Hunt Me
I did not want to get up. I did not want to answer the door and I did not want to leave the warm comfort of my bed.
Who was at the door and why was this bitch so persistent? I started to really resent living in a place where people actually use doorbells.
"I am coming you douche bag!" I groaned and rolled out of bed and quite literally.
I crawled on the cream colored carpet towards my shoes and shoved them on my feet before slowly standing and shuffling my way to the door. By that time the door bell had stopped ringing but I was too angry to notice.
When I opened the door my hand immediately shot out with every intension of grabbing this douche bag, throttling him to death but all I caught was air. I lurched forward and stepped out on my left foot to catch myself. My foot landed with a splat on the door step.
"The hell?" I muttered and looked to back and forth searching for someone, anyone to lay my wrath on to. I finally decided to look down, just in case.
And there it was, on the door step, a seemingly insignificant piece of paper that would change my life and next to it was a red rose.
At the sight of these objects my paranoid side decided to kick in. "Great, now I have a stalker. What a wonderful world we live in."
I scowled at the note for a minute more before I decided to pick it up along with the rose and turned around sharply to enter my house. I took once last glance around in attempts to find the culprit but no one was there. I huffed in frustration.
A thought struck me when I entered the house, what if I really did not have a stalker but rather there was a neighborhood terrorist or someone out with a vendetta against me. What if someone send me a letter filled with anthrax and left a rose with it to throw me off?
"Shit…" I muttered to myself.
I put the possibly contaminated death letter and rose on the table as I ran about the house throwing on a long sleeve shirt, jeans, a pair or yellow cleaning gloves and a gas mask. Yes I had a gas mask.
With scissors in hand and tongs on stand-by I cut the letter open; I grabbed the tongs and slowly pulled the letter from the envelop to find that there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. I shook the envelope to make sure nothing fell out, no anthrax or other harmful substance.
I stopped for a moment and thought, if it's anthrax maybe it is a random note. Maybe they are demanding something like 'give me a million dollars or I'll kill your cat.'
I took a deep breath and removed my gas mask slowly. I pulled my gloves off and set everything on the table. Slowly I opened the letter fearing the worst but hoping for the best… whatever that may be.
Dear Asha,
I know you.
I have known you for quite some time but you do not know me as I have known you. For years I have watched you from a distance but now it is time for you to figure out my identity. I will lead you right to me, but there is one catch, you have to find me via scavenger hunt. The first clue will lead you to the second and the second to the third, and so on.
For my first clue, I will send you to the Beach, Saturday at 7 PM. There you will discover the next clue.
Good Luck
Mystery guy.
I read the letter again. And then again once more for effect. So I really did have a stalker. This was great. Not. I wasn't sure how to deal with stalkers but I read somewhere that if you don't give them what they want they get violent.
"Oh shit." I said a loud, "What if this guy is actually a murderer disguised as a stalker? Or what if he is murderer and doesn't know it yet and I will be the first in a long line of victims?" I started pacing. I was totally freaked out by the concept.
I had no idea who this guy was and I would not find out if I did not go through with it. If I never found out who this guy was then I would never be able to avoid him. Or, at the very least I would never find out which cities I could safely flee to.
"Do it and possibly get killed or don't do it and possibly get killed?" I asked myself once I had calmed down a little bit.
Being the dumb ass that I am I decided to play his game almost expecting my murderer out of it. At least I could haunt someone after I died.
Seven o'clock Saturday I was still freaking out a little bit. I hadn't left the house in the fear that the second I stepped out the door I would get sniped. But finally something pushed me and at precisely 7:01 I stepped out the door.
About two minutes before I reached the beach I heard someone approaching. I decided to act normal so they would be unaware of my suspicion. Or be able to kill me more easily.
"Asha… Hey! Wait up!" I heard a man yell from behind me and I could feel myself tense up a little. I looked over my shoulder and winced, expecting a fist to the face at the minimum.
I took a deep breath when I recognized the guy, "Embry?" My voice conveyed my confusion.
"No. I'm the cookie monster." He replied sarcastically.
