The next morning, Kate awoke to rain beating down against her windows. Sleep still fogging her eyes and brain, she looked over at her alarm clock on the end table. 5:23am. Over half an hour before she was ‘supposed’ to get up. She laid in bed, trying to remember the dream she had just been having. She had been in the woods somewhere, in her nightgown of all things, and barefoot. She didn’t have a feeling of being chased, or being scared. It was almost as if she was just going for a walk in the middle of the night, in strange woods, dressed in her unmentionables. Crazy the way a person’s mind works sometimes. In the dream, she had been standing around, looking up at the trees, and at the moonlight pouring down through the dark, dew-covered branches. Maybe the rain beating on her windows reminded her subconscious mind of late night, dew-covered woods. Hmm.

Deciding it was better to just get up and get an early start on the day than to try and get more sleep, causing her to be more tired, and probably late, Kate started the shower. Feeling the hot water beat against her skin and the steam surrounding her, Kate took a deep breath in. Today would be a good day. Kate was determined, with or without the rain.

A little over an hour later, Kate was ready to leave, and saw the rain had let up quite a bit. Pleased, she grabbed a jacket and the rest of her things and headed down to catch the shuttle bus to the campus. Kate was extra early to her first class, so she began to reread over the homework that was supposed to be due yesterday. Soon enough, the other students started filing in, their jackets wet from the downpour outside.

By lunchtime, the rain had given up altogether, and the sun was timidly peaking out from behind the clouds. After she had eaten, Kate organized her notes for her final three classes of the day. ‘This is how college life is supposed to be. Repetitive, organized, normal. Not paranoid days filled with crazed online stalkers making you look over your shoulder and have you considering buying out Wal-Mart’s entire stock of Mace.’ Kate thought to herself. Kate had been right, it was a good day.

That night, Kate was reading her chapters and ‘Pete’ was all but becoming a distant memory. Kate had decided that he had either grown tired, or just gave up, of ‘stalking’ her. Maybe he had found a new victim, maybe (hopefully) not. Kate couldn’t imagine another person going through the mental torture she had the past several days. With a yawn and a stretch, Kate looked at the clock on her phone. 9:26pm. “Might as well hit the sack.” Kate said, shoving her books and papers into her school bag and plugging her phone into the charger that laid like a thin dead snake across her desktop.

****