Stalker

Chapter 1

"Kayla! Hurry up, please!" calls my friend, Skylar, as we walk down the narrow sidewalk by the park.

"Why, are you afraid that Stalker's coming for you?" I tease. I'm not sure why, but I'm not scared of Stalker like everyone else in this town. Even after they kidnapped my older brother.

"Yes, I am, and you should be too!" exclaims Skylar. For as long as I can remember, Skylar Morgan has always been that kind of person who is scared of literally everything. Dogs, spiders, ghosts, thunder, bugs, pinecones, you name it.

"Besides, it's almost curfew. Remember what happened last time we were home late?" says Skylar.

I have lived with the Morgan family since I was 13. They didn't even really adopt me, I just kind of live there. But even though I'm not really
Mrs. Morgan's child, I don't get out of consequences. Last time we were home late, Skylar and I had to clean the bathrooms for 3 weeks, which is pretty miserable since Skylar is super dramatic and a huge germaphobe.

"Fine, but only because I don't want to listen to you complain about toilets for the rest of the month," I say.

And with that, we head home.

******

The next morning, Skylar brings up something I really don't want to hear.

"Kayla, it's time to Change. It's been, like, two and a half weeks."

If there's one thing I hate, it's Changing. Changing is basically when you completely change how you look so it's harder for Stalker to keep track of you.

"No way," I respond. "I honestly like how I look right now."

"But you need to if you don't want to die!"

"Not happening."

Skylar and I continue this for a while, and the next thing you know, I'm at the hair salon.

"So, what would you like done?" asks the hair stylist. She looks like she's about 25, and has a short pink bob cut.

I stare at my hair in the mirror. As of right now, it reaches down almost to my bum in uncontrollable brown waves. I ask the stylist to cut it so it's about halfway down my back and to straighten it. I also ask her to temporarily dye it blue, just to freak Skylar out.

When I'm done, Skylar's jaw drops.

"What were you thinking?! You idiot! Now Stalker is going to know exactly who you are. They are going to track down the girl with the bright blue hair and kill her. Do you know what, I'm getting you a buzz cut, otherwise we are both going to die..." Skylar goes on like this forever until I cut her off.

"Relax, Sky! It's temporary, it comes out with water. Stop stressing so much."

I can tell that Skylar is more than slightly annoyed.

"Let's just go," she mumbles.

We both pull on our sunglasses (nobody's allowed to go anywhere without them, it makes your identity more obvious to Stalker) and start walking back to the house.

I notice that Skylar's hair is now a lighter blonde than usual, and it's up in a bun. I was so distracted that I almost didn't see the hooded figure staring right at us.

Not wanting to worry Skylar, I grab her hand and start running. I tell her that I'm "hungry" and "want to get home and eat" as an excuse to leave, praying she won't look behind us.

Unfortunately, she does exactly what I was hoping she wouldn't do. She turns around. In fact, she turns around just in time to see the hooded figure pull out a gun, shoot a man across the street, and drag him into an alley.