Page 20 of Stalking My Stalker

“Ali.” She nods. “She left you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“She came to me after you left work. Told me to tell you that she couldn’t do it any longer. That she had another boyfriend and she couldn’t cheat on him with you any longer.”

My head starts spinning. No. It can’t be. It doesn’t make sense. Not Ali. She would never…

“Impossible.” I move my eyes back to the soaked shirt in my hands, wring out the water, and carefully begin to fold it. I’ll need to dry it carefully so it’s in good shape when I give it back to her.

“I’m sorry, Parker,” Janice replies. “I really am. But on a nicer note, that means you can’t use her as an excuse not to take me out anymore!”

Janice giggles, and my old instincts quickly flare up. I reach back and wrap my hand around the handle of my knife. I’ve been more than clear to this woman that I want nothing to do with her, and now she’s here trying to make light of this situation?

I’ll end her…

It would be so easy. She’s not like Ali. She has no idea who Ireallyam. All it would take is a simple pull of my arm as I pass her and she’d be lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood. But even that would be a waste of my time now. There’s not even a second to waste. I have to find Ali before she gets too far. I have to find her and ask her why she left me.

Like a sprinter dashing off the blocks, I leap from my crouched position and blaze past Janice, who whirls as I nearly knock her over. “Parker!” she cries out. “Where are you going? We canbe together now!”

Not likely.

I spend the entire evening combing the streets of Gatree, one by one until there isn’t an inch of the town I haven’t investigated. Still, no signs of Ali. Every second that ticks by feels like I’m being pulled deeper and deeper into an abyss–a black hole where I’m truly alone and deprived of the light of my love.

Ali.

Ali, where are you…?

Finally, somewhere around four a.m., I drive back to her apartment and go inside, just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. A note–something that would give me a clue as to where she went or what happened. I know she left me. Leaving the book behind that I gave her–the T-shirt. Those were deliberate actions. If she’d been kidnapped, things would have looked different.

No. For whatever reason, Ali abandoned me. And I have no way to find her.

It’s still pouring sheets of ice-cold rain as I slump across the street and let myself into the vacant house. I collapse onto a pile of plywood and curl up into a ball in a futile attempt to warm up.

I look out at her windows, shuttered and dark.

She’s really gone. After everything we experienced together. She’s gone…

I understand that, but I refuse to fully believe it. My heart simply cannot accept the terrible fact that I’m never going to see my Ali again. If she left me, she can come back to me. And I’m going to stay right here until she does.

“I’m not going anywhere, baby,” I mutter, closing my eyes to a sleep that will not come. “I’ll be right here…”

9

ALI

TWO WEEKS LATER…

I lookup from my homework at the dark clouds hanging outside and the horrible rain that hasn’t stopped since I arrived here. My hands are shaking as I reach over to the nightstand and check the time on my phone.

It’s 7:45 p.m. Before I left Gatree, that would have meant Parker was either stalking me from outside or was sitting next to me on the couch at my or his apartment, me cuddled up with my head on his chest.

But now, I don’t have any idea what he’s doing.

And I’ll never know.

Now I’m in a cheap motel in Tunstead, Illinois, just under a five-hour drive from Gatree. I made the drive in one single night without stopping, tears pouring down my face like the rain flooding the windshield as I trekked down the highway through the horrendous storm.

I have no idea what my long-term plans are. I don’t even know how I’ll be able to survive out here on my own. Right now I’m taking my classes remotely. I made up an excuse about there being a family tragedy that I have to take care of, but my school let me know that I have to actually attend my lectures in person next semester to earn my credits.

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