DELICATE / Brandon Darrow

four

four
be there
FIRST PERSON

I WALKED INTO SCHOOL and got a message from m0nk3ym4nnn. It was almost as if on cue. I stared at it for a moment, looking around me to see if anyone looked suspicious enough for me to believe it could have been them that sent it, but everyone walked around me as if I didn't exist.

I hesitantly decided to press open the message.

M0NK3YM4NNN:
be there.

I was confused and really scared. Luckily, I saw Rowan and Hailey running up to me. They probably spotted me as I stood in the middle of the school parking lot, awkwardly stopped.

"Did you get anything from Monkey Man?" Rowan asked me, most likely because she had; and because she saw me staring down at my phone.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Let's talk to Elisia," Rowan suggested.

We ran up to Elisia and Hailey started the talking. "We all got photos from Monkey Man, did you get one too?" She asked with raised brows.

Elisia looked down at her phone and then nodded.

"Today's date," Rowan turned to face her phone our direction so we could see.

"12, midnight," Hailey showed her phone as well.

Elisia showed us a picture of a motel.

"Be there," I read aloud, showing them my phone.

"Where's that?" Hailey asked us.

"I don't know," Rowan shrugged in response.

"I do," Elisia spoke up. "It's this old motel in South U."

"That's a really, really bad part of town. My dad is always getting called down there," Rowan realized before her tone got curious. "Do you go there or something?"

"Uh, I- I used to, sometimes," Elisia answered. "People party at the motels."

Then the bell rang.

"Well, he wants us to go there tonight," Rowan stated the obvious.

"Screw that," Hailey said, speaking for us all.

"True. Why should we go somewhere, in the bad part of town to meet a Monkey Man?" I asked, air quoting his persona with my fingers.

"No thanks," Elisia finished.

A cop scurried us to class and left our discussion unanswered.

♡

I was by my locker when I saw Sean getting too close to Hailey. She pushed him away. Then Nicki appeared out of no where. I know something is going on, and I'm gonna find out.

"I got to go," I heard Hailey say. "Cynthia, I need you," she called my name which brought the attention on me.

When I passed by Sean, he grabbed my arm. "Text me when you're home," he said, and I just nodded.

Hailey then had us meet up with Rowan and Elisia and drove us to Rowan's sister's to find out more about Monkey Man.

We walked into Rowan's sister's warehouse and went inside this room.

"Who's this?" Her sister asked, pointing at me.

"I'm Cynthia. Cynthia Marks," I answered politely.

"Oh, I'm Brie," she greeted. "Look at this, I pinged on a second account for the same user, you gotta see this," she continued. "Anonymous 905, there's this link in his bio but when you click it, this is all you get."

We all took a look and saw a timer.

"96 hours?" Rowan questioned.

"'Till what?"

She gave me a very worried and confused look. "Who knows. But you guys gotta see these videos," Brie clicked on a video of Rowan at the grocery store.

"That's me," Rowan stated in shock.

Then she clicked on a video of Hailey walking down a street.

"And that's me," Hailey said. "Yesterday."

Then there was a video of Elisia walking into her house. And a video of me leaving my house last night to meet Elisia.

"Have you guys seen anyone following you?" Brie asked.

We all nodded no.

"You should tell dad," Brie said.

Then she clicked on another video of someone's house.

"Oh no," Rowan whispered. "That's my house," it was a video of Rowan sleeping. "He was in my room?"

I grabbed her hand and she held back. Whoever was messing with us took it too far.