Always Watching

Chapter 3

Lita sighed to herself as she looked around the hotel room, her eyes adjusting to the lights as they came on. The redhead bit her lip and stepped further into the room, setting her duffel bag next to the dresser that held the television on top of it. There was only one queen-sized bed in the room, and neither Lita nor Chris Benoit felt obligated to change their room so that each of them could have their own bed. They were friends, after all. Lita sat down on the end of the single bed, looking over at the nightstand next to the bed. 'It's only seven o'clock,' she thought to herself, rubbing her eyes. 'I could've sworn it was later… The house show ended a little before six…' she shook her head, and laid backward onto the bed, listening to the rustling sound as Chris searched through his duffel bag.

"…but I think you're making too much out of nothing," Chris Benoit had told her, only hours before. 'Maybe I am,' Lita thought guiltily. 'But just the thought of someone being so close to me to take pictures at every turn is unnerving, and now… He was in my hotel room. He could have done anything he wanted. My life was in his hands, and if he decides to come back, it still will be.'

"Hey, Lita, I'm gonna go take a quick shower, okay?" Chris told her, holding a wad of clothes in hand. Lita nodded absentmindedly, knowing what he was really asking: Lita, are you going to be okay if I leave you alone now? She closed her eyes, letting her thoughts wash over her. The bathroom door shut firmly, and a few minutes later, she heard the soft noise of water running.

"I don't mind telling you that I feel safer in my hotel room than out," she had told Chris minutes after his statement about making too much out of nothing. 'Not anymore,' she realized, 'I'm scared to death to go to sleep. What if he comes back and Chris isn't there to stop him? I trust Chris… But he's human. Humans make mistakes.' Immediately after thinking that, Lita felt guilty. 'What right do I have to dump this all on Chris?' she asked herself. 'He offered to protect me, but what if I pressured him into it? What if the man comes into the hotel room, and hurts Chris?' the redhead sighed, closing her hands into fists. 'I don't know what to do anymore… Maybe I do need someone to protect me, but I don't want to put anyone in danger…'

She was pulled from her thoughts when the phone rang. The redhead sat up, dangling her feet off of the edge of the bed as she reached for the receiver. "Hello?" she said into the phone.

"Hey, Red. This is Christian," the male voice on the other end responded, and Lita felt her shoulders dip in relief. She winced moments later, realizing that she had been tense and holding her breath. 'What the hell is this man doing to me?' she wondered silently, but pushed the thought away. It would do no good to continue thinking about her problem.

"Hi Christian," she said weakly, wrapping her finger around the cord as she spoke, her eyes staring blindly at it.

"I heard about what happened today from Stacy—I'm really sorry I wasn't there," Christian said, his voice guilty and worried. "If only I'd have stayed longer…" he trailed off.

"Christian, Benoit was with me, and Stacy came soon enough. If you were there, you couldn't have done anything different," she told him reasonably, "And don't think it's your fault that this guy got into my locker room without being seen, the guy is a master at being invisible."

"I guess," Christian responded. "How are you holding up?"

"Okay," she replied, not thinking deeply to reply. Christian didn't need to know how much the pictures disturbed her.

"Red… I was thinking… Do you want to come out to the club with us, and just hang out?" he asked, making it sound like an innocent inquiry, but Lita knew better. He was offering to get her out of her hotel room and into a more public place.

Lita hesitated, and then made up her mind. She didn't want to be in this hotel room during the night at all, and going out would at least delay her return. Plus, Chris had wanted to go to the club earlier…she felt guilty to tear him away from his plans because of her problems. "Sure… I guess that'd be okay," she said into the phone.

"All right, then," Christian said. "We're going to head to the Neon today… We'll find a table near the front. See you there!"

"Okay, we'll probably be there within the hour," she told him, "Bye," she added. The redhead reached over, holding the phone just over the cradle. Suddenly, she froze, still dangling the receiver over the cradle.

How did Christian get her number? No one, not even Stacy, knew where she and Benoit had roomed. The front desk had been given specific instructions that her stay was to be anonymous in the least. How could he have…?

The redhead shook her head vehemently, standing up and making her way to the window. Had she really been about to mentally accuse Christian of being her stalker? She set her forehead against it, staring out across at another wall of the building. This man—her stalker—had her twisted in so many ways she couldn't even keep track of herself. Her hotel room, her safe haven, had become her nightmare, her inescapable cell. Every friend she had was a potential enemy, and her paranoia was at an all-time high.

"I'm worried about you," Chris had said to her, and Lita sighed heavily. Was it that obvious? The redhead stepped away from the window, turning to look at the hotel room while she took deep, steady breaths. "It's going to be okay, I promise," he had said, once she had seen the dark, dreary photographs of herself in her hotel room.

Lita sighed, running a hand through her hair. 'I don't know if it will, Chris… If something is going to go down, it better happen soon… I don't know how long I can stand this before I snap and do something stupid.'

She sat down on the bed, curling into a ball, suddenly feeling a hundred years tired. 'Who am I? If someone asked my closest friend that, what would the answer be? A strong, loyal, fiery redhead…but the answer will have changed. I can't find that part of me anymore. I'm weak, I'm accusing, and I'm downright paranoid… I'm a stranger to myself, and there's only one thing that I know that can fix it—this guy getting caught. And according to Captain Moceri, it's not going to happen anytime soon.'

Lita closed her eyes, trying to push those thoughts away, but the fact remained steady: until her stalker was captured and put in jail, she couldn't be normal—she couldn't be herself—again.

Author's Note: Another chapter! Hope you guys liked it! Please review!