Chapter Text
The envelope was sitting on his desk by the time Kyle arrived home that night—a small, unassuming manila folder roughly the size of a sheet of paper. It stood out to him immediately, the square of white placed neatly atop the mess of textbooks and unfinished assignments. As he picked it up, he noticed that the window latch above his desk was broken, the edges of the window frame slightly scuffed.
A chill ran down his spine. Someone had broken into his room.
Clutching the envelope in his hand, he glanced around the room for any sign of a burglary. He knew that there had been an increase in muggings recently, but nobody to his knowledge had fallen victim to a breaking and entering case.
Nothing seemed out of place at first glance. His laptop was where he left it on the nightstand, and none of his valuables appeared to be missing. Unless…
Heart rate speeding up, he hurried over to his bed, urgently feeling around the space under it. His fingers brushed against the edge of his kite and he breathed a sigh of relief. His kite hadn’t been stolen and the notebook had been in his possession all day.
He stared suspiciously at the envelope in his hand. Did the intruder go through all the trouble of breaking in just to deliver a single letter?
He was suddenly reminded of the time in the hospital a few months ago, when his notebook and kite were delivered in a similar fashion. That’s right, he realized. Maybe this was another message from the anonymous sender. Had they finally resurfaced to send him another clue?
Unsealing the envelope, Kyle felt his stomach drop as a photo fell out. It was a screenshot of a security camera feed, zoomed in to focus on a familiar face. His own horrified expression stared back at him, captured in crystal clear definition. He didn’t need to read the timestamp at the bottom of the photo to know exactly when and where it was taken. Someone had been watching him in the lab, recording the exact moment he realized they were being monitored. And they knew where he lived.
His hands were trembling again, the same way they did when he first saw the whiteboard of photos, and he heard something crinkle inside the folder he clutched. Shakily reaching back into the envelope, his fingers grazed the edge of a smaller laminated photo, slicing a neat line of crimson across his index. He instinctively withdrew his hand, wincing. His chest heaved as he took a deep breath and pulled out the other photo. It was another screencap taken from a video feed, but it clearly wasn’t from the lab. Kyle squinted. He saw himself sitting in a chair, back facing the camera as he talked to a uniformed man at a desk.
With a jolt, he realized what he was looking at. It was footage from his visit to the police station, where he had tried to tell them about the lab and the unnerving discoveries he’d found inside. He felt his throat constrict as he struggled to process the information. The stalker had access to security cameras in the station, which meant they were either working with the police or the police was working for them.
No words were written but the message was clear. Tell on me again and see what happens.
–
Kyle didn’t stay long after that. He couldn’t, not after a stalker had been inside his room without his knowledge. He felt sick just thinking about it, and he hated how much power the anonymous stalker held over him, robbing him of his privacy and his security. The disgust and anger blurred his vision as he packed, haphazardly throwing clothes into a backpack as he tried to swallow the hard knot constricting his throat.
Where could he even go this late at night? He scrolled through his phone, searching through his contacts for someone that could take him in for a night. Kyle wasn’t close enough with most of them to suddenly barge into their place and demand for a couch to crash on.
He could ask Kenny, but he lived with two other roommates in a triple dorm on the other side of campus. There was barely enough space for the three of them, much less an additional uninvited guest.
Craig was the only other person he could think of, but his dorm only came with one bed, and neither of them were jumping at the chance to share it. He could sleep on the floor, but it would be a tight squeeze and not feasible long term.
There was also Stan. But he had barely been replying recently, his response time stretching from hours into days. If he called, would he pick up? Kyle pulled out his phone. He stared at Stan’s number, thumb hovering over it as he worked through the pros and cons. All he had to do was close that minuscule gap between his finger and the screen. He bit the inside of his cheek.
He ended up at the library, lugging his giant bag behind him as he searched for a place to sleep. Despite the voice in his head telling him this was rock bottom, Kyle tried to stay positive. The library was a pretty good place to stay in, temporarily. It was open 24/7, and midterm season meant that he could blend in with the other students pulling all-nighters there. Nobody gave him a second glance as he set up camp in a study cubicle in the corner. It had a desk and a chair, and it was even semi private, with cloudy plastic screens that walled off three sides. He looked around halfheartedly. This would work. Temporarily.
“…Kyle?”
A familiar voice made him freeze. Kyle turned around to see a face he hadn’t seen in weeks. “Stan?”
Stan stared back at him, the surprise on his face mirroring Kyle’s. He was dressed in a worn Broncos hoodie, textbooks in hand.
Kyle had thought a lot about what he’d say the next time he saw him. Would he apologize first, or confront Stan for ghosting him? But at that moment, he didn’t feel guilty or angry–he just felt overwhelming relief. He opened his mouth to say something, maybe ask how he’d been doing or if he could stay at Stan’s for a night. Kyle wasn’t sure yet but he was ready to put the miscommunication behind them and finally talk again.
