Page 150 of Trick or Stalk

I immediately look down at my coffee.

Tell her.

The words sit on the tip of my tongue.

There was a masked man outside my house, watching me.

Instead, I say, “I think everything is just catching up with me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Grandma. Moving back. School being on hold. Starting a new job.”

All true.

Just not the whole truth.

Gracie’s expression softens. “Presley.”

“I’m fine.”

She gives me the same look Stella gives me whenever I say that.

“I am.”

“You're allowed to not be.”

“I know.”

The masked man flashes through my mind again.

I should tell someone.

But what exactly would I say?

That he stood in the woods?

That he moved toward my house?

That he disappeared before I could call the police?

He never touched me. Never threatened me. Never even spoke to me.

Maybe that’s why it feels so strange.

He scared the hell out of me. But some part of me keeps replaying the way he stood there, focused entirely on me.

I hate that part.

I really hate that part.

Or so I tell myself.

“Go tonight.”

I blink. “What?”

Gracie points toward a flyer taped beside the register. “Pumpkin carving.”