Surprisingly, it worked.

Waking to the insistent ringing of your alarm, you slowly open your eyes. Sleep still eluded you, and your thoughts were jumbled after a restless night. Rubbing your face with your palm and blinking sleepily a few times, you reach for your phone on the bedside table.

You almost pray that the stalker doesn't send you another explicit photo of that creepy anthropomorphic she-wolf, whose face was replaced by a bald skull. The very thought of it makes your skin crawl.

Taking a deep breath, you turn on your phone and immediately open the Mal0 app.

For a few seconds, you simply stare at the screen, disbelieving your eyes.

Nothing. No new photos. No messages. No comments. Absolutely empty.

For a moment, relief washes over you. You even feel the tension ease in your shoulders.

But this feeling is almost immediately replaced by anxiety. After everything that had happened, this silence felt wrong. It wasn't reassuring—in fact, it made you even more nervous. What if the stalker had something else in mind? What if they'd gotten tired of playing on their phone? What if one day they just showed up at your door?

You didn't know what to think. Your heart told you to be glad there were no messages, but your mind kept searching for a catch.

However, now was not the time to worry.

A normal workday lay ahead.

With a heavy sigh, you put your phone away, get out of bed, and head to the closet.

To your surprise, the entire day passes quietly. Your phone remains silent for the entire workday. No messages or photos of the creepy anthropomorphic wolf with a wolf skull for a face.Perhaps this should have reassured you. Perhaps whoever this person was, they finally realized they'd gone too far and decided to leave you alone.

But you almost didn't believe it yourself. The quieter the day became, the stronger the feeling grew that the calm couldn't last forever.

Normally, you would never show such things to anyone. Even your closest friends. But now, curiosity and the desire to hear other people's opinions overcame your sense of shame.

During lunch, you arranged to meet two of your friends at a small cafe downtown.

You'd been friends since high school, so you trusted them with practically everything.

Dennis was the jokester of your group. He managed to turn any situation into a joke, but when things got really tough, he was always the first to help. However, if you teased him about his bright red "clown" hair, he would immediately become much quieter.

Larry, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. Cautious, suspicious, and at times overly cautious. Many called him paranoid, but precisely because of his habit of double-checking everything, he often noticed things that others missed.

Settling down at the tray table, you're silent for a few seconds, trying to find your words.

"Guys... Can I ask you a weird question?" you ask them cautiously.

They simultaneously glance at you.

"Have you... ever felt scared because someone keeps sending you explicit photos?" you continue your thought.

Dennis grins widely.

"Dude, what kind of question is that? I'd be thrilled! If someone sent me that, I wouldn't complain at all. Free photos are a gift!" He grins contentedly and slams his fist on the table.

Larry only gives him a tired look, but then looks at you.

"What kind of photos exactly?" he asks calmly.

You swallow nervously.

"They're normal... except they're very explicit. And that's not the worst part. This person... whoever they are... somehow knows where I am. The photos show a furry with a wolf skull for a face, and she's standing in the exact spots I was just a few hours ago. It's like someone's watching my every move," you tell him.

A sly smile appears on Dennis's face.

"Bro... Looks like you've got yourself a really weird admirer." He chuckles softly.

Larry, on the other hand, visibly frowned.

"Dennis, now's not the time for jokes," Larry chided. He just shrugged.

Larry looked at you again.

"Are you sure this isn't a prank? Maybe someone just went too far?"

"I thought so too at first, but the app can't be deleted. And no one touches the money on the card, nor does it seem to touch my personal data. If it were a regular hacker, they would have stolen everything valuable and disappeared long ago. But instead... they just keep playing with me," you quickly tell him, stroking your hands.

Larry thought for a moment, then nodded slowly.

"Hm... I don't know how else to help you. Maybe... I should call the police? If this person is really following you, it doesn't seem like a harmless prank anymore."

You're about to answer when your phone, lying on the table, vibrates quietly.

You flinch in surprise. You slowly pick up the phone and open the notification.

The message came from Mal0. After a long silence, the mysterious person finally wrote again. This time, without photos or strange images. Just a short message:

"Please... Don't tell the police. I want to talk to you at home."

You reread those words several times. A slow chill runs down your spine.

You stare at the screen in silence, unsure what to think. Trusting the man who had been stalking you for weeks felt crazy. But not answering also felt wrong.

A heavy feeling of anxiety squeezed your chest again.