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“Except, I still felt eyes on me four years later, long after I’d gotten used to being alone.”
“Was it just on campus?”
“No.” I shake my head. “I worked summer jobs off campus, and did an internship in the city one summer, and I felt it then too. Not all the time, but some nights when I worked late, I’d feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end as I walked home.”
“What happened that made you tell Hadley?”
Memories of that last day in my dorm come to mind. “I’d just graduated, and I was packing up the last of my belongings. Hadley called me on my way back from grabbing a coffee.”
“You should comevisit before you start that fancy-pants job of yours,” Hadley says, her crisp voice coming through the earbuds.
“You should come here,” I counter, jiggling my key in the lock while holding my coffee in the other hand.
She sighs down the line. “Em, you hardly ever come here. It’s been four years. You need to fish out those big girl panties.”
“Sorry, they’re already packed, and I have no idea which box they are in.”
“Har. Har.”
“What are your summer plans before senior year?” I ask instead, changing the topic as I set my coffee cup down on the kitchen counter before moving to my bedroom to grab the last box of my belongings.
Stepping into the room, Hadley’s words fade into the background as I spot a black envelope sitting in the center of my bed. My sheets and covers have all been stripped off the bed, leaving the bare, white mattress. The contrasting color only serves to emphasize the obsidian envelope, making it stand out in an ominous way that sends an eerie chill through my body.
It definitely wasn’t there when I went out for coffee, and I locked the door behind me.
Ignoring Hadley, I call out, “Mel?” wondering if she’s here and left it there. When she doesn’t respond, I cross the kitchen-living space to her closed bedroom door and push it open, but her room is empty. She’s already moved into her new apartment, so unless she forgot something, there’s no reason for her to be here.
“Em? Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” I respond absently, walking back to my room and once again staring at the envelope. “There’s an envelope on my bed.”
“Okay…”
I realize the insanity of that statement and tack on, “I don’t know how it got here.”
“Your roommate didn’t leave it?”
“She’s not here.”
“Maybe she came back while you were out.”
“Maybe.”
“What does it say?”
To answer her question, I move over to sit on the edge of the bed and carefully lift the envelope. There’s nothing written on the front of it, and I turn it over, cautiously sliding out a folded piece of paper. Opening it, I begin to read.
There will comea time when you believe everything is finished. That will be our beginning.
“What the hell does that mean?”Hadley asks when I read the note aloud.
“I have no idea.”
“Where did you say you found it?”
“It was just sitting on my bed when I walked in.”
“And your roommate isn’t in?”
