Page 28 of Hunting Pretty

The proof of his existence was lying right there at my fingertips.

With a shuddering breath, I picked up the image with my tongs and slid it into the stop bath, then the fixer bath before washing it.

I could take this to Dr. Vale. To Ebony. To the police… they couldn’t say I was crazy now.

I hung the print up to dry.

The blood rushed in my ears as I stared into his eyes, his printed face just above my eyeline like he was actually standing before me. My mouth went dry as I traced his dark features with my gaze.

He feltsofamiliar.

But how? And why?

He was a few years older than me I guessed. Perhaps he went to Darkmoor.

But surely, I would have noticed him if I’d walked past him in the hallway or spotted him lounging in the back of a lecture hall.

His intensity seemed to burn through the photo paper.

No, he wasn’t a Darkmoor student. He didn’t have that preppy entitled rich kid vibe. He felt too dangerous, too coiled with raw deadly power.

He got his hands bloody and he liked it.

Darkmoor kids hired people like him to do their dirty work.

So… maybe someone at Darkmoor hired him to spy on me?

Cormac?

I was so transfixed that I almost didn’t hear the door to the office opening outside the darkroom with a creak.

I froze. I’d locked that door.

IknowI’d locked it. I double-checked it before I slipped into the darkroom.

It wasn’t Lisa. She was having dinner with her family. Which meant it was someone who wasn’t supposed to be here.

Someone who had broken in.

Someone looking for me.

Or for the evidence I had taken of his existence.

It was my stalker.

AVA

Iwas trapped, alone in the campus darkroom after hours. My stalker was here. And he was coming closer.

Fear made me frantic as I heard heavy footsteps approaching the door of the darkroom. I lunged for whatever weapon I could find.

My fingers closed around one of the cold metal developing trays.

I crept to the door and held it over my head, ready to strike.

The door handle turned.

He was either here to destroy the photo I’d taken of him or to destroy me. Either way, I could not let him. Would not let him get away with it.

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