LIA'S STALKER

Delivery for Lia, from Xoxoxo

After what felt like hundreds of hours Lia heard the members of her house beginning to stir. She was frozen. She’d spent hours hugging her knees to her chest, shivering and shaking in both the cold and terror.

Someone was stalking her. Some was fucking stalking her. “It’s not bloody fair. Why the fuck is this happening to me?” Lia was wracking her brains, and had been for hours- who’s life had she ruined?

She was nice to everyone, she really was. She was nice to students, respectful to teachers and kind to animals. She would never hurt anyone. Ever. So why was someone determined to ruin her life?

Someone knocked on the door and Lia flinched and shrieked, so tightly wound that she was certain it was X. “Lia?” called out the deep voice of her father. Lia let out a sigh of relief. “Lia, what’s wrong?” asked her dad, louder. Lia scrambled inside her mind for an excuse.

“You… startled me.” She called back, lamely. There was a long pause before her dad said,

“Well, can you hurry sweetie? I’ve got that meeting up in the city and I’d like to shower before leaving.”

Lia quickly flushed the toilet, although there was nothing in it, and washed her hands, before opening the door. Her dad looked nothing like her. He was 6 foot 2 with bright blue eyes and sand-colored hair.

“Morning Lia.” He smiled,

“Morning dad.” She smiled back. She walked past him and approached her room, slowly, all thoughts of the ‘competition’ she had lied to her mum about, forgotten. All that she could think about was X.

“Maybe X just… left. Went home.” She muttered to herself. If X had a home. Had X been living in her house? In her large garden? Lia shuddered, again, before slowly opening the door. Her heart sank as she took in the white folded piece of paper on her bed.

Slowly, apprehensively, she sat on the bed and opened the letter.

Dear Lia,

Bet you thought you were real clever hiding in the bathroom all night. Try that again and I’ll pay Millie a visit.

X

Lia let out a choked sound, dropping the letter. Her hands were trembling. She needed to tell someone, anyone. But how could she make sure that X wasn’t watching? She needed to find out who X was. Desperately.

She slipped the note in with the others, at the bottom of her waste-paper basket, and grabbed a sheet of lined paper. She had to accept it- it wasn’t a prank. Someone was stalking her.

Suspects: she wrote at the top.

1.     A teacher because who ever X is, they have access to my locker and they saw me in the library

2.     Most likely a grown up- because it seems unlikely a kid would be doing something like this.

Lia paused, staring at her small list of no names, just two dot points. She had nothing. She had no idea who X was. And that thought terrified her more then anything else.

“Lia sweetie- breakfast!” called her mum. Lia balled up the piece of paper and threw it in the bin.

“Coming.” She answered her mum, and she quickly changed out of her pajamas into a purple long-sleeved V-neck top and a pair of skinny black jeans. She then brushed out her hair and dabbed a little gloss on her lips, and a little mascara to her lashes.

Taking a deep breath, Lia looked at her appearance in the mirror. Underneath her eyes faint purple shadows told of her lack of sleep. Her skin looked pale and her eyes looked terrified, and tinted red from the crying. Lia pulled out her blush and tried to give the illusion her face had some color.

“Okay. Okay.” She whispered to herself. “I’m fine. Nothing’s wrong. You can do this, Lia.” Lia walked, confidently, downstairs and sat down at the breakfast table. Millie and Courtney were playing Hungry Hippos on the other side of the table, Linc was doing homework and Billy was on his Gameboy.

“Good morning guys.” Smiled Lia, plunking herself down next to Linc. Linc looked up for a second, before looking back down. Linc had dark hair that he wore long and shaggy, and pale skin with blue eyes.

“Morning Lia.” Said everyone, all at different times.

“How are you feeling this morning Lia?” asked her mum, “Richard mentioned you were a bit jumpy.” Lia bit her lip. Her mum looked so suspicious.

“umm… a little on edge.” She confessed, weaving the truth into her lies. “The nightmare has me on edge.”

Her mum nodded, satisfied with the explanation, and served Lia up her customary bowl of strawberries and low-fat vanilla yoghurt. Lia hesitated, picking up her spoon and mixing the berries into the yoghurt, then took a mouthful, only to almost spit it out as her mother casually mentioned, “something came for you in the mail. It was labeled Private: For Lia Van Cartier from Xoxoxo.”

Lia looked up at her mum, “X?’ she asked, feeling a little weak. X wouldn’t… Her mum leaned forwards, eyes twinkling and pulled out a parcel pushing it towards Lia. It was a small package, rather flat. Lia’s eyes however barely strayed from the label- Xoxoxoxo. To anyone else it would just look like the ‘hugs and kisses’ sign, but the front x was large and bold, the rest of them smaller and insignificant. It was clearly from X.

“Have you got a boyfriend, Lia?” her asked. Lia hesitated for a second, and then nodded. It would be easier to keep up the lie her mum created.

“What’s his name?” Courtney demanded, turning away from her game.

“Um… Xavier.” Lia mumbled, trying not to sound like she was about to cry. “Can I go upstairs to open it?” she asked her mum, putting down the spoon. 

She dashed up to her room and shut the door and sat heavily with her back against the wooden door. The color had drained from her face and she was inhaling deeply. Her palms were sweating and she could feel her heart hammering in her chest. Her breath wasn’t coming out properly and waves of nausea washed through her.

This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t fucking happening. Trembling fingers tore open the package and two things fell out. A CD and a folded white piece of paper. Lia took a few deep, deep breaths then unfolded the paper.

Dear Lia,

Surprise! I promised you I’d tell you a few secrets, didn’t I? And what better day to start then today! Inside this pack you’ll find a CD. I want you to plug the CD into your laptop and watch the video. I’ll know if you don’t. I always know what you do. After that I want you to put the CD in the backyard under the gnome who is pretending to be fishing. speak to you soon, dear, innocent Lia. Well, by speak I mean write.

X

Lia stared at the note, stunned. Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse. What was on that CD?