Read Online Fearscape by Nenia Campbell - Free Book Online Page A

the metal, by a cruel blade and a crueler hand, was one word. One word, and yet its connotations numbered in the thousands.
    MINE.
    It was with a trembling hand she traced the 'E.' The metal edges were ragged and sliced open her finger, leaving a bead of blood on the letter's bottom bar. The pain shattered the dissociation and the dreaminess Val felt, and all at once she was no longer removed from the situation. This wasn't fantasy; this was real — and it had just turned deadly.
    Val closed her fingers into a fist, hiding the blood, and screamed as loud as she could, “Mrs. Freeman!”
    ▪▫▪▫▪▫▪
    Coach Freeman was sympathetic but there was not much she could do. For obvious reasons, no security cameras were permitted in the locker rooms, though there were some facing the two outer doors. She employed the first-aid kit for the cut on Val's hand and offered her a new locker and combination, but apart from that Val found herself pretty much on her own.
    Which was unpleasant but not unexpected. If he was devious enough to get into her locker, she saw no reason why he shouldn't be devious enough to escape being caught.
    Had he been watching her reaction? Savoring it? The answered seemed to be yes, because when Val got home, frazzled and a little sweaty from the walk from the bus stop, there was another message waiting for her.
    That wasn't very polite.
    It had been sent mere minutes before.
    What wasn't? She typed, knowing it was foolish but unable to help herself.
    Disposing of my gift so callously .
    Gift? That wasn't a gift. That was vandalism.
    I can assure you, my dear, that I am no garden-variety reprobate.
    A chill slithered down her spine. No high school student talked like that. Do you go to my high school? She paused. Are you a teacher?
    Everyone has something that they would like to teach.
    Was that a yes? A no? Either way, it wasn't reassuring.
    Why do you keep bothering me?
    Because I have something that I would like to teach you .
    What, how to act like a creepy pervert? Leave me alone , she wrote. I don't want to learn ANYTHING from you . Val swallowed, her eyes glued to the screen as she waited for the response.
    She didn't wait long.
    You don't have a choice.
    Val yelped, and blocked him. This couldn't really be happening. Things like this didn't happen outside of horror movies and creepy plays. Right?
    Another message popped up from a different user, but with the same picture.
    You can't escape from me, Valerian. I want you — and very soon I intend to catch you. To cage you. To make you mine. Forever.
    STOP TALKING TO ME.
    Mockingly, the messages continued to arrive, And who knows, Val —
    “ Mom!”
    You may even find, given time, that you don't want to resist my control.
    “ What is it, Val?”
    After all, dominance can be a very potent aphrodisiac.
    “ This guy — ” Val could barely speak. “This guy keeps sending me messages.”
    Mrs. Kimble frowned, concerned but also puzzled. “Did you block him?”
    “ I did, but he won't stop. I'm scared — the things he sends me, they're, well, scary. Look — ” Val pointed at the screen, backing up in her chair so her mother could read the message. She wondered if she might throw up.
    “ Oh — oh my God,” Mrs. Kimble said. “I'll call your father — ”
    “ No!” Val cried. “Don't! I don't want Dad to see this. Don't let him!”
    “ All right, Val, but …” she put her hands on her daughter's shoulders, “when did this start? Is this the first time this has happened?”
    “ Someone defaced my locker at school,” she sniffed. And watches me when I run. But she didn't say that, because she know her mother would call Coach Freeman, then, and have her suspended from the team. And apart from Art, and her own limited social circle, track pretty much made up her entire social life. “Is it — is it my fault, do you think?”
    “ No, I don't. He sounds disturbed. But don't respond to him anymore. That was foolish of you to do. He