Chapter Four

Stalking Her

As he sat in his car, watching, waiting. He tapped an impatient finger on the wheel in front of him, waiting for her. A sadistic smile spreading on his lips at the though of how much torture he was about to dish. This one will be a good one, he could just feel it.

Silver shook her head at her obviously wrong decision to drive, the entire parking lot was filled and she could just guess how packed the mall would be at this time. She sighed defeatedly, regretting why she had even agreed to meet Elina here. While her best friend was the outgoing, extroverted, and loud between them, she was the complete opposite, shying away from crowds, noise and the lot. Sighing once more she backed her car into the street and parked close to the end of it, grumbling to herself about how she’d have to walk the long distance to and from the mall.

She checked her image in the mirror once before finally exiting her car, locking the doors behind her and tucking her keys into her bag. A sudden chill feeling descended upon her causing a shiver to run up her spine. She felt like she had eyes on her and she turned her eyes quickly to scan the almost empty street. Seeing nothing but a black car parked at the far end of the street. Shaking off the feeling, she takes hurried steps towards the mall, feeling the eyes follow her every movement. She pulls out her phone from her pocket, quickly dialing her best friend.

“Hey babes, where are you?” Came Elina’s loud voice.

“Walking toward the mall, didn’t get a space in the parking lot so I had to park down the street. Could you come out please, so I don’t have to look for you in the large mall.” She said, in a whisper. Turning this way and that, to check if she was been followed, or if she could spot the source of the weird eyes on her.

“Are you okay? You sound weird.” Elina replied, worry slipping into her voice.

“Yeah I’m fine, just stay on the phone with me.”

“Sure honey, I’m standing close to a ridiculous pink car, I mean pink? Who the hell buys a pink car? It probably belongs to a high school cheerleader with a bitchy attitude. Because pink? Omg I can’t deal.” Elina blabbed on the other end.

Silver chuckled lightly, feeling relief wash over her at hearing best friend chatter over her annoyance for the innocent pink car. Turning into the lot of the mall, she spots Elina, right next to the “ridiculous pink car” increasing her stride to reach her best friend sooner.

Elina squealed on seeing Silver walk towards her. Taking the phone off her ear to pull her into a hug laughing loudly.

“Guess what store is on massive sales?” Elina said in a singsong. Grabbing onto Silver’s hand and pulling her along. Silver felt the sensation return to her spine. She walked a little closer to Elina, feeling a little comfort from her best friend. She tried to look around subtly again, hoping she’d find the source of her discomfort, but no such luck, the mall was crowded and everywhere that she look, there seemed to be people hanging around.

“Are you hungry? Have you had breakfast? Let’s go into this diner and have something before we start shopping.” Elina said, unaware of the dilemma Silver seemed to be going through.

“Hi, a table for two?” Asked a young blonde woman, leading them to a table.

“What can I get you?” She asked politely.

“Yeah I’ll have a lemonade please and this one will have coffee.” Elina ordered for them both, knowing how stressed Silver got over making a simple order.

The blonde waitress scribbled their order on her notepad.

“What about food? Do you need sometime to go through the menus?” She asked once again, smiling slightly at them.

“I’ll have a regular burger and fries and she will have a hotdog. Thank you!” Elina smiled a bit too wide for comfort. Silver rolled her eyes at how cheeky her best friend could be.

Suddenly Silver’s attention was drawn to a man that was sitting at a booth on the other side of the diner, his gaze fixated on her and a scowl plastered across his face. His eyes were pitch black, almost staring into her soul and after a few seconds, he slowly shook his head causing Silver to shift in her seat uncomfortably. She couldn’t understand the rage that seemed to be coming off him. Was it directed at her? Who was he? And what did he have to do with her? She cleared her throat awkwardly, dropping her head so she could no longer see him, but after a couple of seconds, she looked up again but the booth was empty. The man was gone.

She raised her glasses over the bridge of her nose, rubbing lightly at her eyes, squinting as she stared over at the booth again. Confusing overwhelming her. She was sure she had seen a man there. Or not? Silver took deep breaths trying to convince herself that she was just tired and hadn’t had a thing to eat, since her last meal the previous day.

“Silver, are you okay?” Elina asked, worry coating her voice, her brows furrowed as she turned around, scanning the diner before turning back to her worry masking her face.

“Oh yeah, I just thought I saw someone. Never mind.” She replied, waving away her worry, as she forced a smile upon her face for Elina’ sake.

“Oh okay, so I got a call from my dad yesterday and he wants me to let you know to be careful, says something about it being unsafe these days, with the troubles brewing left and right. I’m not sure I understand most of what he means but whatever just stay safe, okay?” Elina says, closing her hands on Silver’s smaller one in comfort.

“Of course I will.” She replied, contemplating telling her best friend the happenings of the previous evening with the enigmatic Russian and his crew, and the flash drive that she had found. Knowing her big mouthed best friend though, she decides against it, at least until she can figure out the contents of the drive herself.

“Silver are you even listening to me? What’s wrong, you don’t look okay?” Elina asked, tapping on her hands lightly to get her attention. She realized that she had been letting her eyes wander the diner. Paranoia still overwhelming her.

Taking a sip of her coffee she says. “Yeah I think my blood sugar is just a little low.”

“I’ll go ask how long our food will be. Sit tight.” She replied, Quickly getting up and making her way to the server, causing Silver to sigh once more to herself. Pressing her dainty fingers to her forehead.

She scanned the diner, dropping her head once more when she realized that no one was watching her, the man had seemed so real and all of a sudden, he’d just disappeared, making Silver question her sanity.

However the image of his furious face seemed to take over her mind, replaying again and again, causing the fear in her chest to bubble up once more and run through her veins.