Stranger Danger

The following chapter is written in 3rd person POV following Courtney…

At the Capital City Public Library…

“So… what’s so interesting about you?” the random woman asks Courtney.

Courtney gives her a once over, returning the gesture the random woman did to her just a moment ago. Even with just a glance at her outfit, Courtney can tell this woman oozes money. Her entire outfit went well together, even if it consisted of pieces from different designer brands. The branding was subtle on every piece, and each piece was from a previous collection that had already been knocked off to **** that people who can’t tell the difference in quality would mistake it for fast fashion. She’s rich, but she doesn’t want most people to know about it; and the people who would know, can only be impressed by her style and sensibility.

Courtney immediately hated her.

“Who the fuck are you?” Courtney asks aggressively.

“Who I am isn’t important.” the woman responds. “Especially compared to you.” the woman adds.

“What about me?” Courtney asks.

“Well, for one, I’m not the one whose phone is being tracked to find out my location.” the woman answers Courtney.

“The fuck?” Courtney asks in confusion.

The woman takes out her phone, fiddles with it a bit, before showing Courtney the screen. It shows a GPS tracking app with a blinking red dot in the middle.

“Is that supposed to impress me? That could just be you.” Courtney fishes for further proof.

“Then turn off your phone. See for yourself.” The woman calmly instructs her. Courtney, letting her curiosity get the better of her, turns off her phone. The blinking red dot on the woman’s phone disappears a few seconds later. Courtney immediately stands up from her seat and backs away from the woman, taking out pepper spray from her handbag to defend herself.

“Who the fuck are you and what the fuck do you want from me?” Courtney asks. The creep behind the woman is watching the show intently, but is still very much furiously masturbating so it doesn’t seem like Courtney can rely on him to help her if things get ugly.

“Like I said, who I am isn’t important. And I honestly don’t want anything from you.” The woman answers both of Courtney’s questions directly. “I just want to know why Rebecca Hoffman would call in a favor just to find out where you are.” the woman asks Courtney.

“How the fuck should I—” Courtney instinctively responds, before her brain finally registers the name this woman just mentioned. “Fuck.” Courtney says in reaction, before immediately running away from the woman.

Courtney could only get a few feet away from the woman before she gets blocked off by two menacing looking individuals that look straight out of a mafia movie. She tries to direct the pepper spray at the guys, but they easily disarm her before she could even press it to spray them.

“I’m not here to hurt you.” the woman says from behind Courtney. “I just want to know what makes you so special to her.” the woman informs her.

“Then ask her yourself. You’re the one working for her.” Courtney fires back.

“Oh, right. Of course you’d think that. My bad.” the woman says in reaction, even hitting the side of her head like she can’t believe she’d make that mistake. “I don’t work for her.” the woman tells Courtney.

“I work for another interested third party. They ‘asked’ me to monitor Rebecca and… her boyfriend… from afar. They and I both know I have no clue how to be a spy. But I do have people-skills. So they connected me to these gentlemen to do it for me. I’m just the one who summarizes their reports like a glorified secretary.” The woman adds.

“I honestly wouldn’t have known Rebecca Hoffman was even looking for you if she didn’t call in a favor from the same people that were tasked to monitor her. Talk about coincidence, am I right?” the woman continues.

“Why the fuck should I believe anything you say?” Courtney asks defiantly.

“Look, you’ve obviously been given reason not to trust Rebecca and her group. You ran away as soon as I mentioned her name for crying out loud. But me? What have I done for you to distrust me? I’ve been upfront with you this whole time. I told you you were being tracked, told you who was tracking you, and told you why I’m here from the very start. I just want to know why they’re interested in finding you.” the woman tells Courtney.

“Bitch, I don’t even know who you are. I call bullshit on all… of… this…” Courtney angrily replies, before trailing off at the end as she realizes something. She takes her phone out from her pocket and starts fiddling with it.

“If you don’t want to give away your location again, I suggest you don’t turn on your phone.” the woman tells Courtney.

“Well, apparently, I don’t have to.” Courtney answers her with a confident smirk, like she finally has the upper hand.

“Hold her.” the woman instructs the men with her, who immediately do as instructed. The woman then takes Courtney’s phone away from her, and stares at it. The woman’s expression goes from confusion to immediate fury. Courtney thinks she’s probably annoyed that she can’t see anything on Courtney’s phone, now that Courtney found out from Brooke that only she can see the app. Unfortunately for Courtney, she wasn’t able to actually check who this woman is in front of her, but she knows if she’s stupid enough to give Courtney her phone again, she can easily find out and gain the upper hand.

Courtney notices the woman blinking twice, almost as if resetting her mood, as she now goes back to putting on a fake smile for Courtney.

“I’m sorry. That was rude of me. I’m here to make you trust me and I betray that with a show of ****.” the woman replies.

“Gentlemen, can you please let her go and leave us?” the woman then asks the men holding Courtney. They immediately let Courtney go, but refrain from following her second instruction.

“We’ll be around.” one of the guys responds.

“No. I want her to trust me. In order to do that, you guys need to really leave us alone. Go back to your original posts or something. Better yet, delay Becca’s group from getting here instead. Make sure Miss Madison and I don't get interrupted by them.” The woman instructs the two brutes. The two men grunt as a response to being bossed around, but do as they’re told and leave.

The woman and Courtney wait in silence as they watch the two men leave their area of the library, and it’s only when both the woman and Courtney are out of earshot of anyone that the woman decides to speak again.

“What were their names?” the woman asks Courtney quietly, almost at a whisper, before handing Courtney back her phone.

“Who?” Courtney asks the woman.

“The names of those two fucking gangsters that just held you. What were their names?” the woman clarifies.

“Bitch, how the fuck should I know?” Courtney responds.

“You were doing something on your phone before I grabbed it. You were trying to find out who I was, weren’t you? If you can do that, then you can do it for those two pieces of shit. What were their names? Go ahead. Check.” the woman instructs Courtney.

“How…?” Courtney begins to realize that this woman knows more than she first let on.

“Googling ‘mind control’... fiddling with your phone that’s obviously turned off… almost as if you’re the only one who can see what’s on your screen…” the woman starts to list off, and Courtney can only conclude the obvious — she knows.

Upon her realization, Courtney opens the app again on her phone. However, she doesn’t do what the woman wanted her to do by looking for the names of the two brutes that were with her. Instead, she starts looking for hers.

Courtney’s eyes grow wide at the realization of who the woman is in front of her.

‘Of course she’d know.’ Courtney thinks to herself.

Courtney opens her profile and looks at her scores. At least Courtney can confirm this woman truly doesn’t have ill feelings towards her, since she basically has zeroes across the board, which Courtney understands as being neutral towards her. However, something else catches Courtney’s eye. This woman has more than just the regular profile she’s seen before.

She has so-called ‘traits’. A bunch of ‘em.

Great Kisser, Master of Foreplay, Oral Extraordinaire, Great Host, Good Neighbor, Life of the Party, Healthy Body, Seldom Sleepy, Always Clean, Feel No Jealousy, No More Enemies, Youth and Love…

… and a bunch more that Courtney just scrolls through.

Courtney has no idea what any of this means yet, but she can’t help but be curious of this woman and what she can tell Courtney about the app.

“Tell me everything you know about this app…” Courtney tells the woman, before using the woman’s full name like a threat to punctuate her sentence.

“So you do have it.” the woman is finally able to confirm.

“You have an Affection Multiplier.”