I tried my best to forget the note and the strange boy not even telling my parents or friends about the note. After all who would actually go to a dangerous after school meeting alone with someone they had only just met?! It was insane!
The part about someone watching me put me on edge though. Who was watching me? Why? And explain what? Explain why I couldn’t remember him? When we might have met? All in all the entire thing smelled like some kind of trap and I was not going to just walk into it!
After school I didn’t go to the maintenance shed. I went home like usual. If this Braxton person wanted to meet me he would have to come to me. I wasn’t about to be like some dumb person from a horror movie. I smiled imagining him waiting in the shed for hours for bait that would never come.
As the hours drew on however and my parents went to work for the night I kept feeling on edge thinking about how he would react to me not showing up for the meeting. Would he try and find my house? Be waiting for me at school? What did he want to explain?
Who was watching me?
I decided to take a shower to get my mind off of it. They had always been able to calm my head and help me come up with ideas. Once I was done and wrapped in my robe I had a plan if Braxton showed up at school again and tried anything, mainly involving the pepper spray that I had in my backpack.
Turning to leave the bathroom I glanced at the mirror fogged up from the steam of my hot shower. I looked again, my eyes widening. As I stood there words appeared written on the fogged mirror.
Alexsis,
Meet me at the maintenance shed by the track tomorrow.
3:10 P.M.
You will be safe.
I will explain everything. I promise.
Be careful. They are watching you.
Love, Braxton
I ran out the door slamming it shut behind me. I did not just see that.
How had he written that note? Had he broken into my house somehow? That had to be it. He was a stalker or something and he had broken into my hose and written the message while I was in the shower. It had only started showing up after the shower had turned off and the steam had dispersed. Yeah, that totally made sense! I totally didn’t just see words appear out of thin air in the mirror!
Either way it wasn’t a comforting thought. Going through the entire house I locked every door and window drawing the blinds and gathered every flashlight I could find keeping them next to my bed along with a baseball bat I found in the garage.
Was I paranoid? Yes, yes I was.
But in my defense I was either being stalked by this Braxton person, or my house was haunted. Or I was going insane. That was a possibility as well.
Building up the courage I picked up the baseball bat and went back down to the bathroom my pajamas soaking in the lingering steam still in the air and from my wet hair as I opened the door.
In my rush I had left the light on and spots on the ground still had marks of my wet footprints in the form of small puddles. Tentatively I stepped in leaving the door wide open in case I had to make a quick getaway.
I looked over at the mirror. The message was gone, it was like it had never happened.
I looked around the rest of the bathroom checking the window to make sure it was locked and moving the curtain away from the shower to make sure no one was hiding in the tub. No one was. I was alone.
Trying to put it out of my mind I went up to my room and went to bed,telling myself I would figure all this out tomorrow. It took longer than usual to fall asleep since I kept thinking I saw things in the shadows but eventually exhaustion overcame me and I fell asleep.
***
“Will you care to explain to me how Braxton Keller was able to show up at the school today?!” A loud voice demanded.
“I-I’m s-sorry sir. I don’t know how he got in!” A voice I recognized as the young man from my last dream stuttered. “They must have gotten past the firewalls somehow! I’ll get to work on it immediately! We did an upload yesterday; it must have weakened them.”
“Get on it fast! See if you can do a wipe while you’re at it. I don’t want her asking questions.”
“Ummm sir?”
“What?!”
“We can’t do a wipe. The-the chips malfunctioned somehow. They must have tampered with it when they broke the firewalls!”
“Can you fix it?” The voice asked menacingly.
“I don’t know sir. It’s non removable and I can’t seem to fix it remotely. The suppressor is still working; it just can’t do any more wipes.”
The first voice sighed. “Just patch the firewalls. I had better not see Keller in there again!”
A door slammed shut.
The younger man’s voice came again quieter like he was talking to himself. “Braxton you fool. Are you trying to save her or get her killed?!”
There was silence for a moment and I felt something cold touch my temples again. My breath caught. Was he about to…
“Uploading firewall patch in three…two..”
A sob ripped from my throat. “Stop!” I cried.
Something fell to the ground and I heard him gasp turning towards me.
“Alexsi-”
I didn’t hear him finish pain flashing through my head again.
***
My eyes snapped open and I curled into a ball pulling my covers over my trembling body. The pain didn’t seem to linger as much this time but I barely thought about it. That man had seemed to know who Braxton was. He didn’t sound happy about him being at the school yesterday. Why was he so important? What was it that had malfunctioned? Something about a chip and a wipe. What was a wipe? What is going on?!
Relax Alexsis. I scolded myself. It’s just a dream. It’s just a dream. You’re safe.
I shook my head trying to clear it. I’d had a dream like that the other night. My mind was probably just pulling it up again from my memory because I’d been nervous about it before. It didn’t mean anything. The mentions of Braxton were probably just because I was freaked out by those messages.
The messages, the meeting!
Just thinking about a possible meeting with Braxton gave me chills. The messages cryptic warnings about being watched and the need for me to come alone were unnerving not to mention how on earth he had done the words on the mirror the other night. How long could I avoid him before he just showed up at my doorstep?