But then Stan shifted uncomfortably and the moment was over. His eyes darted somewhere to the left, and Kyle felt his stomach sink.
Obviously Stan wasn’t here to talk to him. He didn’t even know Kyle was here. There had been a little part of him that had clung onto the hope that maybe Stan wasn’t distancing himself, that he was just busy or cutting down his screen time. But seeing him standing here looking like he wanted to be anywhere else just confirmed Kyle’s worst anxieties. Stan really was avoiding him.
Kyle swallowed down the words he was going to say. Was he really about to ask to stay over when Stan couldn’t even stand being in the same room as him? Maybe he’d gone temporarily insane with everything that had happened. He didn’t know how to talk to this unfamiliar version of Stan, who kept him at arm’s length and acted awkwardly around him. “…what are you doing here?” he ended up asking.
Stan hesitated. “...I’m studying for midterms with some friends. You?”
“Oh, uh, me too,” Kyle’s ears reddened as he tried to subtly nudge his bulging backpack further behind him. “Pulling an all-nighter. I’ve…got a lot to memorize.”
Stan’s gaze flickered between Kyle and the bag for a moment. He gave him a tight lipped smile. “Well, good luck.”
He didn’t spare him another glance as he walked off, disappearing down the rows of bookshelves.
–
“You look shittier than usual,” Kenny observed as he took a sip of his drink. He held up a cookie that was more crumbs than cookie. “Want a bite to cheer you up?”
Kyle shot him a sarcastic look. “The cookie I bought you that you ate most of? I’m good, thanks.”
“Your loss.” Kenny shrugged and popped the rest into his mouth, satisfied.
Sighing, Kyle buried his head in his hands. The past few days had taken a toll on him, both mentally and physically. It was uncomfortably cramped inside the cubicle, and he had forgotten to bring a pillow in his hurry to flee his room. As a result, his neck and back ached constantly from sleeping bent over a desk every night. The word ‘sleeping’ was an over exaggeration though, because the few broken REM cycles he got per night barely qualified as a nap.
At least he had been able to maintain a decent level of hygiene, ducking into the gym next door for five minute showers every morning. The hot water that stripped away his soreness was the only good part of his day, but even that couldn’t be savored for long. Leaving his bag unattended for more than ten minutes would only result in one of two situations.
Best case scenario, someone moves his belongings out of the cubicle and he has to fight for another spot in a packed library.
Worst case scenario, he gets robbed.
But things couldn’t keep going on like this. He was struggling to stay awake in class and his notes would blur together every time he tried to study. Even though he felt sick every time he thought about it, he knew he needed to suck it up and move back into his dorm. He had already made an appointment with a locksmith tomorrow afternoon to repair and reinforce his window latch, so he just needed to get through today.
Even now, he could feel his eyelids drooping as he fought to keep them up. His head felt like a brick, lolling forward as if it would drop into his lap if he relaxed his neck a little. Maybe if he just shut his eyes for a second…
“Hellooo? Did you even hear what I just said?” Kenny waved a hand in front of his face, bringing him back to reality. “Huh?”
Kenny furrowed his brows. “Dude, you’re seriously out of it. I know you’re on the midterms grind and all, but you need a nap.”
“I know.” Kyle nodded, each dip making it harder to raise his head back up. “And I’ll take one after today, I swear.”
“You better. I mean this with love, but you look like a dead body. And not one of those recently dead ones, you look like the corpse they drag out of the creek and it’s all like bloated and decaying and people are like ‘just throw it back in th-”
“Okay, I get it.” Kyle interrupted him. “Thanks a lot for the confidence booster.”
He gave him a thumbs up. “Anytime.”
Kyle grabbed his bag and got up to leave, but not before tipping the napkin of cookie crumbs into Kenny’s lap. He shot up, hastily dusting the crumbs off his legs. “Hey! These are like my last pair of clean pants, dick. Laundry’s not cheap, you know!”
“Consider it paying respects to the dead.” Kyle replied, ignoring the middle finger as he walked out.
Of course, fixing his sleeping dilemma was a lot easier said than done. But the end was in sight. He just needed to make it through one more night. Just one more night. And then it was back to the constant fear of being watched, because deep down he knew that a new window latch wasn’t going to stop an obsessive stalker.
He tried not to think about as he trudged to the cubicle he usually slept in. It was nearly two in the morning, so most students would be gone, right?
His heart sank as he drew closer, someone’s back clearly visible as they leaned against the cubicle screen. Just his luck. He was about to leave and look for another cubicle when the figure turned around. “Hey.”
He could barely make out the person in the dim lamplight, but Kyle recognized the voice instantly. What was Stan doing here? His exhaustion must’ve finally gotten to him. “...hi.”
Stan was quiet for a second before he spoke. “Want to stay at my place tonight?”