chapter 2

The next few days were hard, Grandma stayed at our house. Grandpa wanted nothing to do with me. The doctor whose name was Oliver came around to help around the house. He brought me flowers and occasionally made dinner when Mom and I didn't want to cook. He hired someone to clean the blood out of my carpet in my room and the blood in the back of the car. The FBI is now involved and has been watching over our house 24/7 I haven't seen the man in a while. I hope he's gone forever.

I went back to school even before the funeral I needed to distract myself with something it didn't help much. The entire school was glum, teachers and students apologized for my loss. My English teacher told me that she hopes they catch that son of a bitch. I said me too and kept my head down. The assistant principal gave me the key to my Dad's office

“I’m so sorry Amanda.” Mr. Watson said.

“Thank you,” I said.

Most days I found myself in my Dad's office I was sitting at his desk and cry. The lights stayed off, and some part of me would be hoping that my Dad will come through that door and say, what have I told you about hiding in my office? And I would laugh and get up from his seat and sit in front of his desk I would touch his name sign. It said, Principal Daniel Thompson. But that's never going to happen. I sat there holding my father's name to myself.

Then the door opened. I slid under the desk. No one should be in here. I heard them start to open drawers in the filing cabinet. I looked around the office. It was him. How is he here? I went back to my spot under the desk. I stayed there until he left. As soon as I heard the door closed I looked around the office to make sure he was gone, I sat in the chair and called Oliver.

“Hello, Dr. Valero's office how can I help you?” His secretary said.

“Is Oliver busy? I need to talk to him it's urgent.” I said.

“He's with a patient, but if you need medical assistance, I can connect you to another doctor now.”

“I just really, really need to talk to Oliver it's an emergency.”

“Who is this?”

“Amanda, Amanda Thompson.”

“I will get Dr. Valero right now. Sorry, ma’am.”

I waited a few seconds.

“Hello?’

“Oliver?”

“Yeah?”

“He’s here.”

“Who.”

“The man.”

“He’s at your school?”

“Yeah, he just took some files from the filing cabinet.”

“What did he take and what have I told you about staying your father's office during school day you need to talk to people.”

“I don't want to talk to anyone just yet. I will on my own time.”

“Alright, it's your senior year.”

“I can't find it.”

“What?”

“My file. I think he took it.”

“What’s in it?”

“Health records, birth certificate, social security number, address. Basically all things personal. He could steal my identity and my personality.”

“Call one of the officers to come pick you up, and I'll see you later, alright.”

“Bye, Oliver sorry for interrupting your time with your patient.”

“It’s alright get home safe.”

“Okay.” I hung up on him and call Josh. He is my bodyguard.

“Hello, you've reached Josh Harmony.”

“Where are you?”

“I'm teaching your math class. Why aren't you here?”

“I was in my father's office.”

“I swear I'll give you detention if you miss a math class again.”

“But he was here. Here came into my father's office dressed as a janitor.”

“Alright, I'm calling a sub, but I swear I'll fail you.”

“You can't fail me. I still do all of my work.”

“Whatever sit tight.”

“All right.” I hung up the phone.

“You seem scared of me.” I heard a voice say.

I turned to where the sound was coming from, the filing office. I went to reach for the light, but he grabbed me.

“I like the dark better.” He said.

“You killed my father.”

“And I'm going to kill your mother too.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Your mother is an obstacle.”

“You have me alone why don't you just take me?”

“It's too easy. I'm playing a game, sort of like hide and seek.”

“What did you do to Sarah and the others?”

“Oh, you’ll see them soon enough.”

“Why do you need me?”

“You're a part of the game I like to have fun and taking you ruins the fun. How many ways are there to kill someone and make them suffer?”

“Why are you killing my family? You didn't kill Sarah's or Brad’s or Tyler's or Katie's.”

“Because their families have given up hope, and so did they. No need to kill them. But you, you have been with your parents for your whole life, and you can't have hope to see someone if they're not alive.”

“You’re sick.”

“I'm just having fun.”

“This is not fun.”

“It is for me, and that's all that matters.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m not telling you, that would spoil the fun.” He laughed and then left the room.

Josh walks into the room a few minutes later.

“What's wrong? You look like you saw a ghost or something.”

“He was here.”

“I know he told me that.”

“No, just now. The man was here. He touched me.”

“He touched you?”

“Yes.”

“Let's go, now.”

“Okay.”

We went to the surveillance and across the street.

“Can you get a print from her?” Josh asked.

“Was she touched recently?” Derrick asked.

“A few minutes ago,” I said.

“We can try. Put your arm in this machine.”

“alright.” I did as told.

They used some sort of black light. The handprint showed up on the screen, but it looked smudged.

“Did you touch your wrist after he did?”

“Yes.”

“Place your hand on the scanner.”

“Okay.” I placed my hand on the scanner.

The machine matched my handprint with the one on the screen.

“It’s going to search the database for matching prints. We'll find him before he hurts your Mother.” Josh said.