Going to the kitchen I poured myself a bowl of Captain Crunch cereal. My parents were still asleep resting after a long night of working at the local grocery store. Pouring the cereal I unscrewed the milk ready to pour it into my bowl only to spot a piece of paper on top of my cereal.
Putting down the milk jug and glancing suspiciously around I picked up the note unfolding it.
Remember the meeting!
3:10 P.M. today at the maintenance shed by the track field!
Lexi will meet you beforehand.
You can trust her.
Please come. We will explain everything.
Be careful. They are watching you.
Love, Braxton
I ripped the note to shreds. I didn’t care who Braxton said I could trust. I didn’t care what they wanted to explain to me. I’d had enough of these blasted messages asking me for a secret meeting!
After not eating much breakfast I stomped up to my room and quickly changed and did my hair and makeup. Saying goodbye to my parents, who were now eating breakfast ,and picking up my backpack I got into my car driving to Central High School.
Throughout the day I tried my best to forget about the notes but apparently Braxton was determined to make sure I didn’t “forget” about our meeting after school again. In my first period class I opened my math binder to find the same note from breakfast written on every piece of paper in my binder, red marker, overlapping my detailed notes on the quadratic equation. I pulled out another folder to find a blank piece of paper only to find the same thing on all those papers as well. Every paper in every binder in my backpack.
In my English class second period I didn’t even pull out my folders instead asking the person sitting next to me for a paper. I watched the teacher as they talked about the Great Depression writing with blue expo markers on the whiteboard. Looking up however I stared shocked as some of the letters in her sentence turned green as she wrote standing out starkly against the blue sentence. I stared at the green letters reading what they spelled. C..O..M..E…T..O…T..H..E…M..E..E..T..I..N..G.
I looked around trying to tell if anyone else saw the secret message on the board. It seemed so obvious written in the bright green marker but no one said anything; all of them continuing to dutifully write their notes. I leaned over to the person I had gotten a paper from tapping them on the shoulder.
“Do you see that?” I whispered pointing at the whiteboard.
They looked up at the whiteboard and a confused look in their eyes. “See what?”
“The green! It’s right-” I pointed at the bord only to find all the letters written in the same blue as if the message had never existed. I sat back blinking, shaking my head. It had just been there! The classmate looked over at me confused.
“What was it?”
“It..I..Never mind.” I said, deciding to keep the message to myself. I didn’t need people thinking I was going crazy and seeing things.
I opened my locker to get my lunch. I found another message etched on the inside of my locker door.
Alexsis,
Come to the meeting at 3:10 P.M.
At the maintenance building by the track.
Lexi is the girl with blue hair.
You can trust her.
Be careful, they are watching you!
Love, Braxton
Alright now this is just getting ridiculous. I thought as I grabbed my lunch slamming my door shut and walking to the commons for lunch.
Stepping into the commons I glanced around quickly spotting my friends sitting at our usual table. I also spotted a girl with leggings, a red t-shirt, and bright blue hair walking purposefully straight towards me.
A part of me wanted to act like I hadn’t seen her, but I couldn’t stop staring as she strode up looking for all the world like she was the most important person in the room and she would get what she wanted no matter the cost her bright blue hair making her stand out like a flower in a patch of weeds.
She stepped up suddenly throwing her arms around me in a tight hug. “Alexsis! I’ve missed you so much!”
She then held me at arm’s length still smiling though there was now a bit of nervousness to it. “Do you remember me? It’s me Lexi! You know? Your best friend?”
I blinked, shaking my head insanely confused. Another person I didn’t remember? A best friend? “I’m sorry..I don’t remember you.”
Lexi’s face fell and she took a step back letting go of me. “Braxton said that you couldn’t remember anything. I thought hearing me would bring stuff back.” Her face grew angry and I saw her fists clench at her sides.
“How could they do this to you.” She muttered a dark look in her eyes. “How could he.”
Again there was that vague mention of “they”. I was honestly starting to be curious about who these people watching me were. It was shrouded though by the fact that whoever “they” were must have had something to do with how I couldn’t remember Braxton and this new girl and the thought that someone might have done something to make me forget them terrified me.
I shoved the thoughts aside. It didn’t matter. I didn’t know this girl or Braxton no matter what they said. I didn’t need to hear what they said. What I needed was for these messages to stop.
“Listen” I whispered to her “I don’t know what you think I might have known or who you think is watching me. But I’ve never seen you or this Braxton guy before in my life. I’d like to get to know you. Maybe you can eat lunch with me and my friends sometime, but I need you to stop sending me all these creepy messages!”
Lexi sighed, glancing around nervously. “I wish I could tell you everything but I can’t here. I get that you’re probably really confused about all this and I’m sorry if we scared you with the notes but…look we want to explain but we can only do that if you trust us alright?”
I stayed silent. I wanted answers about all of this but I didn’t know if I should trust these people. Lexi put a hand on my shoulder and I looked up at her.
“Just..think about it ok? If you decide to come I’ll be waiting.”
I nodded still worried and Lexi gave me a small smile walking off. I sighed this wouldn’t end until I had gone to the meeting. The messages would keep coming. I had to know what was going on.
Alright Braxton. I’ll come.
My Secret Universe 