How did this happen? Teddy had been perfectly fine yesterday. Realization dawned on Chloe, along with horror. Someone had purposely come into her room and sliced Teddy open. It was the only thing that made sense. Chloe tried to think back to before she had fallen asleep. Had Teddy been like this at that time and she hadn't noticed? No, Chloe thought. She had set her backpack down right next to Teddy when she and Jake had gotten home. Her backpack was still a few feet away, except now it was open. Chloe set Teddy gingerly back down on the ground and moved over to the backpack.

She had not touched her backpack since getting home and she had definitely not opened it before going to sleep. Chloe quickly glanced through it, wondering if anything was missing from it. Her mind mentally calculated all the items that should be there. She checked the backpack once and then she checked it again. The threatening note she had received was gone. Chloe knew she had put it back into her backpack before she left with Jake. It wasn't possible that it had fallen out. Was it? Had she unintentionally dropped it at the coffee shop when she was trying to make sure Jake didn't see it?

There were only three people that knew about the existence of that note a herself, Grey, and the murderer. Unless Grey was the murderer and then there would be only two people. Chloe couldn't even consider that Jake could be the murderer.

Chloe felt a chill run down her spine and she glanced around the room uneasily as if there might still be a monster lurking somewhere within its depths. Someone had been in her room while she slept. That someone had taken the time to search through her backpack and had then taken the time to slice open and mutilate her beloved teddy bear.

Chloe's mind immediately flashed to Kate. Kate had been in the throes of seething jealous anger when she left Chloe's room that night. Had she come back when Chloe was asleep and done this? Could it be that it wasn't the murderer and that it was just Jake's jealous girlfriend instead?

Chloe looked toward her bedroom door, which was slightly ajar. Had she shut it completely before going to bed? Her mind flashed to the window. It had been open when she had woken up. She hadn't opened the window when she had come home that day...she didn't think. Did someone sneak in through the window instead? Or was it Kate trying to shift the blame on an outside intruder in order to cover her tracks?

Chloe felt suddenly scared at the maliciousness of the crime against Teddy. Someone had definitely been in her room while she slept soundlessly, tormented by her dreams. The person who had been there had known about the note. That almost scared her more than what had happened to Teddy. Or was she overreacting? Maybe the person just found the note. Unless she had dropped it at the coffee shop. Chloe had to think.

If it were Kate, how would Kate have known about the note? Chloe thought. She couldn't imagine even Kate killing Lora at the beach party. Kate was definitely the jealous type, but killing someone was a whole other level of insanity. Or, did Kate come across the note while she was searching for proof of some sort of love affair between her and Jake?

Chloe felt uneasy again. She looked around the room, wanting to make sure that n.o.body was going to jump out at her and slice her open like Teddy. She walked over to the closet and opened it. n.o.body was inside. She only saw the clothes she had hung up recently, along with her empty suitcases. She shut the closet and turned around. The only other hiding spot in the room was under her bed. She bent down to look and felt a trickle of sweat pour down the back of her neck as she tried not to imagine someone springing out at her. It too was empty except for a few dust bunnies floating around on the floor.

Chloe sat up and breathed a sigh of relief. She walked over to the windows, locking all of them and making sure that they were secure from the inside. She walked to the door and opened it.

Chloe looked down the hallway toward Jake's room. His door was shut, with the lights off. The rest of the house was silent. Chloe listened quietly for a moment. The house remained still. Chloe shut her bedroom door and looked over at Teddy and her backpack again. She felt another thrill of horror crawl up her spine. She wasn't going to be getting any more sleep tonight.

Chapter 12: The Angry Girl.

By morning Chloe had resolved to confront Kate. It had to be her, she reasoned. She had spent all night thinking about it. Kate had access and motive. Chloe deduced that Kate had come into her room after talking with Jake and slashed Teddy open as revenge for what Kate a.s.sumed was Chloe trying to seduce Jake. The part that still bothered her, though, was the missing note. Had Kate just gone through her bag and a.s.sumed that the note was something else? Something from Jake? Or had she known about the note? Chloe couldn't decide what she thought about the note. And, then there was a slight chance that she had accidentally dropped it when she was stuffing it into her bag so that Jake wouldn't see it. Chloe couldn't concretely remember it going into her bag, but then again she might be over thinking it. Still, any way you looked at it, someone had been in her room with malicious intent and she was almost positive it had been Kate.

Chloe got into the car with Jake that morning, agenda already planned out, "So, what happened with you and Kate last night?"

Jake looked over at her, as he started his car, "We worked things out. I explained everything. It's all good. I'm really sorry. She just gets a little insecure sometimes."

"Cool," Chloe nodded, wanting to prod further, but tried to be nonchalant instead, "So what time did Kate end up leaving anyway?"

"Well," Jake turned a slight shade of pink, "She actually left this morning. My mom isn't thrilled about that sort of thing, so she left at like six, through the window."

