Watched From Behind The Screen

7- Aftermaths

Mia sat on the edge of her bed, the weight of recent events pressing heavily on her chest. Mark’s arrest had left her shaken, but what haunted her the most was the question: why? What had driven someone she thought she knew so well to torment her like that?

Detective Grant’s words echoed in her mind: “There’s always a reason. People like Mark don’t just do this for no cause.”

It wasn’t long before Mia learned the truth. In a conversation with his sister, she uncovered a hidden part of Mark’s past—an unresolved trauma from childhood. Years ago, Mark had been involved in a near-fatal accident that left him mentally scarred, developing a fractured identity. His Dissociative Identity Disorder had gone unnoticed for years. One part of him, the Mark Mia had known, was kind and caring. But another identity, one he had buried deep inside, was vengeful and obsessed, feeling abandoned and rejected by everyone close to him, including Mia.

Mia struggled to process this. It explained the shift in his behavior and why the messages felt so personal. But it didn’t make the pain easier to bear. She couldn’t shake the image of the man who had been a friend, now revealed as a stranger in the worst way possible.

With Sarah and Jake by her side, Mia took the first steps toward healing, though the wounds ran deep. She deleted her old social media accounts, severing ties with the life she had once lived so openly online. As much as she wanted to leave the past behind, the events had changed her—made her stronger, but also more guarded.

But the haunting feeling didn’t go away entirely.

Every now and then, when she opened her inbox, she couldn’t help but feel like someone was still watching. She shook off the thought, but the unease remained, lingering just out of reach.