There's also a camera and mic in all your classrooms and your father's office. The camera never got his face because he never turned towards it, but the audio was fine.” Derrick said.

“So, you heard the conversation with him?”

“We weren't listening then; we put it on mute because you should have been in math class.”

“Why do people insist on yelling at me about class?”

“You should have been in class,” Derrick said

“But look at what I have done.” I looked around the van. They looked at me. “We know that he's here. We got a hand print on my arm, and that puts us one step closer to catching this guy before he hurts my Mother.”

Josh looked at me, “You got lucky.”

“Yeah, thanks, Josh.”

Josh drives me home.

“Why are you home so early?” My mom asked.

“The man was there.”

“What?”

“Yeah, he was in Dad’s office posed as a janitor.”

“Were you in your father's office again?”

“Maybe.”

“Amanda.”

“No. Don’t Amanda me. Do you think I like staying in Dad’s office all the time?”

“You need to get out there. And interact with your friends.”

“I don't have friends; I never had friends. My friends were taken away from me when I was eight. And you know what. I got made fun of every day in middle school and high school. Dad's office was the only place I was secure. Now he's gone, and I have no one. Everyone at school pretends to care for me but the only person who had my back that school was Dad and now I'm there alone.”

“Amanda...” My mom reached out to me.

I moved out of reach. “No, don’t Amanda me this is your fault. I told you not to let Dad go down the stairs. I told you that man was lurking outside of the house but you didn’t listen to me. You refused to listen to me. I lost more than the father that day. I lost my best friend.”

“I'm so sorry. I regret not listening to you. I wish your father was here right now. I’m sorry honey.” My Mother aproached me for a hug.

I stepped back.

“Amanda I'm sorry I hope some day you will forgive me. Maybe someday I’ll forgive my self.”

“I hate it here. I want my Dad back.” I stormed out went to my room.

I slammed the door, and one of my pictures fell to the ground and shattered I pick it up it was a picture of Dad and me at the beach when I was ten. That man took everything my friends, my Dad, my happiness. I'm going to kill him. I took my butterfly knife out of my desk my Dad bought me when I was 17. I started twirling it.

About 10 minutes into twirling, Oliver walked in.

“What are you doing?” He sat on the bed next to me.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Why are you twirling the knife?”

I put the knife down. “No reason.”

“I know that look.”

“What look?”

“Amanda, I've known you long enough to know all of your facial expressions well at least most of them, and that's the look you get every time you're going to do something irrational.”

“What do you mean?”

“Last week, some girl made fun of you in front of the class, and you were angry, and you said that you were going to get your revenge. Then your mom gets a call saying that you cut a chunk of hair and now that poor girl is bald. She gets made fun of every day.”

“Well, now she knows how it feels.”

“When people do things to you don't stoop down to the level.”

“Unless they took everything from you.”

“That girl did nothing to you.”

“She called me a slut in front of the whole class.”

“For what?”

“For having sex with a man older than me.”

“But you haven't, have you?”

“No. She was talking about you.”

“What?”

“Yeah, but I wasn't talking about her.”

“Who were you talking about? No definitely not Amanda.”

“He took everything from me.”

“And you're going to let him take you from your Mother? Let the police handle it.”

“We have a surveillance van outside of my school, and they wouldn’t have known he was there if I didn’t call Josh and tell him that the man was there, and he touched me.”

“He touched you? Did he hurt you?”

“No, he just grabbed my wrist tight.”

“Alright as long as he didn’t hurt you.”

“I wanted to kill him right then and there.”

“You didn’t though.”

“I didn’t have my knives.”

“Amanda, I don’t blame you for wanting him dead. I’m sure your Mother wants him dead I want him dead, but you can’t just go and kill someone. There are repercussions. One, you are 18 so you can go to jail, and two, killing someone changes you.”

“I know.” I sighed and looked down at my hands.

He hugged me, “So what made this girl think we were having sexual intercourse?”

“Why did you have to say it like that?”

“Like what?”

“Sexual intercourse.” I mocked him.

“She called me old, so I said it as the old people do.”

“She said that you were older than me.”

“That still means that I’m old.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“Anyway, why does she think that we are having sex?”

“I sorta told her that you were my boyfriend.”

“You did what?”

“She was talking about how her boyfriend was class president, and the starting quarterback of our football team and Harvard recruited him. She called me a dike because in all of high school I’ve never had a boyfriend.”

“Have you had a girlfriend?”

“No, I’m straight. I just don’t like anyone, and no one likes me. Which I guess is fine but she kept rubbing it in my face and I usually don’t care but I was on edge so I said, ‘I have a boyfriend’ and she laughed and said, ‘yeah right.’ So, I pulled out my phone and showed the picture of us and one of the girls was like, ‘Ooo he’s hot.’ And I was like ‘Yeah, he’s a doctor. He graduated from high school when he was 16 and he graduated from college a year ago.’ So, I told them all of your business.”

