Ethan's POV
We crashed through the emergency exit, Adrian's hand locked around mine.
"The gymnasium!" Emma shouted behind us. "There's people there—he won't try anything in front of witnesses!"
My lungs burned. My legs screamed. But Vincent's footsteps echoed behind us, getting closer.
"Ethan, stop running," Vincent called out, his voice sickeningly sweet. "I just want to talk. I've missed you so much."
"Keep moving!" Adrian pulled me harder.
We burst into the gymnasium. Emergency lights cast everything in red. Hundreds of students sat on bleachers, wrapped in blankets, talking in worried groups.
"Blend in," Emma hissed. "Act normal. If he sees us panicking, he'll know we're onto him."
We pushed into the crowd. Maya was already there, waving us over. "What the hell happened? You guys look like you've seen a ghost!"
"Worse," Adrian said, scanning the entrance. "We've seen Vincent."
"Vincent Park?" Maya's eyes went wide. "Lucas's brother? The one who filed the complaint?"
"He's V," I said, my voice shaking. "He's been behind everything."
"That's impossible. Vincent's a graduate student. He's studying abroad in—"
"He's here," Emma interrupted. "I traced his IP address. He's been on campus this whole time."
The gymnasium doors opened.
Vincent Park walked in.
He looked normal. Too normal. Tall, handsome, with dark hair and an easy smile. He wore a Crestwood hoodie and jeans, carrying a coffee cup like he was just another concerned student checking on the evacuation.
Nobody would ever guess he was a stalker.
He scanned the crowd, his eyes methodical, searching.
Searching for me.
"Get down," Adrian whispered, pulling me behind the bleachers.
We crouched there, the four of us—me, Adrian, Emma, and Maya—hiding like scared children.
"This is insane," Maya breathed. "We should call the police. Tell them everything—"
"And say what?" Emma asked. "That a graduate student who filed a legitimate stalking complaint is actually the stalker? They won't believe us without proof."
"We have proof! The messages, the laptop—"
"All destroyed. Vincent made sure of it." Emma's face was grim. "He's been planning this for months, maybe years. He's not going to slip up now."
I peeked through the bleacher slats. Vincent was talking to Dean Whitmore now, his face concerned and helpful. Playing the role of worried student perfectly.
"We need to get out of here," I said. "Somewhere safe. Somewhere he can't find us."
"Where?" Adrian asked. "He's been in our room. He has access to campus buildings. He probably knows our schedules, our friends, everything."
"Then we go off-campus," Emma said. "My parents have an apartment in the city. Twenty minutes away. We can hide there while we figure out what to do."
"How do we get past him?" Maya pointed. Vincent was positioning himself near the exit, watching everyone who left.
Smart. He knew we'd try to run eventually.
"There's a back exit," Adrian said slowly. "Through the equipment room. It leads to the faculty parking lot."
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"Basketball practice. Coach showed us all the exits in case of emergency." Adrian's jaw clenched. "This definitely counts as an emergency."
We waited until Vincent's attention was on Dean Whitmore, then moved. Quietly, carefully, staying low.
The equipment room was dark and smelled like old basketballs. We felt our way through, hands outstretched.
"Watch the—" Maya started.
CRASH.
A stack of cones fell over, clattering across the floor.
We all froze.
Footsteps approached. Fast.
"In here," Adrian whispered, pulling open a storage closet. "Now!"
We crammed inside—four people in a space meant for mops and buckets. The door clicked shut just as the equipment room door opened.
"Hello?" Vincent's voice. Right outside our closet. "Is someone in here?"
I pressed my hand over my mouth to keep from breathing too loud. Adrian's arm wrapped around me protectively. I could feel his heart pounding against my back.
Vincent's footsteps moved slowly through the room. Searching.
"I know you're here, Ethan," he said softly. "I can always find you. Just like when we were kids, remember? You'd hide in the playground fort and I'd always find you within five minutes."
I did remember. I'd thought it was impressive back then. Now it was terrifying.
"You were always so bad at hiding," Vincent continued. His footsteps stopped right outside our closet. "Your breathing gives you away. You breathe faster when you're scared."
Oh God. Could he hear us?
"I'm not going to hurt you," Vincent said, and he actually sounded hurt. "I would never hurt you, Ethan. I love you. I've loved you since we were eight years old. Everything I've done—getting rid of Adrian, coming to Crestwood, planning all of this—it's all for you. For us."
Emma's phone buzzed in her pocket.
The sound was like a gunshot in the silence.
Vincent went still. "Gotcha."
The closet door flew open.
Vincent stood there, smiling. "Found you."
Adrian moved first. He shoved Vincent hard, making him stumble back. "RUN!"
We bolted.
Out of the equipment room, down the hallway, Vincent's angry shouts behind us.
"You can't protect him!" Vincent screamed at Adrian. "He doesn't even like you! He's just using you because he feels sorry for you!"
The words hit me harder than they should.
Was that true? Was I only defending Adrian out of pity?
No. No, that wasn't right. I defended him because—because—
"Don't listen to him!" Adrian gasped as we ran. "He's trying to mess with your head!"
We burst through the back exit into the faculty parking lot. Emma clicked her key fob and a car beeped.