"Oh," Chloe said, nodding absently, "Okay."

Kate definitely had the opportunity to commit the crime. Chloe wondered if she should confide in Jake. She looked over at him, as he watched the road intently.

"What?" Jake asked, noticing her glance.

Chloe thought for a moment and then spoke, "I had something weird happen to me last night. Someone slashed open my teddy bear."

Chloe decided to leave out the complication of the note, since she hadn't mentioned it to Jake. Besides, it had now disappeared and she didn't have any real proof of its existence. So much for going to the police and getting their help catching her stalker. They'd never believe her without it. They'd probably think she was trying to capitalize on finding Lora dead to become popular or something.

Jake looked puzzled, "The one you brought with you? But who could have... No, there's no way Kate did it."

Chloe looked at Jake, "Yes, there is. She was mad at me. She thought I was trying to come on to you. She was angry. She could have done it to try and get revenge on me."

"Are you sure you didn't just accidentally catch him on something and he ripped?" Jake asked hopefully.

"Positive. He was sliced down the middle and his eyes were ripped out. There's no way I could have done that by accident," Chloe said flatly.

"I just can't see her doing it," Jake said, not wanting to believe it.

"She had the motive and she had the access to my room. Who else could have done it?" Chloe asked.

"n.o.body," Jake said slowly, "Unless it was me."

"And why would you slash open my teddy bear? You weren't mad at me, except for Grey, but you wouldn't slash open Teddy for that," Chloe rationalized.

"True," Jake said, "I'm just having a hard time believing that Kate would do that either. There has to be some other explanation."

"Well," Chloe said, "Did she leave the room at any point, alone?"

"She went to the bathroom once, but she was back in record speed. I don't see how she could have done something like that, that quickly," Jake said. "And then we went to sleep and I would have felt her wake up if she had gotten out of bed before we woke up. I'm a light sleeper."

"She could have done it when she went to the bathroom. It wouldn't have taken more than a couple minutes if she had an idea what she was going to do," Chloe said after a moment.

"But Kate's just not like that," Jake said resolutely.

Chloe shook her head, "The Kate that I saw last night could definitely have done it if she was really angry and not thought twice about it."

Chloe walked to her locker, still thinking about Jake's refusal to believe that Kate was guilty of slashing Teddy open. It shook her slightly to see Jake so resolute in Kate's innocence. It was how she felt about Grey's innocence. Still, she reasoned with herself, there was no other explanation for what had happened. It had to be Kate. Her mind kept nagging her that her window had been open, as well. There was no screen on it and someone technically could have snuck in and snuck back out undetected. No, Chloe reasoned, it had to be Kate. Chloe knew where Kate was after lunch and she planned to confront her.

Chloe walked into lunch, her mind still on Kate and Teddy. Emma was already waiting for her at their now usual lunch spot.

"Are you at all interested in going to the football game on Friday?" Emma asked excitedly, as Chloe walked up to her.

"Football game?" Chloe said, her mind snapping out of the jumbled ideas in her head and back to reality. "There's a game on Friday?"

"First game of the year. It's a pretty big deal," Emma said, taking a sip of her Diet c.o.ke.

"Jake hasn't mentioned it," Chloe said, thoughtfully.

"I think they were thinking about canceling it, but I heard it was definitely on. The staff thinks it'll help morale or something dumb like that. It's a real big deal. There's a dance the day after and everything," Emma said, eyes lighting up.

"A dance?" Chloe said, feeling excited about something for the first time in days, "That sounds fun!"

"Yeah, definitely. So, are you interested then?" Emma asked, hopefully.

"Yes!" Chloe said, feeling Emma's excitement catching, "But I have to go shopping. I don't have anything to wear to a dance."

"Want to go after school?" Emma asked. "I don't have to work. I can drive us to the mall. Like around six or seven?"

"That sounds great!" Chloe said and then paused, a sinking feeling in her stomach. "Do I need a date? I don't have a date. I have n.o.body to ask."

"Nah," Emma shook her head, "It's just a big thing to go do besides the football game. People go in groups. It's not like homecoming where you either bring a date or don't go. I mean, unless you're a freshman. It's just a casual thing."

"Oh, okay," Chloe said, feeling her spirits rise.

"So, shopping?" Emma grinned.

"Yes, definitely!" Chloe said enthusiastically, as she felt someone grab her shoulder and spin her around violently.

Kate was looking down at her almost maniacally, "I didn't rip apart your teddy bear."

"What?" Chloe asked, more confused by Kate's sudden appearance than the accusation itself.

"I didn't rip apart your teddy bear. That's lame. Why would I do that?" Kate asked, hands on her hips, staring down at Chloe menacingly.

Chloe could feel people turning around to stare at them. Kate was making a scene and Chloe was already a gossip target, so people couldn't help but be fascinated. Chloe tried to ignore the sudden stares and whisperings and concentrated on dealing with Kate.