"NO! I WANT MY COOKIES!" I yelled about ready to run away from him… or kick him in the shins, but it was all in the name of good fun… right?
"Uh… where are you headed?" He quickly changed the subject and I relaxed ever so slightly but still feared for my cookies. What, I am a closet fatty. Don't judge.
"Beach." I stated blatantly.
"I'll walk with you." He decided, not even giving me the chance to turn him down.
But I didn't mind to terribly much, knowing that I would be less likely to get shot or mauled by a bear if there was another person was with me.
We didn't speak another word till we got to the beach. Where I abruptly stopped and almost caused him to run into me. I surveyed my surroundings and looked for any signs of the stalker dude or murderers or bears…
"What are you looking for?" Embry asked me without actually bothering to help me look.
"Uh… I am not sure." I said still searching the beach. He gave me an inquisitive look that I caught out of the corner of my eye. "Some dude, who probably wants to kill me, sent me a note telling me that I have to go on some sort of scavenger hunt to find him." I almost said it like a question.
He chuckled at me as if it were a joke, "If you think that he is going to murder you, then why are you doing it?"
"So I can find out who he is and kill him before he kills me." I deadpanned without looking at him directly.
I wanted to laugh at his response when he stared at me wide eyed for several seconds unsure of how to respond. I knew I was wrong in thinking he'd assume it was a joke as he had before.
"I'm just kidding. So I can figure out who he is and avoid him like the plague because it is kind of hard to avoid someone if you have no idea who they are." I shrugged at him. He didn't need to know that I might actually be planning to leave La Push… or the state if it came to that.
"I guess that makes sense." He said with a disappointed tone that I somehow managed not to catch. But what I did catch was the sight of something off in the sand.
"What the…" I said when I noticed a sign staked into the ground with my name on it. I ran towards it, with Embry at my heels.
"How did we not manage to see this before?" Embry asked me and I pulled the note off the stake.
"Asha… Clue number one is the beach it's self. I like to come here and hang out with my friends when I can. Sometimes we do something that involves fire." I read aloud for Embry. "Beach… Fire... no idea." I shrugged and continued reading the note. "For clue number two you must go for a hike to tide pools just beyond the meadow that lays a mile or so North in the forest. Don't forget to take someone with you to fend off those bears. –Mystery Guy"
I wondered how he knew about my paranoia about bears and I also wondered if he just wanted more people to kill off.
"Well, seeing how I am superman and all I think it would be a good idea if I went with you." Embry winked at me and I wasn't sure how to respond so I ignored it.
"I have no idea where that is." I replied sheepishly. I guessed I would have to call off the stalker/murderer search after all.
"I know the forest like the back of my hand." He smirked at my wide eyed expression. "You have nothing to fear little one." He added on for effect.
"Besides murderers… and kidnapers… and tornados." I said slowly and glared at him in hopes he would feel my effect.
"We don't get tornados here." Embry informed me, "but we certainly do get zombies so you must look out for those." He teased.
"You never know!" I huffed and decided to go back to my house to analyze the first clue. I thought maybe I would recognize the hand writing but I was wrong.
The next day I was woken by a most familiar sound and another fit of rage.
"YOU BETTER HAVE COOKIES!" I yelled in attempts to get the door bell to stop ringing for once.
I stormed up to the door and hoped that whoever was on the other side could hear my anger through my footsteps. I then proceeded to rip open the door while glaring at whoever was the caused me to wake up.
"Oh… " My bad mood immediately relinquished and then I saw who was at my door. "Embry?" I said slightly confused by his presence.
"Yes, Embry." He laughed lightly and handed me a box of cookies. "My name must be easier to say in question form since that is how you always say it when I see you." He pushed his way through my door and into my house.
"Sure..." I rolled my eyes at him and ignored the fact that he had already made himself at home. "Is this about the hike?" I asked when I remembered my stalker and his scavenger hunt game.
"Yeah. We need to get an early start so we can figure out what these clues mean." He informed me but I noticed he was still sitting on the couch.
"Alrighty… Just let me go get dressed and then we can go." I raised an eyebrow and decided not to comment on him sitting on my couch.
