Briar Preparatory Academy

A Day Off

Celeste POV

It's been a week since I received my first letter and I have gotten one each day since. Every day I come up with an excuse to come to my room after breakfast and I find another letter on my bed. It is the same thing each time. No return address, cryptic warnings on blank paper.

Soon.

Watch out.

It's coming.

Be ready.

Eyes open.

Danger.

Watch your back.

I lay out the letters on the ground, looking at each one. Kate should be coming back any minute so I should probably pick them up in a few minutes...

"Hey Celeste." I nearly jump out of my skin when I hear the sound of Kate's voice right behind me. I scramble to hide all of the letters but I don't move fast enough.

"What's all this?" Kate asks me, pointing to the letters on the ground.

"Letters." I say bluntly.

She reaches down and picks up the first one I received. Watch your back. "Celeste, who is this from?" She demands, her eyes wide as she reads all the letters.

"It's—"

"Hey guys. What's up?" I am cut off as Seth's voice enters the room as he swings the door open, walking in.

"That's exactly what I'm trying to figure out." Kate says, putting her hands on her hips as she looks down at the pile of notes sprawled out on the floor. She reads each one over again, her lips moving with the words.

"Someone is threatening you." She finally says, her wide green eyes turning to meet mine.

"No, no one is threatening me. It's not that big of a deal."

"No one is threatening you? If someone is telling you to watch your back and literally telling you there's danger, I'm pretty sure it's a threat. Celeste this is serious, we need to do something." Kate says. "Why didn't you tell us?" She asks, a hint of betrayal behind her eyes. I feel my shoulders cave in on themselves and I look down at the ground.

"I don't know. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it. I was scared that if I told you, then you'd go to Lockharte." I explain to her.

She sighs and starts twirling her hair between her fingers. Adjusts the glasses on the bridge of her nose. "Give me the letters."

"What are you going to do with them?" I ask her.

"I'm going to try to track them." She says, scooping the envelopes from the ground. Seth stands behind us, running his hands through his hair and pacing back and forth.

Kate slides her laptop off her bed and opens it, scanning the stamps from the letters and searching through database after database. I can see countless files and advanced GPS maps being pulled up in the reflection of her lenses. Her fingers are almost a blur on the keys. "I got it." She says after several minutes.

Seth and I walk up to her and lean over her shoulder to look at her screen. It shows several green dots on a map of the United States, starting in Concord, New Hampshire and ending in Wyoming. Other states are dotted, including New York, Ohio, and even California. I know what this means, and I do not want to acknowledge it even though in my gut I know it is true.

Someone is coming for me.

"Whoever this person is has been all over the place," Kate says, shaking her head, "Do you have any idea who it could be?"