I had a problem.

I had a really bad fucking problem. Not only did I have a small obsession with keeping Perrie Underwood safe, I had a sick need to know where she was at all times.

I wasn't a stalker. I didn't rifle through her trash, steal her clothes, or keep tabs on everyone that she hung out with. It was just that I knew she could be a target. After Izzy, I didn't want anyone to get hurt by the sick maniac that was still lurking on the streets.

Besides the one man that she'd been talking to yesterday, I hadn't seen anyone else visit her at her apartment. While I assume the man she was talking with earlier had been her dad, I couldn't know for sure. I'd been...guarding her for months now and it was the first time that I'd seen the man. It didn't seem like she had anyone to keep her company.

But it wasn't like I was looking for a way to become that person. It was really all about being there for someone in case something bad happened.

That's why I was back at her place again. I didn't have anywhere to go. Even with my stomach growling and the heels of my feet aching, I stood there as if I was counting on something going wrong.

My eyes were going cross as the minutes slowly ticked by. I knew she was there. I could see the TV playing and she was watching one of the same shows she watched every Saturday. She barely left at all except if it was to go to school or to the local grocery store that was around the corner.

This was sick. No matter how I tried to spin it there was something deeply wrong with me.

As another hour ticked by, I finally forced myself to go home. Nothing was going to happen. There was no reason for me to be here when she was safely inside her apartment. This was really crossing the line. If following her around was bad enough, waiting outside her house for hours on end was the worst it could possibly get without me creeping inside uninvited.

I began to walk home when I felt that strange feeling again. It felt as if someone was running the tips of their fingers up my neck and brushing through the hair at the back of my neck.

This time though I could feel the weighing presence of someone behind me.

I tried to run around the corner, but an arm wrapped around my neck and yanked me back. I choked as the person's bicep tightened at my throat, cutting off my airflow.

My eyes widened as I gazed up at the sky. I caught Perrie's bedroom window and for a second I thought I saw her curtain move. My gut dropped as I thought that this might be it. This was where Perrie was going to be taken and killed and I wasn't strong enough to stop it again.

Another killing and I was too weak to do anything.

I thrashed my head to the side. My skull slammed into the person's forehead. There was a large crack and I wasn't sure who exactly was hurting more at the moment. I thought once more about the attacker last night and the blood that had been all over the man's face. I wasn't going to let him get close to my neck. I wasn't going to let that sick fucker try and bite me.

I ground my teeth together as I pulled at the arm that was holding me hostage. My nails dug deep into their skin. There was a low grunt in my ear. By the sound of it, it was a man. I relished in the small sound of pain. I slammed my head backward once more, but the man saw it coming and moved to the side.

He lifted me up with both arms, the one wrapped tightly around my neck and the other one fitting around my waist. I flailed as I was swiftly picked up off the ground and turned around. For just a second, his arm lessened around my throat and I was able to breath again. But it was the same second that I was poised in midair. It was like I was on a swing and I was at the very top, suspended just before the big drop came.

My stomach dropped and I lost my breath as my legs came down.

Reality came crashing back down on me and time was unpaused. The man slammed into the side of the building, taking me with him. My back pressed against his front and his arm tightened even harder around my neck. I stomped my feet down. The heel of my foot came down hard on his shoe, but I got no reaction. Instead, my foot stung from how hard I'd slammed it. The stupid shithead had boots on. It felt like he had steel toe ones on too.

He pulled us back so that we were hidden by the sharp angles of the brick buildings. However, if anyone walked by the small alleyway, they would have known what was going on. It would be that easy to find me, to see that I was in trouble, but no one was going to walk down here. No one took this street for anything and I would know because I'd been here day after day watching over Perrie.

And for a split second as the man strangled me into submission, I thought that maybe this is what I deserved. Well, not deserved necessarily, but maybe this was karma for all that I'd done in my small lifespan. This addiction I had to see Perrie all the time was spiraling out of control and I didn't know if I could hold myself back in the future.

It was just a split second though. That dark thought was out of the window before it could plant its seed.

With one hand still digging into the man's arm, I used the other one to slap blindly behind me in the chance that I was able to hit his face. My movements were sluggish as fuzzy darkness surrounded me. My eyes were drifted close, the blotty darkness taking over my eyesight and a low pulsing vibrated in my ears. The one little breath I'd managed to take had beat the dust. It had filled my lungs for only a few short seconds and now it was gone.

Just as I thought I was going to pass out, the man dropped me. I fell hard to the ground, my arms too weak to catch all of my bodyweight. My knees slammed into the asphalt and it would have been worse if I hadn't been wearing pants.

