Page 20 of Merciless Prince
Someone had been in my room.Again.And this time, it wasn’t a stupid ‘lipstick on the mirror’ prank. This was a serious threat.
Before I could think about what to do next, my phone rang. My eyes darted over to the screen.Private number.
I let the call ring out. I was too afraid to answer.
The phone rang again, and I finally swallowed my fear and jammed a finger onto the green answer button. “What the fuck do you want?” I screeched, already certain that the unknown caller and the person who sent me the video were one and the same.
There was a short beeping sound. Then some bright white text appeared on the screen, informing me that the caller wanted to start a video chat.
With a shaky hand, I clicked ‘accept’, hoping it would reveal some of my new classmates on the other end. Perhaps this was their idea of a joke. It wasn’t funny, though, and I sure as hell planned on letting them know that.
“Who is this?” I said, eyes narrowed on the screen.
An image appeared, but it wasn’t a person. It was a building, shot from a distance. A bright crescent moon lit the sky above it, and wispy gray clouds hung around it like smoke. Maple trees lined the parking lot that ran along the front and side.
It was Rosewood Hall.
The person on the other end of the video call took a few steps toward the building. My dorm’s front window was in the shot, two floors up.
“This isn’t funny,” I said, voice quavering. I shot one arm out and switched on my bedside lamp. On my screen, I saw my dorm light up at the same time. That meant the picture on my screen wasn’t a recording from earlier designed to freak me out. It was definitely a live video chat.
I hurriedly switched the lamp off, afraid that it would make it even easier for the creep on the other end of the line to see inside.
The call suddenly ended, and my screen went black.
On shaky legs, I got up and walked over to my front window. I lifted a hand to the curtains and slowly opened them so I could peek out onto the moonlit expanse of grass that lay beyond the parking lot.
There was no one there.
I blinked and shifted my gaze. My spine was shot through with a sudden icy shiver as I caught sight of a dark figure standing on the path just beyond the grass. Their hooded head was tilted upward. I couldn’t see who it was, but I knew they were staring right at my window.
I dropped the curtain and grabbed a chair to slide under the door handle in order to block anyone from coming in again. Then I sank down to the floor next to it and rested my back against the wall, heart pounding like mad.
I desperately wanted to run outside and find a security guard to help me, but I was too scared to go while it was still dark. I had no idea what this unhinged stalker wanted from me or why they were terrorizing me, and I didn’t want to find out. I just wanted to be safe.
I sat with my back against the wall until the morning’s first light appeared in a crack under my door. When the sun had risen enough to light the whole landscape, I took my phone, left my dorm, and dashed over to the nearest security guard hut.
I was so tired that I could barely speak, but I managed to tell my harrowing story to one of the guards. He offered me a cup of tea and gave me a blanket to wrap around my quivering shoulders, and then he asked me to show him the email with the video.
It was gone.
I stared down at my phone, unable to believe my eyes. “I… I don’t know what’s going on,” I said, looking back up at the security guard. “It was right here.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” My cheeks flushed with heat as I fumbled for an explanation. “It must’ve been one of those self-destructing emails. People send them so that the receiver can only read it once before it vanishes.”
“Uh-huh. I’ve heard of those,” the guard said with a nod. He still seemed sympathetic to my situation, which made me breathe a sigh of relief. “Stay right here while I fill out an incident report and get in contact with a few people. We’re going to get to the bottom of this.”
He left me huddled on the seat. At some point I must’ve fallen asleep again, because the next thing I knew, another person was waking me with a light tap on the shoulder. “Shay Sinclair?”
I rubbed my eyes and sat up straight. “Yes, that’s me.”
“I’m Scott Blackwell,” said the short redheaded man standing in front of me. “I’m the dean of the film and performing arts department.” He gestured to the security guard behind him. “Tom told me what happened to you last night. Would you like to accompany me to my office so I can hear about it in your own words?”
“Sure,” I mumbled, smothering a heavy yawn. I felt like a zombie.
I followed the dean down a long cobblestone path until we reached one of the admin buildings. He ushered me through a hallway and into a spacious office at the end.
