Fatal Infatuation [18+]

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I walked over to the lockers and opened mine, pulling out my jacket and my bag. Underneath my jacket was... A teddy bear?

"What is this?" I murmured, picking it up and examining it. It was a standard brown teddy bear, with a black nose and shiny black eyes, and a red ribbon was wrapped around its neck in a cute bow. I noticed that there was a note stuck to the bottom of its foot, and I plucked it off. I set the teddy bear down and looked at the white paper, It read 'I'm sorry :-)' 

I read the words over and over again, processing them in my mind. 'Is this from Micah?' I pondered in my head, my eyebrows furrowing. I looked over at Mateo who walked in and began taking his things out of his locker that was coincidentally right next to mine. 

He whipped his head in my direction, taking the note from my hands. "What is this? You got a secret admirer?" 

I glared up at him and snatched the note back, placing both the note and the bear in my bag hastily. "As if." 

"What's your problem?" He mused, placing his hand on his hip as he stared down at me. 

"I don't understand you," I huffed, "You hate me. You make fun of me all the time, you argued with me at the bar, you threatened me, and then you took me to the walk-in and- I don't even know how to label our little interaction!" I rambled, my shoulders slumping. 

"I'm a complicated man." He shrugged, pulling his jacket out of his locker. 

"Whatever." I grumbled, walking out of the door. On my walk out of the cafe, I was nearly trembling with rage. To say I hate Mateo is an understatement. I absolutely despise him, and I despise how confusing he is. He likes to mess with my head, that much is clear. And he accomplished just that, because I couldn't put him from my mind no matter how hard I tried.

I walked home, the light from the lamp-posts shining down on me. The streets were empty and quiet, aside from the occasional cars that drove by. After the day I had, all I wanted was to go home and sleep it off. My boots clacked against the pavement as I walked and walked, and I finally made it to the front of my apartment building. I lazily slid my keycard over the sensors on the door and listened to the faint 'beep' noise it made as it opened, and I stumbled in, delirious from exhaustion. 

I stood in the elevator, listening to the generic music, and I was soon inside my apartment. I couldn't bother to take my clothes off, so I jumped into my bed in my uniform and lazily slid my boots off. I felt myself drift to sleep, when I was awakened by my phone buzzing. I huffed in annoyance and looked at my phone. It was a text message from the same unknown number as yesterday. 

'You looked very pretty today.' The message read, and I rolled my eyes and ignored it, turning my phone off. 

It buzzed again, 'Don't ignore me, that hurts my feelings :-(' 

I haphazardly texted back, my thumbs slow as they pressed on the keyboard. 'Leave me alone, I'm tired.' 

'Who was that at your job? The boy with the stupid hair.' 

My eyebrows furrowed as I read the message, and I texted back, 'Mateo? Who are you? Do you work with me?' 

The person read the message, as indicated by the 'read' label under it, but didn't reply. I watched my phone screen for a few more minutes, before finally deciding that it was futile and going back to sleep. 

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(Third person POV)

Roman yawned, stretching his limbs, his actions making his rolling chair push further away from the desk. "Mateo, huh?"

In front of him were multiple screens, displaying images of Evelyn from multiple different angles from different corners in her house. He watched her living room, her kitchen, and her bedroom. He chose not to put a camera in her bathroom for obvious reasons. The most notable camera was the one inside the teddy bear's eye, the one he used to watch Evelyn's sleeping face as she cuddled the small fuzzy toy to her chest. 

He knew that upon seeing the present, her mind would immediately wander to Micah. He also knew that she had gone in for questioning at the police precinct, because it was displayed on the local news. That was what he hated about living in a small town, everyone knew each other. He didn't know, however, that Micah was so well-liked. The day he was officially declared missing, his face was plastered on buildings, lamp-posts, walls, everywhere. Websites, news stories, videos, and social media posts were made in his name. To them, he was a beloved student of the law, a philanthropist, the perfect son with the picture perfect, wealthy family. To her, he was a threat. And Roman knew he had to eliminate all threats.