Here it was, Saturday morning. Not one single word from ‘Pete.’ The whole Facebook and text horror was but a distancing memory now. Kate felt normal, carefree, almost. She slept in until nine, and after browsing around on the internet for a while, took a long shower and threw on some old jeans and an old t-shirt of one of her favorite artists, a legend, John Lennon. Kate always had an internal debate whether he was better before or after The Beatles split up. Throwing on running shoes and pulling her hair back in a messy ponytail, Kate nearly skipped down the hall, and bounced down the stairs, her mood was so light. All of her homework had been caught up last night, so the weekend was free for her to do whatever she felt like.

Stopping in at the little coffee shop for a mocha to go, Kate headed towards Addams Park. She’d start out by taking a walk around the park, breathing in the sights and smells. She had brought her book along, ‘Endeavor,’ so her plan was to catch up on her reading after the walk.

Not only hadn’t she heard from ‘Pete,’ but she hadn’t heard from Amanda, either. Kate still felt bad, and regretted her actions from a few nights ago. But it had just made sense that Amanda might send her that text in anger. Kate decided to pull out her phone and give Amanda a call. After six rings, the voicemail picked up. Kate decided to leave a message.

“Hey, it’s me, Kate. I really am sorry about the other night. Just--well, call me back when you get this.”

Kate ended the call and continued on her walk through the park. It was picture perfect, almost like a scene out of a movie or something. Once again, Kate longed for Freckles to be here with her. Sighing, she came upon an empty bench that sat under a large oak tree. Sitting down, Kate pulled out her copy of ‘Endeavor’ and opened up to page 236, where her bookmark was.

Next to her, Kate heard her phone buzzing inside her purse. Digging through the purse and pulling out her phone, Kate mouth dropped open as she read the new text:

‘It’s such a beautiful day here at the park, isn’t it? I sincerely hope you hadn’t begun to think I’d forgotten about you. --Pete’

With a death grip on her phone, Kate slowly looked around the park with her eyes, trying her best not to move her head and give away what she was doing. She tried to tune out everything that wasn’t normal park activity, and look for something out of the ordinary. The only problem was, Kate was clueless as to what this ‘Pete’ looked like, or what his voice sounded like. Hell, someone --anyone-- could come sit next to her, or even just walk past her, and she’d never know if they were ‘Pete.’ Maybe she had already seen him, and just didn’t know it. Maybe he hung out at the coffee shop, or at the park, or was on campus somewhere? Hell, HE could be a SHE for all Kate knew.

Then, Kate had an idea. A bold idea. A terrifying idea.

‘Who are you? Where are you?’ she typed into her phone in a reply to his text, and hit ‘send.’ Even though his number was blocked, Kate prayed it still went through. Almost immediately her phone buzzed once, with a message saying ‘Failure to Send.’ Dang. Then her phone buzzed again, with a new text message.

‘I’m the only one that’s going to be sending anyone texts, sweetie. --Pete.’

Kate could practically picture him laughing at her now. What a fool she must be to think he’d allow her to contact him anytime she felt the whim. Everything was blocked from his end, and Kate was sure, for that exact reason. She had hoped the text went through, but deep down, she knew that it wouldn’t.

It was time to get out of the park. Shoving her book back into her purse and walked quickly in the direction of Mel’s. Her phone was in her left hand, and her right hand rested inside her purse as she walked, right on top of the can of Mace. ‘Pete’ is probably dying laughing, now,’ Kate thought miserably. She had thoroughly enjoyed his absence from her life, and now he was back, it seemed. Back with a vengeance.

****

At the bustling diner, Kate felt a little better, but was quite uneasy. This weirdo could be anywhere. Everywhere. How is that even possible? The waitress approached the small table Kate was seated at, and she asked for a tea, and just a salad. Kate was hungry, but she was also afraid that if she ate very much, she’d be racing for the little girl’s room to heave it all back up. Her nerves were almost completely shot, and her stomach was in knots.

A minute or two later, the waitress came back with Kate’s tea, sweet -no lemon-, and sat it down with a “Here you go sweetie.” Kate glanced at her and smiled, and there was concern wrote across the waitress’ face. Kate could just imagine what she looked like herself. Probably a mess. Hot, sweaty, worry and panic written all over her. She had practically ran into the diner, and was still catching her breath when the waitress had first appeared. She probably looked like a hot mess, for sure.

Kate decided to text Megan.

‘Hey. The creepy stalker guy I told you about has my cell number now.’

Almost instantly her phone buzzed.

‘Failure to Send’

What? Thinking maybe she wasn’t getting very good signal in the diner, Kate double checked the signal bars on her phone.

“Full signal.” Kate muttered to herself. Kate then tried dialing Megan’s number, and a recording came from the other end almost as soon as she hit ‘send.’

“Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please hang up and try again. Message 506.”

“Seriously?” Kate said, getting aggravated. She had just paid her phone bill a couple days ago, before it was even due. It was her habit to pay her bills early. Then she tried to call her parents. When she hit ‘send,’ there was a moment of silence, and then a buzzing, screeching type of noise, like a computer with dial-up internet trying to connect to the world wide web.

“You okay?” Kate jumped at the sound of the waitress’ voice. She was standing next to Kate’s table with Kate’s salad in her hands.

“Oh, uh--yeah. My phone is just being stupid. Thanks.” Kate replied. No need to get into detail. The waitress probably already thought Kate was a few cards shy of a full deck. Smiling, Kate said, “Thank you” as the waitress set her salad down in front of her.

Kate glanced over at her phone just as it started buzzing. A new text message.

“What the---” Kate started, and then stopped mid-sentence. A new text from ‘Pete.’

‘Don’t bother trying to call or text anyone. It’s no use. Sorry, maybe I should’ve told you that before. It’s just you and me now, kid. --Pete.’

Kate dropped her fork onto her plate and a loud clank-clank of metal on ceramic got the attention of a few diners sitting close by. Sheepishly, Kate picked up her fork and mouthed “Sorry” to them.

Her nightmare was starting all over again.

****