Closer When We Should be Far

006

wednesdays pov

me and bianca had a nice little fencing session in the biggest clearing in the woods. the birds were chirping, the sun was up (a factor i disliked-fencing in the woods at night was much better) and the day was brisk and cold and crisp, as i liked, with the orange and gold leaves littering the floor and the now twiglike trees waving in the air.

 it was quite fun; both of us won two matches each and eventually it was nearly dinner and we had to head back. it had only been about three hours and everyone was heading back up to the castle from their days out on the grounds enjoying the nice fall weather, chatting in groups or pairs. however, on my way up to the castle i noticed something quite odd.

 the room appeared to be empty-that was, thing was with xavier, learning to paint and maybe make a new talent of one-handed masterpieces, and enid was about a mile off, her white-blond head with the bright pink and blue easy to see in the crowd, next to the black that was yoko. they appeared to be coming in from jericho. 

 but if the room appeared to be empty, and xavier was with thing and not joel now, why was their someone entering from our balcony? the door was locked, probably, but the figure looked oddly like joel. i breathed in sharply. bianca hadnt noticed, so i just said my farewells and headed toward ophelia hall instead of the great hall where the smells of dinner was wafting out the open windows.

 my mind was racing. did this confirm my suspicions about joel? was he sneaking into our dorm for sinister reasons and activities, or just looking for something hed left in there earlier? wasnt it possible that he wasnt the stalker but was just innocent? maybe he didnt know i was out and was coming to see me or thing. but then hed come through the door... maybe he wanted to make a big entrance or something. 

that seemed to be his specialty.

or maybe he actually was my stalker and he was heading in to do something. hide, set traps, lay some kind of explosive. my jaw set. he would not hurt thing or enid or me. no. i reached the corridor ending at our dorm and crept down it slowly, quietly, catlike. creeping around lurking in shadows spying and stalking was MY specialty.

 if he actually was my stalker, then too bad joel, the turns have tabled. now it was me stalking HIM. the irony... but i didnt want this, this would be so hard on me. as much as i wanted to stay calm he had been my one and only friend in childhood, helped me solve those mysteries, helped me save my uncle who was so close to me today. if joel hadnt helped me save him, he couldnt have saved thing and i wouldve lost both of them. 

i knew deep down that if joel was my stalker only one of us could live. and i could not die. i had to live to bring  tyler and gates down at least. THEN i could die. but i couldnt sit up in hell and watch them run wild killing my friends, so. the door was open a crack. this was very risky, but i peered in. lucky for me joel had his back to me, and his arms raised above his head. he seemed to be hooking some kind of camera up.

 he then took out his phone and waved it around near the camera until it made a slight noise, and i could see our dorm from the camera's view where it could hear and see the entire room except for the bathroom where the door was closed and our closets. i inhaled sharply. why was he spying on me? surely he couldnt be my stalker.

 he was just keeping an eye on me, that was all. usually i would jump to conclusions about people no matter how innocent they actually were. if there was so much as two clues together pointing at one person i would automatically go threaten or torture them; look at xavier. i got him stuck in jail. normally i would jump right in that room and start fighting joel. but i could not make myself.

 somehow, he was different. hed saved the lives of both thing and uncle fester. he had been my first love and my first kiss, and fully understood that i would never be like others-yet he still chose to be around me. he still supported me in the mystery we solved together even though he didnt understand it and it wasnt about him, and along the way wed grown a bond that even when we parted not knowing when wed see each other again we had only grown stronger. and i just didnt know what would happen if i had to do something.

 he seemed satisfied as he put his phone back in his pocket and i realized where he was going a split second before he went, heading towards the door where i was. i flung myself to the side, my heart beating fast, and he exited and mercifully went the other way down the corridor without even looking my way, not noticing me.

 i let out the breath i didnt know id been holding, and then entered the dorm to go lay on my bed and think. there were four ways this could go. number one, i pretend i dont know about the camera in front of it and then go tell enid outside so she knows just in case, but there was a chance hed know or shed let it slip, and then shed want to help me confront him, which was a danger to her safety, so... no.

 two, i could tell enid in front of the camera and let her see it, and then wait for joel to realize and come find us, and then we could stake him out, trap him and surround him like we did tyler, and then fight him; he couldnt take us all at once-but that put the safety of ALL of us in danger, plus it meant asking for help from a main group of like seven people, all of whom were weaknesses just as much as they were strengths-but still, the more chances for casualties and slip-ups and letting our plan out over a drink at a party. nope.

three, i could let him know i knew by talking or looking directly to the camera, at which point i was risking me not knowing enough or being ready: i needed to have the weapons, a set date and time, a proper plan, and all of that could go wrong if enid or an unsuspecting person came into the dorm and got caught in the middle of me seemingly talking to the rafters. then there was also the risk of him NOT actually being my stalker and me just acting rashly. not a good idea. 

 or there was plan four, which had a serious con but a serious pro. the con was that i would have to play dumb, making joel think i was not a big threat but also ruining my serial killer reputation-and that meant if anyone got on the case i would have to push them off and make them also feel or look dumb. but then that meant it would give me time to gather information, weapons and backup plans, enforce my theories, back things up, learn joel's strengths and weaknesses AND have time to process. so i would just wait until he made his move and then use that and everyth-ing else as proof, knock him off, do what i needed. i could stay well away from him, push him away. 

 i could treat him like just another normal person in the friend group, in case getting closer would mean he would be onto me onto him, or would make him choose to act faster for some reason. laying back and looking at him through someone else's eyes could let me notice more and more smaller clues he was dropping without knowing he was dropping them to me and my notice.

 that seemed the best option. i allowed my eyes to rove around as i thought, so when i moved them casually over where the camera was, taking in a brief glimpse of it but computing it all the same, it seemed normal. hed hidden it in the middle of the ceiling where the crossbeams cross, so it was shrouded and hidden well. if i hadnt known it was there i wouldnt see it, and that made joel only a bigger threat that he was clever enough to do that. 

 this was not going to be easy at all, but i had to start gathering information. i could ask him light and casual questions, i could talk to xavier about him. about what he seemed like, what hed let slip to the innocent, unsuspecting artist, thinking that xavier couldnt connect it to anything. i'd ask thing to spy on him and could even do a daring probe of his side of his and xavier's shared dorm room. 

unbelievable. i had no clue why hed turn on me, what had happened to him since our little falling in love. but something had changed. and it wasnt good.