The Hacker (short story version)

Short Story-1

I'm watching you.

That's all the message said when Amber opened her facepage inbox. The display name showed as The Hacker. How creepy. She clicked Hacker's icon, but the profile didn't show anything. The display picture was a default picture. Not a single photo was uploaded onto the profile. No statuses were posted. Her eyes narrowed and her throat went dry. Normally, a random message wouldn't shake her up her so much, but this time was different.

Della Thompson was weighing heavily on her mind. Hers and every other senior's at Vine Grove High that day. Yesterday Della Thompson went missing. She went out to walk her family's yorkie. An hour later, Fifi came home, dragging a bloody leash, still hooked to her collar. No Della in sight. The dog was unharmed, so they assumed the blood might be Della's. Proper tests were ordered for the blood, but the results hadn't come back yet.

A whole twenty-four hours had passed and they still hadn't found Della. The thing that scared Amber the most was the knowledge that a few days ago, Della was asking people if they sent her a message that said, "I'm watching you."

Was it a threat? A knot was forming in Amber's throat. Her red lacquered fingers trembled as she closed the message. She looked around the mall food court suspiciously. People chattered and smiled, a few people looked down at their phones while they waited in line to order food, but nobody was looking at Amber. She stared beyond the food court and saw a sea of early Christmas shoppers. She began to study them one by one. Her friend, Jillian, seated across the little table from Amber, noticed the blood-drained, panicked look on her face.

"Amber, are you okay?" Jillian asked.

Amber's worried eyes flew to her friend's face. Jillian wore a mirrored look, except her features wore it much more attractively. Jill's model-like oval face and prominent jaw line put Amber's round face to shame. Amber's eyes were dull brown, but Jill's were bright hazel with brown and green shades streaked through making them as captivating as the Le Bassin Aux Nymphéas by Monet.

A horrible thought popped into Amber's head: why would anyone watch me? Why not her?

As soon as she thought it, she dismissed it. The thought had made her gut twist and she didn't like it at all. How could she think such a disturbing thing? And when Jill reach her hand out to grab her drink and Amber saw the best friend bracelet she bought her, it made Amber feel even worse.

"What is it?" Jill asked more seriously, her eyebrows raised high on her forehead.

"I see," said their friend Gloria. She nudged Jill and pointed near a lingerie store.

Jill's eyebrows lowered and her eyes narrowed. "That jerk."

Amber followed Jill's line of sight and saw Brody, Jill's on-again, off-again boyfriend. Right now, they were off, and his hands were on Charice Simpson. They were holding hands, standing in front of a lingerie store. Charice giggled and tried tugging him inside.

"Sure isn't tore up about Della's disappearance, is he?" Gloria asked with a snarl.

He'd broken up with Jill two weeks ago to date Della.

"Doesn't look that way," Jill said. Brody and Charice went into the store, and Jill looked green. Not from jealousy, but like she was going to vomit.

Amber cleared her throat. "But that wasn't what bothered me. It's this."

She flipped her screen around and gave Jill and Gloria a peek at her message.

"Oh, that? That's nothing," Jill waved her hand in the air. "I got one of those last week. No big deal."

"But isn't that what someone sent Della?"

"Coincidence," Jill shrugged her shoulder. "Besides, Della probably just got distracted by some guy at the park and her dog probably ran away because of her irritating voice." She pushed her plate of tacos away. "I'm not very hungry now. Seeing Brody ruined my appetite."

"More for me," Gloria said with a huge smile. She claimed Jill's discarded plate.

Amber was barely listening. Her eyes were roving the area. A soft ding brought her attention back to her phone. Another message from Hacker. She opened it. A photo taken from far away of her looking right at the camera.

Who is this? she typed. Not that she expected the creep to say their name, but she did expect them to talk more so she could get some type of clue to their identity.

"Hello," Jill said, snapping her fingers in front of Amber, frustrated.

Amber looked up from her phone. "Sorry." She shook her head as though she could shake off the fearful apprehension. "I'm just totally creeped by this. Look. He got my picture."

"Yuck, what a creep-o," Gloria said. She took the remaining piece of taco in one huge bite.

"I got messages like that, too, last week. He got bored of it when I didn't respond. No big." Jill took a long sip of her diet soda.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"It's silly, that's why, spaz." Jill smiled, flashing a row of straight teeth--the result of wearing braces for two years. She grabbed Amber's hand. "Come on, no more worrying. Tonight's Sunday, remember?"

Amber's face lit up. A new episode of Zombie World was coming out tonight. They never missed an episode.

On the way out, Amber changed her status from chilling at the mall with Jill to headed to Jill's for the new ZW! After submitting it under public, she thought a moment, then changed it to private so The Hacker couldn't see.