My forearms scraped the ground. They broke my fall, but my head still slammed into the ground hard enough to send my vision into spirals. I gasped for breath, but it was hard to. I kept trying. It felt like I was trying to breathe through a straw.

There were shouts. I couldn't make out what was being said. It just sounded like muffled noises in the distance. The man who'd attacked me ran, but I couldn't tell what direction he was going. I saw him move though my vision was still muddied from almost passing out that he only looked like a dark figure.

"Hey. Can you hear me?"

And then there was someone else. They were kneeling over me, staring down at me, yet I still couldn't focus enough to see them. My eyes went cross as I tried to make them do what they were created for: see.

"Y-Yeah..."

I choked. My voice was a scratchy whisper.

"Good. I'm going to sit you up. Is that okay?"

I gave a soft nod. It hurt to move my neck though I managed to fight through the pain to do it. The man slid his arms under my back. He was gentle which I didn't expect. He moved slowly, watching me intently for what I guessed was any sign of stress.

Once he lifted me enough, he moved me back toward the side of the building. It was the same one that the other man—the attacker—had choked me up against.

A shiver went down my spine as I felt like I was being choked again. I gasped for breath.

"Fuck," the man said, his hands hovering over me like he didn't want to touch me without permission. "What is it?"

I shook my head. "Nothing."

I placed my hand on my chest as if that was going to help. I stared at the ground for a few seconds, wondering what the hell I'd gotten myself into. My vision wasn't so blurry and I wasn't in that fight or flight stage anymore.

But I was still reeling from what had happened.

Had that actually happened? Had I really been attacked? I couldn't quite put my head around it, but it shouldn't be so hard to believe when just last night I saw a girl murdered right in front of me.

Close to this exact spot.

This couldn't be a coincidence. None of what was happening around me could be simply shrugged off like it was nothing. Even if Ryling didn't want to admit that something was going on.

There was also this guy that had saved me.

I snapped out of my spiraling thoughts and looked at the guy that had saved my life.

The first thing I noticed about him was that he looked only a little older than me, but he didn't look too old. Which was weird. He was in this strange stage of looking like a high schooler and looking like a full fledged adult. His eyes were the darkest shade of blue that I'd ever seen in my life. For a second I thought they were brown, but they were most definitely blue.

His hair was dark and curly, framing his face perfectly. He looked like he came off the television screen.

His brows furrowed. "Is something wrong?"

"Uh..." I decided then that it might not be a good idea to say that I was caught off guard by his good looks. "No. Thank you."

The little added thanks felt strange, but it also felt good to get it out of the way. It didn't seem like enough though when I thought about it. This guy had put himself into harms way to save me.

A small smile broke over his face. It dropped when he looked behind him, seemingly in search of the guy that had tried to kill me.

"Did you know that guy?"

I snorted. "Definitely not."

Or I hope I don't know them.

I ran a hand over my face. "Is this really happening?"

The guy sat down beside me.

"I'm afraid so," he said.

I pressed my fingers harder into my eyes. It all felt like some sort of joke or fever dream. Things were spiraling out of control and now there was this new guy who seemed to appear out of nowhere.

My brows furrowed. How had this guy ended up here anyway? What was he doing walking down this street? I'd never seen him before.

I pulled my hand away and looked at him. He was looking right at me, staring with those worried eyes. Though, was he really worried?

No. He couldn't have been the guy that attacked me. Or the guy that killed that girl.

My memory was fuzzy as I tried to think back. It was strange. I could clearly remember that I'd seen the man's face that had bit that girl, but when I tried to conjure his face, it wasn't coming to me anymore. All I could see in the hazy memory was the girl's pleading face of pain. That was it.

Had the man's eyes been blue or brown? What was his skin color? What was he wearing?

All I was sure of now was that it had been a man.

"Do you want me to call the police?"

I quickly shook my head. "I'm fine. It's not like they can do much. I didn't get a look at him."

That was only half of the truth. The other half being that I highly doubted that the cops were going to make anything better. Ryling was different. She wasn't much of a cop as she was a detective—or was. And I knew this city well enough to know that the kind of people that the police department employed were the same kind of people that kept the department in business.

The guy didn't say anything for a long minute. The awkwardness soon got to me and I made my way to get up. However, my body greatly disagreed with me. My head was dizzy as I grabbed onto the wall. I squeezed my eyes closed and prayed that I wasn't about to hurl in front of this guy.

"Are you okay? Do you want me to take you somewhere?"

My hands had somehow found their way to the cold brick wall. They steadied me while the rest of the world was tipping from side to side. I forced my eyes to stare wide eyed at the world before me. It was just a damp dirty red brick wall that had seen too many things in its lifetime.

