The Message

The knocking continued while Rebecca was staring at the door. It wasn't the case that she was afraid or something. It was completely normal that someone could stand in front of her door and knock. But she was in a shock because the visitor came more than unexpected and she couldn't think of anyone who would visit her right now. She didn't hear her doorbell ring, not even one from the other flats. She shook her head. 'Am I crazy or something? This'll be one of my neighbours or something like that.'

The knocking grew louder and more aggressive. 'Harsh', she thought. She stood up slowly and moved to the door, shouting: "One moment please, I am coming." The knocking stopped immediatly. Rebecca walked up to the door and looked through the spy, bit she couldn't see a thing. On the other side of the door it was pitch black. 'That can't be right.' She looked down and saw how a thin streak of light came from under the door. 'Can a spy be broken like that?' She asked herself. Without thinking any further, she opened the door. 'Excuse me..." But there was no one near her. She took a few steps out of her flat and turned her head to left and right. Nothing. 'This person must be pretty impatient. But that is not my problem. I have to call Mr. Schreindecker. '

As Rebecca turned around and walked back to her apartment door, she stepped on something. It rustled. She looked down and saw a white envelope on her door matt. 'Strange she thought. As if the post man would give a letter of mine to a neighbour. But maybe he accidentally confused an other mailbox with mine.

Rebecca bent down and took the letter. She stood up and examined it. It was blank. No sign of an address, not hers nor the sender's. 'That can't be right.' She took the last step to her door. She wanted to close the door, her thoughts all by this strange letter. But before she could close the door and disappear in her apartment her sight fell on the spy.

At first she was confused. "What is that?", she questioned aloud. Then she realized it and a cold shiver ran over her back. It was a big stripe of black tape, glued over the outer part of the door spy. 'That's why I couldn't see a dann thing through my spy. What a stupid joke.' She tried to calm herself down, frowning about her own reaction. Rebecca pulled the tape away, crumbled it in her hands and walked inside.

She threw the letter on a table next to her couch. It was unimportant combined to the situation she had to face right now. She had to call Mr. Schreindecker and had to tell him what she knew. She dialled hia phone number. "Hello, Mr. Schreindecker is spwaking.", a deep voice came out of the phone. "Mr. Schreindecker, here is Rebecca. I heard what happened to Kim and I think I have a suspect." "You, what? Why do you think that?", Mr. Schreindecker asked nervously. " I know that Kim had an argument with a guy at her workplace last time and that he got really aggressive and threatened her. I don't know what he looks like because Kim just told me about it. But maybe that clue helps your investigation." Rebecca heard nothing for a while, then Mr. Schreindecker answered in a hoarse voice: " Alright Rebecca, thank you very much. I will drive to Kim's workplace personally and interrogate the co-workers. Thank you very much! We will call you if Kim wakes up."

Before she could answer or ask any further questions, Mr. Schreindecker hung up. 'I am happy that I could help. I hope that everything turns out fine. I am so desperate to see Kim but I shouldn't go to the hospital like her parents said.' Rebecca's eyes scanned the room. They rested on the white envelope on her table. She took it in her hands. She wasn't sure if she should open it. ' Fuck it. I am too curious.'

She opened the envelope and two sheets of paper fell out of it. She grabbed them from the floor. The first sheet was a photo. A photo of her an Kim. They were walking in the city, looking for clothes for their planned vacation in Egypt. Rebecca couldn't believe her eyes. 'This is a real stalker photo! Who took this picture? Why should someone take a photo of us and follow us around?' Rebecca's jaw clenched as she turned around the photo an realized that something stood on its back. "6th of February 2019, 1/13" Her face lost all colour. '1/13? What does that mean? One out of thirteen pictures or what?' She couldn't believe what she saw and she exhaled harshly. She tried to remain the last bit of calmness, grabbing on a straw of hope that this was just a sick joke.

With shaking hands she grabbed the other sheet of paper. It seemed to be a letter because she could identify words in an accurate and clean hand-writing on it. With every word she read her eyes grew bigger and filled up with tears. "Dear Rebecca, by now you should have received the great news! I managed to meet Kim. Let's say, we met kind of. She wasn't really happy seeing me, so I thought I would try to win her over with some directer methods. The poor girl couldn't run quick enough to escape me. But don't worry as far as I know the statistics say that she has a 17% chance of recovering. I think that is not bad. I for my part, wish her the best!

Listen up, my dear. This is a warning. If you show this letter to anyone. It doesn't matter to whom. I will know it and there will be consequences. So better be a good girl and behave. I hope we will meet in person soon. As long as that isn't possible, I will continue to take beautiful pictures like the one I sent you. The next person who appears on one of my pictures will suffer. That is a promise."