Chapter 3: "I Swear I’m Not Crazy”

I’m not crazy.

...Right?

Because I swear I dreamed it. The car. The rain. The text. All of it.

I groaned, dragging the blanket over my face like it could shield me from my own brain. “Don’t forget the rain.” Who even sends something like that? I must have hallucinated it. Maybe it was my own overworked brain trying to be poetic for once.

I yawned, grabbed my phone, and-

Nope.

The text was still there. Bright as daylight on my lock screen.

Unknown Number:

~ Don’t forget the rain.

I blinked. Stared. Blinked again.

Okay. So maybe I was crazy.

Or maybe some weirdo prank-texted me.

Yeah. That had to be it. Totally. 100%. Some scammer out here is trying to mess with me.

Except... it didn’t feel like that. My chest felt tight. There was this weird... warmth under my skin that I couldn’t shake off. And the longer I stared at those words, the more I swore I could smell something dusky , like-him and sharp-like rain on the pavement. Which is impossible because I was in my BED.

I dragged a hand through my curls, which were sticking up in every direction. My reflection on the phone screen looked like I lost a fight with a thunderstorm. Great.

"Okay, Theo, get a grip," I muttered to myself. I tossed the phone aside like it was cursed and sat up. My room was a mess-sketches everywhere, a half-empty mug of coffee on my desk, clothes draped over my chair. Normal chaos. Nothing spooky or supernatural here.

Except my phone buzzed again.

Unknown Number:

~ “You didn’t forget.”

OH HELL NO.🫨🫨

I literally choked on air.

I didn’t even respond. I just stared at the message, heart thumping like a drum in my ears. I squeezed my eyes shut, counted to five, opened them again.

Still there.

Okay. So maybe it wasn’t a dream. And maybe I wasn’t hallucinating. And maybe-just maybe-I was being stalked by a guy I met for exactly 30 minutes during a storm.

A guy who looked like he could ruin my life. A guy whose scent was still messing with my head. A guy I didn’t even know the name of.

Why me????

I flopped back onto the bed, covering my face with a pillow. I swear I could still smell him. Like he was right there, standing in my room. My heart wouldn’t calm down. And my skin felt... prickly? Like it wanted something. I didn’t know what.

I grabbed my phone again.

Scrolled up.

Scrolled down.

Maybe if I stared long enough, the texts would disappear.

Spoiler: They didn’t.....

......................

"Who knew one stare from a stranger could mess up my entire system? My body’s acting like a ticking bomb, my scent’s shifting, and my stupid heart won’t shut up. If this is what losing your mind smells like, then damn-I’m already too deep."....

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