"There!" She ran for a silver sedan.
We piled in—Emma driving, Maya in passenger seat, me and Adrian in the back. Emma peeled out of the parking lot before we'd even closed the doors.
"Is he following?" Maya twisted around to look.
I checked. The parking lot was empty. "I don't see him."
"He's going to find us," Adrian said quietly. "He always does. He's been tracking us somehow."
"How?" I demanded.
"I don't know, but—" Adrian's face went pale. "Our phones. He could have installed tracking apps when he had access to our room."
Emma cursed and pulled over. "Everyone, turn off your phones. Now. Pull the batteries if you can."
We all scrambled to shut down our phones.
"There's one more thing," I said slowly, a horrible realization forming. "Vincent said he transferred to Crestwood. That means he's officially enrolled. He has student access to everything—buildings, systems, records."
"So he can track our class schedules," Maya said. "Our meal plans. Our library checkouts. Everything."
"We're not safe anywhere on campus," Emma agreed.
"Then we don't go back," Adrian said firmly. "We stay away until we have proof to show the police."
"But our classes—" I started.
"Ethan, Vincent tried to kidnap you tonight!" Adrian grabbed my shoulders. "Classes don't matter if you're dead!"
The word 'dead' hung in the air.
"You think he'd actually kill me?" I whispered.
Adrian's expression was grim. "I think he's obsessed enough to do anything. Including eliminate anyone who gets between him and you."
Emma's apartment was small but secure. Triple locks on the door. Security cameras in the hallway.
"My parents won't be back until Monday," Emma said, locking all three locks. "We're safe here for now."
"Now what?" Maya asked, collapsing on the couch. "We can't hide forever."
"We need evidence," Emma said. "Real, solid proof that Vincent is V. Something the police can't ignore."
"How?" I asked. "He destroyed everything."
"Not everything." Emma opened her laptop. "I've been screen-recording Vincent's messages all night. I have copies of everything he sent—the threats, the photos, all of it."
"That's genius," Maya breathed.
"It's not enough," Adrian said. "He'll claim the messages are fake. That we doctored them to frame him because of his stalking complaint against me. We need something more concrete."
"Like what?"
"Like a confession." Adrian's eyes were calculating. "If we can get Vincent to admit what he's done on camera, that's evidence the police can't ignore."
"How do we do that?" I asked.
"We bait him." Adrian looked at me. "He wants you, Ethan. So we give him what he wants."
"Absolutely not!" Maya jumped up. "That's insane! You want to use Ethan as bait for a psycho stalker?"
"I'm not saying we actually let Vincent take him. I'm saying we make him think he can." Adrian turned to Emma. "Can you set up hidden cameras? Make it look like Ethan's alone and vulnerable?"
Emma thought about it. "Yeah. I have equipment from the Digital Media Club. We could set up a controlled environment, make it look real—"
"No!" I said loudly. "Nobody's using me as bait!"
"Ethan—" Adrian started.
"I said no! This is my life we're talking about! I get a vote!"
"And I'm trying to save your life!" Adrian shouted back. "Vincent isn't going to stop! He's been planning this for eight years! The only way to end this is to catch him in the act!"
"Then we'll find another way!"
"There is no other way!"
We glared at each other, breathing hard.
"Actually," Emma said slowly, "there might be one other option."
We all turned to her.
"Vincent thinks he's in control, right? He thinks he's always three steps ahead." Emma's smile was sharp. "What if we flip the script? What if we make him think he's losing control? Make him panic and slip up?"
"How?" Maya asked.
"By making him jealous." Emma looked between me and Adrian. "Vincent wants Ethan. But what if Ethan's clearly, publicly, obviously in love with someone else? Someone Vincent has been trying to eliminate this whole time?"
My stomach dropped. "You mean—"
"I mean you and Adrian pretend to be together," Emma finished. "Really together. In love. Inseparable. It'll drive Vincent crazy. And crazy people make mistakes."
Adrian and I stared at each other.
"That's—" I started.
"Perfect," Adrian said softly, his eyes locked on mine. "It's perfect."
"Perfect?" I squeaked. "We'd have to—to—"
"Date. Hold hands. Act like a couple." Adrian stepped closer. "Could you do that, Ethan? Could you pretend to be in love with me?"
My heart was racing for reasons that had nothing to do with Vincent.
"I—" I couldn't finish the sentence.
Emma's laptop dinged.
She looked at the screen and her face went white. "Oh no."
"What?"
"Vincent just posted something." She turned the laptop around.
It was a photo. Recent. Very recent.
It showed the four of us running through the dark campus. The angle suggested it was taken from above, maybe from a drone.
And the caption: "Run all you want, Ethan. I'll always find you. You can't hide from destiny. And by the way—I know exactly where you are right now. Sleep tight. ❤️ -V"
The apartment suddenly felt very small.
Very exposed.
"He knows we're here," Maya whispered.
A sound came from the hallway outside. Footsteps.
Slow. Deliberate. Stopping right outside Emma's door.
The door handle rattled.
Someone was trying to get in.
"Emma," I breathed. "Tell me you have a back exit."
Her terrified expression was answer enough.
We were trapped.
And Vincent was right outside.