Lure To The Woods

VII

"Unlike anything I've ever felt before." I sighed, looking up at her finally.

"This is some kind of branch of Stockholm Syndrome. Attracted to your stalker? Trust you to pick the dangerous ones." She shook her head, giving me a half hug to comfort me.

"I spent half of last night trying to figure it out, but I can't make sense of it. I just feel immense attraction towards him- despite him being a creep."

"So you are gay?" Fred finally chimed in, making both of us roll our eyes.

"Even if he was, you wouldn't have a chance." Heather shot him down.

Fred shrugged, lighting up a ciggie. Fred would have a physical relationship with just about anything that moves, so it wasn't really much of a compliment. Besides, apparently I'm strange and only want relationship with men who follow me at all hours of the day, so Fred isn't my type anyway.

Except, I had been left alone since last night. I couldn't feel him anywhere, so he must have got the message and decided to just back off. I refuse to speak to him until he's willing to tell me who he is. Until then, I'll be doing research to find out who he is myself.

"I thought we could try and use his number to work out who it is." I suggested, catching Heather's attention again.

"That's actually a really good idea." She nodded, "You should give me the number just in case something happens, too."

I shrugged, letting her type the number into her phone. She named the contact 'Cameron's stalker', making me chuckle (since I'd also saved him as 'stalker'). She opened google, pasting the number into the search bar. I held my breath, waiting to see if any results came up.

"Dead end." Heather reported, showing me her phone.

"I didn't expect that to work, to be honest. That would be too easy." I joked, lighting a cigarette, "Try Facebook."

"Nobody uses it anymore, but sure." She shrugged, typing it in, "Dead end again."

"Snapchat." Fred offered out of nowhere.

"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!" She cheered, pulling up the profile.

"You're joking." I spluttered, taking the phone from her.

Clear as day, the number was attached to a Snapchat profile under the name of 'X'. My mouth dropped open, astounded we had even made that much progress. This guy needed to improve his cyber security next time he decides to stalk somebody. I took a photo of the profile on my phone, just in case.

"There's no bitmoji or anything and he's on private. His profile name, can't you search it on Instagram and see if he uses the same screen name on both?" Fred pondered, making both Heather and I turn to look at him incredulously.

"Since when were you part of the Secret Intelligence Service? Mr.MI6." Heather teased, doing exactly as he said to do.

"You learn a thing or two about online presence when you deal drugs." Fred shrugged.

"You deal drugs, Fred? Mick's been looking for a dealer for ages." I chuckled, shaking my head, "I swear we know nothing about you."

"I'm not giving him mates rates." Fred warned, "He'd bleed me dry."

"Fred was right, he has a profile with the same handle on Instagram." Heather interrupted, gaining my interest.

I took the phone and looked at the account, scrutinising every detail. He and Heather had a fair few mutual followers, suggesting he was local enough that people would know him. His profile picture was one of the forest and his bio simply said the number nineteen- which I'm guessing is his age- and our town name. He was on private, so we'd need to follow to find out more.