“Thank you, Amanda.”

“You’re welcome.”

“My girlfriend is gonna flip when I tell her about this.”

“You have a girlfriend?”

“I do now.”

“Oh.”

“I’m kidding silly. I’m single. But now it looks we are dating so, it’s a good I brought ice cream, so we can watch a movie tonight.”

“Are you asking me out, Oliver?”

“I guess I am.” He laughed.

“I would love to watch a movie with you tonight.” I laughed.

“I think I can outshine that little boyfriend of that girl and make them jealous if you would like.”

“That would be fun”

“Does her boyfriend have a motorcycle.”

“No.”

“Well, I do. I’ll drop you off at school tomorrow how bout dat.”

I laughed, “Sounds great to me.”

Oliver and I go downstairs to watch a movie. My grandmother was crying.

“Grandma, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing dear. Hi, Oliver.”

“Grandma your crying, is everything okay?”

“He uh, he hung himself. I walked into the bedroom this morning and he was hanging there. I called the police and left the house. I couldn’t stay there.”

I hugged my grandmother.

“Where’s Mom?”

“She went to the house to make sure the police were there and that it was suicide.”

“Did she take her agent with her?”

“No, she said she would be right back.”

“Oliver, we have to go.”

“Why?”

“My mother is out there alone with a lunatic on the loose that is trying to kill her.”

“I’m sure a few agents followed her.”

“No offense but those agents out there are the absolute worst.”

“Alright, I would still call your mother’s agent.”

“Okay.”

“We can take my bike it’s out front.”

My phone started ringing.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Amanda get out of the house, now. Get out and run.” My Mother sounded like she had been running.

“What? Mom, what’s going on?”

“Amanda…” She was cut off.”

“Hello, Amanda I just wanted to give you the opportunity to say goodbye to your dearest mother.” The man said.

“Goodbye? No, don’t!”

“Amanda run away, get away from this damned town.” Mom said.

“Mom get out of there.”

“It’s too late for me.”

“Mom please.”

“Goodbye Amanda.”

“Mom wait don’t do this. Please, Mom, come home. Don’t take her away from me.”

There was a gunshot then, another one, then four more. Six gunshots altogether.

My phone fell from hand and I turned and punched the nearest wall screaming angry inaudible words. Oliver tried to comfort me, but I pushed him away. Tears were streaming down my face. I wiped them away. I walked outside.

“Amanda, don’t do anything irrational.”

I walked into the surveillance van the guys were on their phones and or laughing and talking.

“Which one of you is responsible for watching over my mother?”

An agent raised his hand. He was on his phone.

“What’s your name?”

“Nate Simpson.”

“What were you just doing on your phone just now?”

“I was playing a game.”

“Well while you were playing a game. My Mother was just killed. I hope are proud of yourself. None of you are doing your jobs. The man was at my school and no one saw him. There literally only two entrances to that school. That should not happen. I’m not an FBI agent or anything but I’m pretty sure that if your job entails watching over someone you need to get off you God damn asses and do your fucking job and watch over that person. Thanks for nothing guys really Six people in a van and none of you can do a damn thing.” I slammed the door on the way out.

I walk back into the house. “That wasn’t too rash, was it?”

“I thought you were going after the man.”

“Oh, I am you can bet your ass that I am. You’re a doctor how do you kill someone slowly and painfully.”

“I’m not telling you that.”

“That’s fine I’ll just look it up.”

“Amanda.”

“What Oliver.”

“You need to sit down.”

“I don’t need to sit down, this man needs to die.”

“You can’t.”

“Oliver, he just shot my Mother six times. On the phone. I’m going to kill him. I don’t care about the repercussions.”

“Killing him is not going to bring them back.”

“Sitting here, doing nothing and letting tears fall down my face isn’t going to bring them back either.”

“Amanda.”

“Don’t say my name like that. You don’t get it. You don’t know what it’s like. To feel hunted to feel like prey.”

“You’re right I don’t but I know what it’s like to lose family.”

“You have to leave.”

“What?”

“You have to leave.”

“No, I’m not leaving.”

“You and Grandma have to leave.”

“I can’t leave you. I won’t leave you.”

“You have to. He’ll kill you. Leave now. Right now. I can’t lose you guys too, please. Just go somewhere far away.”

Oliver and my grandmother left. I shut the power off. I went into my room and sat down in the spot where my father bled out. I twirled my knife. I waited for an hour. I brick came crashing through the window. There was a note on it.

‘Wanna play a game?’ on the back it said hide and seek.

I know this house like the back of my hand. Each nook and cranny there was no way he would be able to find me. I have home turf advantage.

I take out my knife collection. My Dad bought me the collection for my 18th birthday two months ago. It’s time I put my knife skills to the test. I’ve always had good aim but usually, my targets don’t move. I get loaded with knives and make my way around. Fun fact about the house is everything creaks, so best of luck to this man on trying to get around this house without me knowing