Page 3 of Terror Tuesday

Attempting to ignore him, I stroll up, ready to enter where he came from, but he steps in my way. “Where you going, girl?”

“I heard a noise, so I’m trying to find Hunter. Is he in there?”

With a sly motion, he leans his forearm on the wall above me, blocking me in. “Has the president ofOmega Nu Epsilongone rogue? Come to cheat for your sisters?”

I shake my head rapidly, glaring into his light brown eyes as they scan my breasts. Inadvertently, I slide my palms down my gold sequin dress, tugging on the bottom to lengthen it. “No.ONEdoesn’t need help with grades. Weearnthem,” I mock him with a sneer.

As he makes some denigrating remark that I ignore, I duck under his arm.

The metal door groans, opening into a cave-like space lit only by the blue lights of monitors lining a narrow wall. Wires, carts filled with computer parts, dust, cords… Everything is askew. Messy. Dusty.

Each facet on my dress sends a prism around the small room as it catches the glow of electronics. Like I’m a mirror ball in a cyberpunk crypt.

Hunter sits next to a man wearing a black hoodie, facing the displays. “Thought you were staying in the fucking car, Olivia.”

As I open my mouth, Bryce sticks his head in. “Hunter. We need you. There’s that, uh,problemhanging about.”

Hunter’s not moving, but I can sense his frustration. “Give me a fucking minute.”

Bryce shuts the door, and I wander in closer to the only empty seat, a metal folding chair near a rickety shelf filled with crumbling cardboard boxes. Hunter’s eyes dart over to me like I’ve interrupted his speech, but he continues his conversation with the man sitting next to him.

“The payment was already made.”

Velvet pours from the throat of the figure covered in black clothes from head to toe. His voice is smooth and practiced, like he’s used to making people listen. When he turns toward me, the shadows swallow his face whole. No features. No eyes. Just darkness staring back. A mask?

“It’s not enough. Not for how much work I’m doing to ensureBeta’sgrades are where you want them to be.”

“You quoted the same price as last semester!”

“Perhaps you shouldn’t have recruited people with room-temperature IQs, then. More work, more payment. Take it or leave it.”

Hunter sits back with a huff, and I know he’s raging inside. No one denies him without consequences. With a sudden shift, he stands, shoving the metal chair beneath him back a few inches. “I gotta find more cash. I’ll be right back.”

My legs twitch to follow him as he leaves, but I freeze when he pauses at the door. “Stay here, Olivia.”

I don’t like that this hacker knows my name. But when I glance over at him, he’s back to focusing on the computer, typing away in some code I don’t understand. Green prompts flash as the click of the keyboard sounds monotonously while flickers of different scenes pop up on the screens next to the one he’s working on.

I think about pulling out my phone but stop myself. He could hack it or something. Best to leave it in my bag. With my fingers, I comb through my long, dark hair, attempting to fix the mess it became on the way over here.

The changing images on the monitor pull my attention. First, it’s a shot of the empty street outside the warehouse with Hunter’s Porsche parked just outside. It rotates to a park setting… The one on campus behind the cathedral. Another view is of fraternity row. More of the campus. Admin building. Library. Sorority row. Then,Omegahouse.

My heart skips a beat at the next image of thebackofOmegahouse. Perhaps taken from the lake? The top right window is my room. Shifting in my seat, I swallow. It’s far enough away; it could just be monitoring our patio, but why is this hacker watching all these places?

The next image rips the breath from my lungs. My balcony. My fucking balcony. The angle is too high for a person. Too close for a street camera. Where was this taken from?

My limbs tighten, fingers twitching to grab my bag, my knife…something. But I freeze as the screen flickers.

Another image. This one closer.

The lamp next to my bed glows behind the curtains.

If I were standing there right now, could he see me?

Every hair on my body stands erect. A chill stiffens the air. Eyes darting around the space with worry, I think about running to Hunter for help, but before I can move, the figure stops his fingers from dancing across the keys.

Silence stretches the atmosphere into a strand of atoms. My ears buzz at the lack of sound. Heart pounds against my rib cage.

The hooded man turns to me and speaks from behind his mask. “You’re beautiful when you sleep. I can’t wait to see you when you’re awake.”