The Stalker

Chapter 1

Copyright: All Rights Reserved 

You've been warned o.O  

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I can't believe we have to move again; I mean, seriously? We haven't stayed in one area for even close to a year since I was seven, and now I'm nineteen. My situation, well, we're moving for the second time this year. It's pretty ridiculous, and I feel bad that I keep doing this to my family. I mean, I know it's not technically my fault, yet I still feel like all of it is...

At the moment we're packing up to leave our current home in California; the reason being that my stalker, Dexter, has found me again. The story behind that is pretty long and complicated, though. Let's just say that he's simply a very dangerous guy who needs some serious mental help.

Too immersed in my thoughts, I jumped as my mom shouted my name from another room. As I looked down, I noticed the box that I was supposed to be packing was barely half full. Oh well, I thought. I walked out of my room, heading towards the kitchen where I could hear the clinking of glass. She was by the counter wrapping our plates and such in some newspaper so they wouldn't break during the road trip.

I tried being really quiet so I could sneak up on her, but of course she knew I was there with her weird mommy senses...you know, like spidey senses?

"Are you sure you're okay with going to another new school? And starting mid-semester... are you sure you don't want to do online shcool?"

"Mom, I'm sure. It's fine. I've been to enough different schools in a few different states. Of course I'm okay with it, especially with the circumstances..." I shrugged, trying to play it off like it didn't matter. I don't know why I try since she always sees through the facade. Of course I wasn't okay with making my family move again because of him, but what other choice did I have? She came to give me a hug that I welcomed greatly.

She sighed. "We'll figure it out baby girl."

"I hope so. I don't know how many more times I can do this," I tell her, trying to think of something that could fix this problem, yet coming up with nothing acceptable. I stepped out of her embrace and waited for her response.

"I know," she looked like she was at a loss of what to say. "Why don't you go tell your brother to finish packing, and then help load the U-Haul."

I nodded my okay, and headed back towards the bedrooms so I could do just that. There wasn't much else I needed to pack other than my clothes, so I stopped by Chase's room first. For the first time ever, his bedroom was actually sort of clean; now the problem was all the randomly placed boxes instead of clothes and...other things. He was by his bed taping up his last box, only sparing me a glance as I walked in. I knew all of this was hard on him, even if he wouldn't admit it to anyone.

"Hey." I was hoping I could get him to talk to me. We used to be really close, but lately he's been pretty distant. Well, 'lately' being since he found out He was onto my whereabouts once again.

"Hi," he mumbled.

"Look, I'm sorry," I said as I walked into his room, "I'm sorry, this is all my fault, and I'm sorry that you have to leave your life behind again."

He turned towards me with a fierce look on his face. "You've said you were sorry every single time, and I'm sick of hearing it. If you were really sorry, you wouldn't still be here." I stood there, speechless. Out of my nineteen years, my brother has never said anything like that to me before.

I quickly averted my now watering eyes to the floor; the guilt was almost choking me. I wrapped my arms around my torso, hoping the stupid tears wouldn't fall. It took a few minutes of awkward, tense silence for him to calm down. Then he sighed as he closed the distance between us, and I was once again embraced in a tight hug. I'd always loved my brother's hugs; they made me feel protected, like nothing could ever hurt me...not again at least.

"I'm sorry for saying that, but all of this and the fact that I can't do anything about it...it's killing me. I'm the big brother, I'm supposed to protect you."

There was nothing for me to say, so I just nodded. Trying to bring on a happier note, I stepped back and wiped my face. "Well, at least it means we get to explore a new place and meet new people." It was said with fake enthusiasm, but I really was excited to explore a new place and gain some new friends.

Chase rolled his eyes at me. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." He stated in a nonchalant manner, yet I knew he'd be scoping out all the 'hot babes' around the area.

"Mom said to finish packing and then help me out with loading the boxes into the truck." I said as he took a black sharpie out of his pocket to write his name on the box before lugging it outside to the truck. Meanwhile, I left his room to go finish my packing.

A couple of hours later, the house was empty, and we were ready to set off on our road trip of 22 hours to Indiana. Of course we all knew that it would be even longer since we had to stop for gas, bathroom breaks, food stops, and even more bathroom breaks for Mom. When we had finally arrived at the new house, it was around seven at night. It was still light out, but we knew it would only last a little while longer.

It was obvious we were all exhausted and wanted to sleep, but we needed to move some stuff into the house. You know, like toiletries, pajamas, blankets, pillows, and our mattresses so we didn't have to sleep on the hardwood floor. We ended up using the next hour to bring that stuff in. We set our mattresses on the floor of the living room, deciding that it would be an okay place to sleep for the night, before getting ready for bed. I plopped down on mine, instantly falling asleep with a sigh of content, knowing that tomorrow would be another very busy day for us...