CHAPTER 3 Someone Had Been Inside
The teddy bear wasn't supposed to exist.
Not here.
Not anywhere near me.
Its faded brown fur was still worn thin around one ear where I used to rub it as a child whenever my parents fought downstairs.
A tiny blue ribbon remained tied around its neck.
I knew every stain.
Every loose thread.
Every scar.
Because when you're raised in fear, you memorize the few things that ever made you feel safe.
And this bear had been left behind the night I walked out of my mother's house.
I had watched it disappear in the rearview mirror.
I remembered crying over it halfway to campus.
I remembered telling myself it was just an object.
Objects could be replaced.
Freedom couldn't.
So how...
How was it sitting on my kitchen table?
I didn't touch it.
Instead, I slowly backed toward the door and called Officer Daniel.
He answered on the second ring.
"Campus Security."
"It's me."
"Caitlyn?"
"My apartment."
"What happened?"
"I think someone broke in."
There was a brief silence.
"Are you inside?"
"Yes."
"Leave. Right now."
"I don't want you touching anything."
Five minutes later, I was standing barefoot in the hallway while two campus officers photographed every inch of my apartment.
Officer Daniel wore gloves as he carefully examined the bear.
"You're certain this is yours?"
"I'm positive."
"How?"
"I stitched its left paw when I was nine."
He turned it over.
There it was.
A crooked line of pink thread.
His expression changed.
"Okay."
"So someone didn't just buy a similar toy."
"No."
"They brought mine."
The apartment showed no signs of forced entry.
No broken windows.
No damaged locks.
Nothing missing.
Nothing overturned.
It looked...
Perfect.
Too perfect.
The only thing out of place was the teddy bear.
Which made it feel less like a burglary...
And more like a message.
The property manager arrived an hour later carrying a ring of keys.
His face had gone pale.
"I swear," he said.
"No employee entered this unit."
Officer Daniel crossed his arms.
"Who has access?"
"Myself."
"Maintenance."
"The emergency locksmith."
"Anyone else?"
The manager hesitated.
"There was... one request."
"When?"
"Yesterday morning."
"What request?"
"A woman called."
My heartbeat accelerated.
"She claimed she was Caitlyn's mother."
The hallway suddenly felt colder.
"What did she want?" Daniel asked.
"She said her daughter was having a mental health crisis."
"She was worried Caitlyn might hurt herself."
"I refused to let her in."
My shoulders relaxed slightly.
Until he continued.
"But..."
"There was another call."
"About thirty minutes later."
Daniel looked up.
"From who?"
"The university housing office."
"They confirmed there was concern about Caitlyn's welfare."
"They asked us to perform a wellness check."
I felt the blood drain from my face.
"I never requested one."
"I know that now."
Someone had impersonated the housing office.
Using the same story my mother had spent years building.
Mentally unstable.
Needs supervision.
May harm herself.
The lie had traveled faster than I had.
Daniel immediately contacted the housing department.
The answer came within minutes.
No one there had called.
Which meant...
Someone knew enough about university procedures to fake the request convincingly.
That wasn't random harassment.
It was planning.
"Do you have security cameras?" Daniel asked.
The property manager nodded.
"In the lobby."
"Elevators."
"Parking garage."
Daniel didn't wait.
"Let's review them."
The footage began at 10:14 a.m.
Students entered.
Delivery drivers.
A woman pushing a stroller.
Nothing unusual.
Then...
10:37.
A woman wearing oversized sunglasses and a baseball cap walked into the lobby carrying a small gift bag.
She never looked at the camera.
Almost as if she knew exactly where it was.
The timestamp showed she stayed inside for fourteen minutes.
She exited without the gift bag.
My pulse pounded.
Daniel paused the video.
"Do you recognize her?"
"I..."
The sunglasses hid most of her face.
The cap concealed her hair.
She wore plain clothes.
Nothing memorable.
Then she adjusted her sleeve.
Just for a second.
A silver bracelet slid into view.
Tiny heart-shaped charms.
I had seen that bracelet before.
Thousands of times.
Jessica.
"No..."
I whispered.
Daniel looked at me.
"You know her."
"I think it's my sister."
"You think?"
"I gave her that bracelet."
"For her eighteenth birthday."
Daniel copied the footage.
"We'll have the police enhance it."
I nodded.
But deep inside...
I already knew.
Jessica had never needed to hit me.
She preferred helping our mother.
She smiled while someone else suffered.
It kept her hands clean.
That evening Maya arrived carrying groceries.
She stopped the moment she saw my face.
"What happened?"
I pointed toward the evidence bag holding the teddy bear.
She stared.
"...Is that..."
"Yeah."
"The real one."
She sat down slowly.
"Cait..."
"This isn't normal."
"I know."
"No."
She looked directly into my eyes.
"This is stalking."
"Calculated stalking."
"You need to stop thinking of your family as difficult."
"They're dangerous."
The word settled heavily between us.
Dangerous.
Not controlling.
Not strict.
Not toxic.
Dangerous.
For the first time...
I allowed myself to believe it.
Not because I wanted to.
Because denying it had almost destroyed me.
That night, Maya insisted on staying over.
Around midnight we were watching an old comedy just to keep our minds occupied when my laptop chimed.
New email.
Subject:
Concern About Student Behavior
Sender:
Anonymous.
I opened it.
Attached were six photographs.
Every one of them showed me.
Walking across campus.
Buying groceries.
Reading outside the library.
Unlocking my apartment.
Sleeping.
I froze.
Sleeping.
The last photo wasn't outside.
It had been taken inside my bedroom.
While I slept.
Maya covered her mouth.
"Oh my God..."
Beneath the photos was one sentence.
You look so peaceful when you don't know we're watching.
For several seconds, neither of us moved.
Then Maya whispered the words neither of us wanted to say.
"Cait..."
"Someone is inside your life."
Not outside.
Inside.
Someone who knew where I lived.
Someone who knew my schedule.
Someone who could enter my apartment...
Without leaving a single broken lock.
And as Officer Daniel rushed toward the building after my panicked phone call...
Neither of us noticed the tiny red light blinking twice...
May you like
Inside the smoke detector above our heads.
End of Chapter 3.
