Chapter 15: Watching.

By the time morning arrived, Stephanie had officially had enough. Her eyes were still swollen and her head still hurts, but she made up her mind that she was done.

"No. Absolutely not."

She pointed dramatically at Seraphina from across the breakfast island she had made while holding a mug of coffee. "We're done pretending this is normal."

And Seraphina blinked slowly, confused.

"I wasn't pretending."

"You slept with a baseball bat."

"That was one time."

"It was last night." Seraphina looked away and Stephanie slammed her coffee mug down before she continued.

"Someone has photographs of you sleeping, Seraphina…sleeping. Inside your own house. This is no longer creepy, we've crossed into criminal."

And unfortunately, she wasn't wrong. The image from the previous night remained burned into Seraphina's mind. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw it again. The angle, the couch…her silk robe.

The fact that someone had been close enough to take it…close enough to watch her, close enough to touch her if they wanted to. The thought made her skin crawl everytime.

Three hours later, security specialists were walking around her property. Stephanie followed them everywhere like an angry supervisor.

"What about that window?"

"It's reinforced, ma'am."

"And that one?"

"Also reinforced."

"What about the backyard?"

"Covered by cameras."

"What about the roof?" The security guard paused, Stephanie folded her arms triumphantly as she stared back at him. "Exactly."

Seraphina sat quietly in the living room while people moved around her house installing equipment. New cameras, motion detectors and window sensors along with door alarms.

By evening, the place looked less like a home and more like a luxury prison. One of the technicians handed her a tablet.

"You can access every camera from here." Seraphina nodded and for the first time in days, she felt a tiny bit safer…ust a tiny bit.

When the workers finally left, Stephanie threw herself dramatically across the couch.

"There." She spread her arms proudly. "If a fly enters this property, we'll know."

Seraphina laughed despite everything going on.

"A fly?"

"A mosquito."

"A spider?"

"Especially a spider.".For a brief moment, everything felt normal again we'll, almost.

Then her phone buzzed and both women froze. The room immediately fell silent and Seraphina reached for the phone.

Unknown Number.

Her stomach tightened and the message contained only three words.

‘Enjoy your cameras.’ Stephanie immediately stood up.

"Nope." Seraphina looked confused,

"What?"

"Nope."

"What?"

"He's annoying me now." Seraphina stared at the message.

He knew…whoever he was...he already knew about the cameras and that should have terrified her but instead, it irritated her.

For the rest of the evening she checked the camera feeds repeatedly. From the front gate to the driveway, garden…the pool.

Nothing…everything looked normal. Then by midnight, exhaustion finally started catching up to her. Stephanie had already gone upstairs and the house was silent again.

Seraphina sat alone in bed scrolling through camera footage one last time but there was nothing.

No movement, no suspicious figures and no shadows…nothing.

Maybe Stephanie was right. Maybe the cameras would finally stop this madness and the thought comforted her enough to fall asleep.

Hours later, she woke up at first she wasn't sure why. The room was dark, quiet and still..Her eyes adjusted slowly and then she froze.

Something sat on the nightstand beside her bed. It looked like a flower? White…fresh and beautiful. A single white rose.

Seraphina stared at it for several seconds and her sleepy brain refused to process what she was seeing. Then when she realized, her heart dropped.

Slowly and painfully.

Wrapped around the stem was a small white note. Her hands began trembled violently as she reached for it carefully.

"No..." The paper unfolded beneath her fingers…three words…just three.

‘You look beautiful.’

The blood drained from her face, the flower slipped from her hands and she stumbled backward so quickly she nearly fell off the bed.

"No. No. No.".Her breathing became uneven. The cameras, the alarms…the sensors. The locks…every security measure in the house.

And yet—

Someone had entered her bedroom, someone had stood beside her bed while she slept and someone had left a flower close enough to touch her. A scream tore from her throat before she could stop it.

"STEPHANIE!"

The entire house exploded into chaos, footsteps thundered upstairs and doors slammed open.

Lights flicked on but Seraphina never took her eyes off the rose because sitting beneath it...

Almost hidden beneath the stem...was another note she hadn't noticed before. Her shaking fingers unfolded it and her heart stopped.

‘Turn around.’