays people can easily spy on you through your laptop and your cellphone. Don't you watch Dateline?"

"Is that show still even on?" Lilah asked.

Normally, Alexis would've stopped Chad from going on about one of his conspiracy theories but this was interesting to her. "What do you mean, Chad? How is that possible?"

Seeing that he had a willing ear, Chad leaned forward and smiled. "You believe me, don't you? Well, it's easy. It takes less than five minutes for anyone to hack into your system."

"How do they do that?" Alexis asked before she could stop herself.

"Dr. Reyna!" Lilah growled. Alexis was practically egging him on to continue.

"That's easy. They do it through your e-mail," Chad answered.

"E-mail?"

He nodded. "Yes. A complex bit of code is delivered to you via a simple e-mail. You open up their Trojan horse and bam! They're spying on you. I heard of a case where a man was spying on several hundred women. He even started blackmailing some of them. You can google that. It's true."

"Because Google never lies," Lilah said drolly.

"Blackmailing them?" Alexias asked.

"Yeah. I mean we do all sorts of things in front of an open laptop. Shoot, I bet most people carry around their phones with them everywhere they go. I bet you'd think twice if you knew someone was looking at you from the camera of it."

Alexis didn't realize she was leaning forward in her chair, she was so fascinated with what Chad Samuels was telling her.

"How would you know if someone sent you an infected e-mail?"

"You don't. Not unless they try to blackmail you or you get your computer checked out." Chad held up his smartphone. Alexis noticed that the front and back camera on his phone were covered with black electrical tape. "You see that? Right now my phone is off because I don't want them to listen in. When I turn my phone back on, they might be able to hear me but they won't be able to see me. Why? Because I have the tape on my phone."

Lilah sighed. "He did the same thing to our laptops at home. I have to remove the tape anytime I want to video chat with someone."

Alexis made a thoughtful humming sound as she took in Chad's information. "So, any kind of e-mail can carry this...Trojan horse?"

"It's usually with some sort of attachment. Have you opened any e-mails with attachments?"

Alexis thought back and couldn't remember downloading any odd attachments. She saw Lilah who was looking at her watch and remembered she needed to remain professional. This wasn't the time to be exploring possible stalkers. She navigated the conversation away from Chad's theory of people watching him through his phone's camera and eventually ended the session. As soon as they were gone, she ran upstairs to her laptop.

She stared at it as it sat open. It was always open.

"This has to be it. There's no other explanation." Alexis sat down in front of it and began combing through her personal e-mails. All of them were from people she knew and trusted. Then it hit her.

The advice column e-mails.

She had only received one e-mail. "Stupid Alexis. How could you forget?"

She was talking to herself as she scrolled to the e-mail that was an e-card. She had to download the attachment to see it and for it to play the music. She placed a small post-it in front of the computer's webcam. She then dialed the police and asked to speak with Officer Diaz.

"Yes, Dr. Reyna. I'll be sure to note that in our file. You're going to have it checked out? That's a good idea. Be sure to let me know what they find, ma'am."

Officer Diaz looked at her partner Dean Winters who was smirking at her.

"What?" she asked him in a defensive tone.

"Why didn't you just tell her that you know she's full of it?"

"Will you stop being an ass for once and do your job? What if someone is really stalking her? There are a lot of ways for someone to get a phone in another person's name. It's not totally unheard of you know."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

Officer Diaz didn't understand why her partner was giving Dr. Reyna such a hard time. He wasn't always such a jerk...well not to the extent that he was to Alexis Reyna.

"And unless you want another complaint from her, maybe you should just keep your personal feelings to yourself."

"Personal feelings?" Dean repeated.

"Did I stutter? I've worked with you for a few years and although you always have a bad attitude it's not usually this bad. The only thing I can figure is that you have a personal reason for not liking her."

Officer Winters laughed. He genuinely liked his partner Shelby Diaz. She was blunt and didn't beat around the bush. She was also a good officer. "Will you stop treating me like a case? Fine! I promise not to get upset over the fact that Dr. Reyna is probably leading us on a wild goose chase."

"I don't know. She seems to have a lot of strange things happening to her."

Winters sighed, "Let's just focus on something else right now. We have tons of other cases to deal with besides Dr. Reyna's."

Officer Diaz looked at her partner with an inquisitive expression. There was something personal about his dislike for Dr. Reyna and she was going to find out why.

"So we're going to Best Buy...because why exactly?" Nicholas asked Alexis.

"Because I think someone sent me a virus and I want their Geek squad to look at it."

Nicholas and Alexis dropped the laptop off and Nicholas told Alexis he still wanted to look around the store. While Nicholas went to look for some headphones, she found herself in the camcorder section. She saw herself on the big television screens as she stood in front of the camcorder that the store televisions were connected to. The more she thought of someone watching her, the more disturbed she became. What else had she done in front of her camera? She changed clothes, walked around in her underwear, burped, and probably a few other million things she wouldn't want anyone else to see her doing.

"Is there anything I can help you find?" one of the workers asked.

"No thanks. I was just looking."

Her phone began to ring. It was an anonymous number. Alexis didn't usually pick up anonymous numbers but today she did.

"Hello?"

She heard static on the other end...and heavy breathing.

"Hello, who is this?" she asked. When no one responded, she said, "If you don't tell me who you are, I'm going to hang up."

"You covered my window but I'll still be watching." The voice was deep and unrecognizable. It sounded almost like the person was trying to disguise their voice.

"Who the hell are you?"

"If you go to the cops again, I won't just be watching anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"You heard me."

"Hello? Hello?" Alexis looked at her phone. The call had been disconnected.

"Ma'am, are you okay?"

Still in shock, Alexis looked up. "I'm fine. Thanks."

The worker gave her an odd look and walked away.

Her phone dinged with a message. Alexis looked at the phone number. It was from the same number she had received texts from the day before. It was a picture of her friend Ivy in a coffee shop. It was taken from a distance and she was sitting alone and smiling into her mug of coffee.

"What the hell?" Alexis whispered.

Another ding from her phone notified her of a second message. She read it and her knees almost buckled.

"Stay away from the cops. You wouldn't want another dead friend, would you?"

Alexis gasped, fear penetrating every fiber of her being. She looked up and could see her face again in the large TVs connected to the camcorder she was standing in front of. The look of horror was shocking and Alexis couldn't help but see the irony. This is exactly what her stalker wanted--her fear on display.