"You were the only one there with motive to do that," Chloe said flatly, quickly realizing that Jake had gone straight to Kate and told her about Chloe's accusations despite his protestations.

"Yeah, well it's still dumb and I didn't do it. So, stop telling stupid things to Jake to try and get us to break up!" Kate said and turned briskly around on her heel and walked off in a huff out of the lunchroom.

Chloe stared after her in shocked silence. She tried not to look at all the people gawking at her. Instead, she sat back down with Emma, turning her back to the stares.

"Wow, what was that about?" Emma asked in awe.

"Long story," Chloe said and then proceeded to tell her about the frightening events of the night before.

Chloe couldn't wait to confront Jake in sixth period. She was as infuriated with him now as she was by Kate. He had no right to tell Kate until Chloe had asked her about it. Not that it would have gone any better, Chloe rationalized. Kate would still have gone insane. It just might not have happened in lunch, where everyone could then proceed to gossip about it.

"How could you tell Kate?" Chloe seethed as soon as she sat down next to Jake in Biology cla.s.s.

"I had to ask her about it and see what she'd say," Jake said defensively. "As much as I don't want to believe she did it, you're right. She did have the motive and the means."

"So, what did she say after you asked her?" Chloe asked.

"She said that she didn't know what I was talking about and then got mad at me for accusing her of doing it," Jake said, shrugging his shoulders morosely. "And then I broke up with her."

Chloe felt her jaw drop, "You what?"

Now Chloe knew why Kate had been so angry with her. Kate thought Chloe had finally got what she wanted, them to break up.

"I broke up with her," Jake said and Chloe could see the real sadness etched into his face. She suddenly noticed that his eyes were slightly red.

"Oh, Jake, I'm so sorry," Chloe said, leaning in to hug him, wishing she could do anything to take the sadness away. He'd had too much of it lately.

"I'll be okay," Jake said pushing away from her and wiping his hand quickly and casually across his eyes, as if he hoped n.o.body would notice.

"Why did you break up with her, though? I thought you didn't think she did it?" Chloe asked softly.

"I didn't think she did it and I still don't know for sure, although I guess it really looks like it had to be her," Jake shuddered. "But, anyway, I just can't take it anymore. She gets so insanely jealous over everything and lately, it's especially about you. I'm so over it. I've tried talking to her and it's just getting worse. Even if she didn't do this, I just can't take it anymore."

Chloe looked at Jake solemnly, "I'm really sorry if I had a hand in your breaking up with her."

Jake looked into Chloe's eyes, "It's not your fault. Kate has trust issues and I knew she did when I first started dating her. She told me about them, but I liked her so much then that I told her it wasn't a big deal. I told her I could handle it."

"What are her trust issues?" Chloe asked, letting curiosity get the better of her.

"Well, her last boyfriend..." Jake started and then stopped. "I'm sorry, I don't think I can tell her story to you. It's a really personal thing and I swore I wouldn't tell it. And, even though we are broken up, I'd feel like it was wrong if I told you. I'm sorry."

"It's okay and stop saying you're sorry," Chloe said putting a hand over Jake's hand. "I just want you to be okay right now."

"I know," Jake nodded. "And, thank you. I'm really sorry about your bear."

Chloe looked into Jake's eyes and they both laughed, suddenly giddy from sadness and loss and stress.

"I needed that," Jake said, managing a smile.

"Me too," Chloe said, squeezing his hand.

Chloe managed to steer clear of Kate for the rest of the day. She did not want to run into Kate again until she cooled down. Chloe was sure that all of Kate's anger about the break-up between her and Jake was going to be directed toward her.

Jake met Chloe after school. He was skipping football practice that day, in favor of hanging out with her and getting away from Kate. Chloe had told him before they left their Biology cla.s.s that they should spend that afternoon after school doing something fun so that he could get his mind off Kate for a little while. Well, at least until Emma picked her up to go to the mall at seven. Still, they had almost four hours to kill before that.

They went miniature golfing. Last time they had gone, they had been ten years old and had run around the miniature golf course three or four times, trying to get as much use out of their time at the course as they could. They were fiercely compet.i.tive with each other too. Both of them wanted to win the game and Chloe kept meticulous track of their scores when they played. They were relatively evenly matched at that point in their lives and it was usually a toss up as to who won the game.

Eight years later and everything was much the same, Chloe thought, as she smacked the golf ball toward the hole. It went in.

"Yes!" Chloe yelled, raising her hands above her head in a victorious cheer.

"I'll get you yet," Jake yelled, taking aim with his own putter and ball and hitting it toward the hole.

It narrowly missed.

"Ha! Ha!" Chloe yelled, grinning at Jake.

Jake stuck out his tongue at her. "I can still win!"

He hit the ball again and sank it into the hole.

"See!" Jake yelled.