An Old Friend

Chapter 5

Ethan's POV

The hours leading up to the end of school go by agonizingly slow. It's like watching a graphic scene on TV with your parents. But alas, the end comes and I nearly bolt out of class. "Morgan!" I yell down the hall as I catch up to her. "Morgan! Can we hang out this weekend?" I catch my breath as she finally waits for me.

"Of course, we always hang out on weekends. What's up?" She gives me a slightly confused look as she fixes her bag strap.

"There's this hot dog place opening up downtown and I wanted to check it out with you," I smile.

"Sure, sounds cool," she shrugs.

"Sweet," I nod and we start walking.

"You see Hayden anywhere?" She starts looking around the hall as we get towards the doors to leave.

"Nope," I start glancing around as we exit the building. "Oh, there's Taylor. Taylor!"

Morgan stops me from waving wildly as Taylor stares at the sidewalk on their way over to us. "Hey guys," they smile slightly. "Hayden said she and Ash will come over after they deal with something. Didn't say what though."

"Okay," we all start walking back to Morgan's house.

"Morgan, I've watched some of those videos you put online. They're really cool," Taylor smiles as we walk.

"Thanks. I wish I could say the same about your art but I haven't seen it in years," Morgan returns the smile.

"I'll send you pictures later," they shrug and we all start talking about school until we get to Morgan's. Morgan goes in first as Taylor and I follow.

"Hey, kids! How was school?" Morgan's mom, Karen asks from the kitchen.

"Fine," Morgan answers. "Taylor and Ethan are here again. Hayden and Ash should be here soon too."

"Oh good. I made a new recipe for the diner and I was hoping you kids could try it first," she comes out of the kitchen with a plate of fresh cookies. "Try it."

We each take one with a quick thank her before taking bites. "Oh my god, girl. This is amazing," I tell her through a mouth of the delicious chocolate chip cookie.

"Thank you," she smiles in return.

"Yeah, Ms. C, these are delicious," Taylor nods.

"Thanks, Mom," Morgan adds. All of our mouths are filled with the cookie as Morgan's mom tells us to go have fun while she makes more for the diner tonight.

"Why do you think this guy is messing with us?" Taylor asks, sitting next to me on Morgan's bed while Morgan sits in her desk chair.

"I don't know but I've been going through footage of the past few months to see if anything's weird. Guess what I found."

"Something weird?" she rolls her eyes at me.

"Of course," she gets her laptop out and opens it on her desk. Taylor and I stand behind her as she goes through screenshots. "These are all from different pictures and videos through the past six months. It doesn't matter who I'm with or where we are this shadow... bitch is always there." Every picture has a circle around a dark figure somewhere in the background. Only the shape of them is seen and it looks like someone in a hoodie or something.

"Who is that?" I wonder as she goes through even more pictures.

"No idea. But they seem to be very interested in me."

"No offense, but why?" Taylor and Morgan both narrow their eyes at me. "I mean, why would some creep follow around a fifteen-year-old girl from Merksville?"

"Good question," Taylor nods.

"Dude, your mom just gave us the best cookies I have ever tasted," Hayden walks through the door with half a cookie in her hand and the other half in her mouth.

"Yeah, she said they're a new recipe for the diner," Morgan smiles before seeing the purple bruise on her left eye. "Wow, what happened there?"

"Relax, you should see the other guy," Ash smiles as he finishes his cookie and sits on the floor next to the bed, Hayden sits right across from Morgan on the bed with Taylor and me.

"What happened?" I ask.

"Nothing, just some idiot on the soccer team," Hayden shrugs. "What's going on there?" she points to the laptop.

"This creep is in almost every picture and video I have for the last six months," Morgan repeats. "Hood up every time so we don't know who it is."

"Why can't we go to the cops?" Ash asks in a confused tone.

"Because the dude that called you, killed Josh and said more people would die if we went to them," Hayden eats the rest of the cookie in her hand. "Sorry," she quickly looks at Morgan. She looks kind of scared, which I've never seen before.

"Don't be. That's what happened," Morgan shrugs. "But yeah, if we go to the police more people will die. One is too many in the first place."

"Morgan! There's an envelope for you!" she gets up with a confused look as we all peek out her doorway. "It was left on by the door but whoever left it's gone."

"It's blank?" Their voices are quiet but we can tell what they're saying

"It just says your name."

"Thanks," we move back to our spots as Morgan walks back to her room, closing the door behind her.

"What's happening?" I ask.

"Someone left this for me," she shrugs as she sits down, flipping the paper in her hands. The only thing on it is Morgan's name written in red ink.

"Are you gonna open it?" Ash shifts where he sits. Morgan grabs the pocket knife from her desk and opens the envelope carefully. She takes out a folded piece of paper and a small flashcard. We all go over to read it.

You're getting warmer!! You guys are smarter than I expected!

"What the hell?" Hayden mutters chocolate smudged on the side of her lips.

The little flashcard only has a dried smudge of red and two words in the same substance.

There's two

"What does that mean?" I scratch the back of my neck as we all sit back down.