Once I had dressed I packed a back pack full of extra clothes, some food for lunch or just in case we got lost and I grabbed some water. I finally managed to tell Embry to get off his butt so we could leave and he did so grudgingly.
It was drizzling outside which made the woods damp. As we walked through the somewhat dim woods I clutched the knife I had managed to slip passed Embry. We had a slight incident earlier when he had learned I wanted to carry a machete as a form of protection incase a mountain lion or the stalker that was planning to murder me popped up. Needless to say he made me leave it in the garage.
I was feeling very cautious without my machete but I felt better knowing I had something. And Embry ease some of the tension with light conversation. That was until we finally reached the tide pools.
I was a little creeped out when I saw the boat floating in the water. I had a sneaking suspicion that the stalker-murderer had been there not long before and he might have been watching.
In the little boat was some paper in a plastic baggie protecting it from the water. It reminded me of a message in a bottle but it was a message in a little toy boat. I immediately fished it out of the water and opened the new clue.
"Asha,
When I was a young boy I used to come here to escape the expectations of my parents. My most prized possession was this boat and I would spend hours playing in the tide pool. I used to think that someday I would become the captain of my own ship but that was not what my future had in store for me.
You next clue is at the cliffs. Three pm.
-Mystery Guy" I read for Embry and I was starting to feel a little confused by the game but decided not to question it.
I continued on this scavenger hunt every day for almost a week. Embry and I would go out to find the clue after clue but never find an actual person. I was beginning to get suspicious and wondered when and if I would ever actually meet "Mystery guy". But I had noticed that after a few days with Embry around I began to feel my paranoia lessen, like this guy might not actually be out to hurt me. I guess it helped that I still carried a knife around with me.
Clue number nine sent me to Jared and Kim's house, my old high school acquaintances and I knew that something was going to happen. I knew that it was the beginning of the end. I knew stalker boy would not send me to meet actual people if they were not going to lead me strait to him.
I should have known that he too would know these people and by default I would know who he was too.
I had to get clue number ten alone because I had told Embry that he was not needed to assist me on this clue and I could feel a sense of anxiety growing in the pit of my stomach as I stood on Kin and Jared's door step. I gripped the knife, in my pocket tightly.
When the door opened and I almost went to stab Kim as a reflex but I held back when I realized who it was.
"Asha! Hello." She smiled brightly and ushered me into her house.
"Uh… hey Kim." I said with uncertainty in my voice.
"I bet you are wondering what this is all about." Her tone suggested she knew something and her smile was all knowing.
"Hell yeah!" I exclaimed. She laughed.
"Alright then. Take a seat." I sat on her couch stiffly anticipating her words and she took a seat next to me.
She said nothing for a moment and it felt almost like when an announcer is about to call off the winner and takes a long dramatic pause.
"Who is he?" I break the silence, unable to bear it.
She sighed, "I cannot tell you that." Again she paused, "He wants to tell you that himself. What I am here to tell you is about you and him. You two have always been friends. Sure he has not been your best friend or anything of the sort but you do know him."
"Wait… so he isn't a murderer… or a stalker." I looked at her suspiciously and hoped that she wasn't trying to trick me, or play a prank on me.
She laughed.
For like five minutes.
"No!" She cried. "He's just a man… in love with you." She then looked a little alarmed at what she had said. "I wasn't supposed to say that… anyways; tomorrow he will reveal himself to you. Just go to the place where this all began at 6 pm."
I just blinked at her. "The place where it all began?" I asked her skeptically.
"Yes, he said you would know." She looked like she wasn't sure what to do.
"Yeah… I do." I sighed and slowly stood up, "It was really good to see you Kim." I smiled at her and gave her a hug before leaving her house.
I started to walk home, lost in thought. So he was sending me in circles. This was wonderful.
There was something about the whole situation that was bugging me and I couldn't remember what… And then I remembered one memory that I thought would be insignificant from my high school days.
Some people are nice. Some people are mean. Others are normal and some people are just plain scary. Me, I am what everyone likes to call, oblivious. I never noticed if some dude was ogling me or even if he were stalking me. Which meant that there was no way I would have ever noticed if a guy had a crush on me unless he said it outright. To my face.
