Perseverance [Complete]

Chapter 19

Arthit's POV

I was sitting on my desk staring at the package trying to place my finger on what was it that was nagging me. There was still something that I was missing. Earlier at the police station a thought had briefly crossed my mind which I had found odd. What was it? 

And that is when it suddenly hit me. The green dress. Even if the psychopath broke into my house, how did he know to take the green dress. That was the dress Rune was talking about in the morning. That was the one she had tried on. She has hundreds of other dresses. This dress in the package couldn't be a coincidence. That's why the books were out of order.

I had just solved the mystery when my phone beeped with unknown number. I picked it up to see image after image of Rune in every different location she generally visits. Her school, the park, the restaurant, outside my college. He was letting me know that he was watching Rune, following her everywhere. Why was he after Rune? 

And then finally a series of about 15 pictures. They contained Rune, Kong, me standing in my apartment living room talking. It clearly looked like someone had taken the picture from somewhere inside the room. And each picture was from a slightly different angle.

I started tearing through my apartment violently and after a couple hours of thorough search I found the 15 cameras spread around the room. Whoever the maniac was, he was clearly trying to send me a message with the package and the pictures that he didn't want to stay in the shadows anymore. He wanted me to know he had targeted Rune. And if his motive was to scare me then mission accomplished, cause I was freaking out.

Since how long has he been watching Rune and me? In my own apartment that too. Were there other hints that I had missed? When did all of this start? My thoughts were spiraling out of control. I needed to calm down and think what I had to do next. Just because someone had managed to scare me did not mean I would let them harm Rune.

My first thought was to once again go to the police with the cameras and the pictures, but not shockingly the pictures on my phone were deleted. My phone not working at odd times fell in line with all the other previously unexplained events. Ofcourse it was hacked. My messages to friends nearly always had mine and Runes schedules. The psycho didn't even have to work hard, I was practically screaming all my information through my phone already.

I still thought getting help from the police was probably a good idea, but maybe barging in there with a wild story about a hacked phone would get me kicked out again. I will go to them again when I have something more concrete. Something they can't dismiss as a prank. But before any of that I had to do two things. Change the lock to this apartment, although I doubt it would keep the psycho out. And find alternate accommodations. Someplace where he couldn't break in easily or put cameras anywhere. I was not falling asleep while we were vulnerable again.

I didn't even momentarily consider going to any of my friends and confiding in them. I didn't suspect them. I swore to myself that I wouldn't doubt any of their loyalty or sincerity in helping me all these years. But not suspecting them was different than trusting Rune's safety in their hands. The more people that would know about our whereabouts the more she would be in danger.

I packed a huge bag with both of our essentials, books, clothes. Everything that we would immediately need, and waited for morning. The first person I called when the day had reasonably began was Prae.

Prae and I were not really friends. We barely ever spoke to each other actually. She was Kong's friend so we would run into each other every so often. On one such random meeting we were waiting at the bus stop together when we started talking and she had told me something in passing that would be incredibly helpful for me today. Her family owned a hotel which was reasonably close to both my campus and Rune's school. She had told me she kept that information private because she didn't want people constantly asking her for favors. Unfortunately that is what I was going to do today.

"Prae I need your help."

"How can I help P'Arthit?"

"I am going to check in to your hotel today. I will be staying there for some time. I....uh....I need a new room every day. Can you make that happen?"

"You want to move to a different room every day? But wont that be very inconvenient?"

"Yes"

"But why?"

"I can't...ummm...I think someone is trying to hurt Rune."

There was a long pause, but thankfully she didn't ask any questions I was unwilling to answer. "Ok P'Arthit, meet me at the hotel in an hour. We can figure it out."

As inconvenient as it would be to stay in a hotel and change rooms every night, I felt secure here. The corridors and hallways were covered in security cameras. Prae had introduced me to the security staff who had all been working there for many years. And with a new room daily, the psycho won't have the chance to set up cameras while we were gone. While I figured out a way to track down who was targeting us, we could be relatively safe here.

"Where is Rune now?"

"I left here with Kong last night. I will go bring her here soon."

"Do you think Kong should move in here too? I can ask for another room. It should not be a problem."

"I....dont know yet."

And that was the question I had been chewing over all day. Kong wasn't like any of my other friends. Kong was different. He was special to both Rune and me. He was the only one I would trust Rune with implicitly. I was trusting him right now while she was with him.

The reason I didn't want to tell Kong was not the same as others. With him it would be all or nothing. He was in the pictures that were sent to me, but I don't know if he was being targeted in any way at all. I needed to tell him, warn him make sure he was safe if he was in any danger. But just incase he was not involved yet and I told him about any of this he would be stuck to Rune like glue. And then I would have to worry about him along with Rune.

How the hell should I figure out if he is in harm's way without getting him further involved?