Page 93 of Make No Mistake

“Who are you?” My voice sounded much braver than I was feeling.

The masked man took slow, careful steps into the kitchen until he was feet from where the living room began.

“Who. Are. You.” I bit out each word as my fear turned to anger.

His head tilted. His black ski mask revealed nothing, but his clothing was more telling. He was tall. At least six feet. He was thin. Much thinner than I’d been expecting. He’d taken down four girls without a fight. I’d imagined he’d be bigger. His shirt hung on his shoulders and barely skimmed his arms and torso. His legs were thin, making his skinny jeans look baggy.

Without speaking, he took another step toward me. One arm lifted until his hand grasped the bottom of the mask. I thought he was teasing me, but with a single tug, it was gone.

Lennon.

Quiet, sweet Lennon from the newspaper was staring at me.

My jaw dropped, taking my stomach with it.

“Why?” I barely breathed out the word.

Lennon’s normally gentle expression looked wicked.

“Why, Lennon? Why would you do this?”

He stalked forward, first walking toward me then turning and circling around.

“You look scared, Mckayla.”

His voice. There was something so wrong. I closed my eyes for a brief moment. This wasn’t my friend. There was something very wrong with him. He wasn’t himself.

I opened my eyes and looked around. He was standing almost behind me so I turned and faced him.

“Lennon. I’ve known you for four years. This isn’t you.”

His lips twisted into a smirk. “You don’t know me. You never have. No one has!”

He was angry. Not at me, though. No. He thought no one knew him, no one noticed.

I needed to prove that I did. I needed to play into his mentality.

“Lennon, you’re the best designers we have, but I know that your true love is photography. You love the layout and graphics you can create, but I know you don’t love journalism or the newspaper. I’ve seen the graphic novels in your backpack. I even saw your drawings back in sophomore year. You’re extremely talented.”

His smirk wavered while my heart broke. He wasn’t evil. He wasn’t a monster. Something happened to him. He changed, but this wasn’t him.

“You make the best brownies. I seriously don’t know how you do it, but they’re amazing every time. You won the bake-off last year.”

Guys that bake weren’t the same guys that stalked girls and attacked them. This didn’t make sense.

Nothing about this made sense, but I had to keep him talking.

“You are always the first to volunteer for activities and assignments. You get other people excited. We never would have been able to put together than pet adoption event last year without you.”

Where were the police? How long was I going to have to keep this up?

“And remember the time that Kerstin got sick at one of our all-nighters and you gave her an extra shirt and walked her home? That’s who you are, Lennon.”

He was frowning when I was done with my walk down memory lane. I hoped that meant I was getting through to him.

“Why?” I held my breath, waiting for his answer.

There was silence until his sneer returned.