I never noticed that he had liked me until one day when I was hanging out with my girl friends he swiftly approached us. Everyone stopped what they were doing when they noticed him. He sometimes had that effect on people.
"Hey girls." His deep manly voice said. "Hey, Asha." He said to me giving me that million dollar smile that all the girls fell for but me, being my oblivious self did not fall for anything.
"What's up?" I asked him as I would any other day.
"Can I speak with you for a second?" He looked into my eyes and I started to get the feeling that something was up. I ignored it of course.
"Yeah sure." I rose from my seat and followed him to a quiet place so we could talk.
"Uh… so… how have you been doing?" he asked nervously but I didn't really notice. What I did notice, though, was how close he was standing to me.
"Awesome." I said lightly and offered a small smile of reassurance.
"That's good." He was now messing with his hands, yet I still did not notice this symptom of his nervousness.
"So, what is it that you really want?" I was almost joking but somehow I knew he would take it seriously.
"You." He whispered.
Now, wait a second. There is one thing that I must state before any of this can go on and that is the fact that I love it when someone uses the cliché line, "What do you want?" and in turn get the response, "You." because I get to say, "Yeah well I want a Giant Panda from Santa but we can't always get what we want now can we?" Which is precisely what I said after his little comment.
Of course being the guy that he was he just laughed at me. "That is what I like about you Asha. You're come backs."
"How do you know I wasn't serious?" I fake glared at him.
"Let's be serious Asha, you never are." He put his arm on the wall behind me and started to lean forward like all the cool kids did.
"Uh… I'm not… we're not." I ducked away from him.
What he said next was the most alarming prospect of the conversation.
"Don't worry, I will get you when you least expect it." It was then, that I had realized that his occupation was not what everyone had thought it to be. Instead it was the occupation of murderer that he really held.
It would have been the perfect opportunity for him to exit but instead he started to walk towards me. In a fit of panic I responded to his little threat with; "I think I need to go for a little run." Then took off away from him and towards the nothingness that was called La Push Washington.
I blinked when I got to my house and was pulled out of my thoughts. I stopped on my door step for a few seconds and opened the door slowly. I knew I couldn't be completely certain it was Embry who was the man behind the notes but it was the closest I had gotten to anything all week.
I panicked till 6 pm the next day when I was supposed to meet my so called stalker boy. On the one hand I could go and meet my fate or the other I could become a hermit and live the life of a crazy cat lady with 32 invisible cats… It was starting to sound like a possibility.
I was still inside my house freaking out but instead of forcing myself out the door this time, I was forced to answer it. I knew damn well who was on the other side and I did not want to confront him.
"Embry?" I said in my usual fashion.
He only smiled at me this time. "So you figured it out?" He stated more than he asked.
"You could tell?" I said somewhat sheepishly. I took a step back. But then I realized it was Embry all along. He was never a murderer, he actually liked me!
"You are always early unless you are freaking out." He smiled at me as I blushed, almost ashamed I had thought he was a murderer.
"Of course I was freaking out; I thought you were a stalking murderer or something… I kind of thought you were going to kill my cat…" I ranted.
He laughed.
"Hey, you can't blame me! You were being weird, an anonymous!" I cried.
"Sure." He replied with mirth in his eye.
There was a short silence in which I decided to embrace the moment and forget all about the notion of Embry as a killer, after all, Kim did tell me that he was in love with me. Kim was my friend and I knew that I could trust her, so I did.
"So what are you going to do now, Mr. romantic scavenger hunt guy?" I asked him sarcastically.
"I kiss you." He tested the waters and I was too surprised to do anything. So, I just went with the flow.
"I suppose you're right." I said cooly and he smiled brightly at me. And for the first time our lips met and it felt almost magical.
I was glad that I had listened to Kin in the end. I was glad that I had not decided to give into my paranoia and run away to Canada instead of going on the scavenger hunt.
And that is how Embry Call and I Asha became a couple. And we lived happily ever after… that was until I found out he was a werewolf, but that is a whole other story.