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7:20 pm

7:20 pm, September 9th, present year.

     There was nothing to do. The rest of my family was in bed; Daniels wouldn’t call back for a bit, maybe not even until tomorrow morning. The television was uninteresting, I had no computer, and I didn’t feel like playing any video games.

            Maybe I would just read. That sounded good. Not a book, but a magazine or newspaper, something simple, yet still distracting enough.

            I searched our coffee table for anything Dad may have left behind. There was a Readers Digest on the top, and I scooped it up. I always loved the puzzles in the back. I turned to them, and was pleased to find that the word search hadn’t been touch. Even better, this was the type where after you discover all the words, the remainder letters spelt a 10 letter word. I loved those.

            I found a pen and got comfortable. The category was animals. This would be easy. Panda, rat, giraffe, elephant, and lizard all fell to my pen. Hippo, dog, platypus, and coyote were soon to follow. Pretty soon there were only two left, eel and octopus. My eyes searched, and soon ‘eel’ was circled. One left. Fluttering over the letters, I saw, O-C-T-O-P-U…and S! Done! Now to see what was spelled out with the leftover letters.

            I jotted down the letters in the upper hand corner of the magazine. H-E-L-L-O…hello? It was supposed to be another animal! I kept going. C-H-A-S-E…Chase? What?

It spelt, “Hello Chase”.

            I dropped the magazine and pen on the floor while jerking backwards. I swiveled my head around looking for something, anything! What? Where was he? Was he even in here? I curled up on the couch, waiting, looking.

            I realized my current position was pretty useless incase anything happened, so I picked up the Readers Digest again. Nothing looked suspicious. I checked the date on the front. September 3rd. Last week’s issue. That made sense, Dad always kept the old issue until the new one arrived. So how did the word change from an animal to “hello chase”? I felt the page again. It seemed thick. I ran my finger along the edge, and at the corner, I was able to separate one page from another.

            Somebody had glued a different page on top of the original puzzle.

            I tried to pry the top page off, but it ripped, and the bottom page was ruined. What was the real answer?

            Wait. The answers. On page 84. I quickly flipped to that page and found the answer for the word search.

            Rhinoceros.

            That was the real 10 letter word.

            How had Unknown gotten my family this particular copy?

            I stared at the clock on our wall. The seconds ticked down, and bingo, it was 7:30. 19 hours and 45 minutes until the deadline.

            Why was he constantly sending me these little signs? He called me three times, sent me text messages, left a note on my bed, and now this? He seemed, and I hated to say it, but he seemed obsessed with me. Like I was an ant in his ant farm, and if the ant didn’t obey his every will, he would go crazy. Although I was pretty sure he had already crossed the insane line.

            I already knew he was infatuated with power and control, but it seemed like it was also with me. Or maybe he was just overcome with the thrill of the chase…literally, the chase of chasing Chase Mitchels.

            I only wish I knew more about Unknown. I didn’t even have a proper name for him. But I couldn’t ask him for anything, not even his name. He might freak out and do something…But what would he do if I decided to stand up to him? Would he totally flip? Would he decide to kill me right then? Was it even worth a try? Maybe it was. Maybe he would do the opposite of what I thought he would do. He may just crumble and realize that I wasn’t the right person to stalk. Maybe I would try standing up, stop giving in to everything he said. 

            But would I have the courage?