"I said I'm fine," I snapped back.

I glared at the guy. He was still hovering like I was about to collapse at any second. It wouldn't be a stretch. I just might if I kept feeling this way. But I didn't like the way that he was looking at me. It wasn't that he was looking in a way that should be tipping off alarms. There was something else in his look that was making my stomach clench.

His eyes almost looked empty. As much as he was putting on the good act that he was just trying to help me, there was still a sliver of an underlying agenda that he couldn't quite get rid of.

The uneasiness I felt was all because of that small almost insignificant thing. I couldn't ignore that though. Even as much as I wanted to believe there was someone good in this world, after what I'd seen and been put through, I couldn't.

His eyes narrowed.

That's the kind of reaction I was looking for. There was no such thing as a good person in this city or in this world. Pure things didn't exist. And if they did, they didn't last long.

"Are you always this rude to people that save your life?"

I almost rolled my eyes. "Do you always demand approval for your good deeds?"

He raised a brow and snorted. A smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth. "I guess you are okay."

I did roll my eyes that time.

"Seriously though, thank you. I don't—" I looked away, slightly shaking my head and then instantly regretted doing so as a sharp pain bloomed at the side of my head.

I hissed as I pressed my hand against the spot where it hurt the most.

The guy placed his hand on my shoulder. It was a light touch and one that I was surprised that I wasn't too bothered by. What I was bothered by was how friendly he was. I didn't like how foreign it felt.

"Let me take you home or to the urgent center. I wouldn't feel right if I left here by yourself."

I furrowed my brows. That wasn't going to happen. I wasn't going to let this complete stranger know where I lived and I wasn't going to the urgent center for a couple bumps and scrapes.

As if to tell me how bad of an idea not going to get checked out was, the throbbing pain came back, stronger this time. I looked down and that was when I saw that there was a big hole in my jacket from where it had snagged on the asphalt. I pulled my sleeve up. There was a huge scrape that traveled down from my elbow all the way down to my wrist. It had already swollen up and it was red with inflammation.

The man hovered his hand over my wrist. He looked at me. "Can I take a look?"

When I didn't move, he took my wrist and turned my arm from left to right. He was deeply concentrated, his brows furrowed, and his lips pursed.

"It's not too bad, but it should be taken care of. Are you hurt anywhere else?"

The refusal of the help was on the tip of my tongue, but the words weren't coming out. I tried to force myself to pull my hand back and to walk away. I couldn't do that. I couldn't get myself to do any of that and it was all because of that worried look on his face.

I'd never been so worried about in my life.

I gave him the most confused look I think I'd ever put on. I simply stared at him and then I couldn't help that a small laugh slipped out. The awkward laugh caught his attention, but his face was unchanging. I kept laughing though I tried to caught myself off. That only made the uncontrollable laughter get louder and louder until I was doubling over from the pain of it all. My hand slipped out of his.

"Well, I think I can most definitely say that you're unwell. I don't think it's because you fell though."

I couldn't quite tell if he was making a joke or if he was actually upset that I was laughing in his face. Actually, I wouldn't quite say that it was laughing in his face. This sort of laughter was all because I didn't know what to do in this situation. It was awkward as hell, but I couldn't just walk away.

If he was being truthful about being worried about my wellbeing, I don't think he would just leave me alone if I walked off.

It would be pretty ironic if this guy turned out to be a stalker. The stalker being stalked? It sounded like a premise for a movie.

The painful laughter died away. We were back into silence.

"Thank you, again, for helping me, but I'm fine. I can get home by myself." I finally got the nerve to try and walk away, but I wasn't making a good case for myself when I was leaning against the wall.

The guy merely walked beside me.

"Then, I'll just make sure you get home safely."

I growled under my breath. "I was afraid of that."

The guy just smiled and watched me struggle to the end of the alley. When I made it to the corner, I took a deep breath and rested for a bit.

"My flat's just down there." He pointed to a short building that was across the street. It was two buildings down from where we were.

I kept walking. "Are you British or something?"

I'd never heard anyone call an apartment a flat around here.

He gave a shrug. "My grandfather was. I'm Mitch by the way."

I thought for a moment about what could go wrong if I told him my name. In the end though, I decided that there wasn't any harm in it.

"Ian," I said and left it that. I looked away, knowing that that wasn't enough to scare him away.

He kept following me as I expected him to. I glared forward, making sure that I wasn't looking at the building where he said that he lived. It was hard not to look at it when my body was screaming to take a break. My jaw was clenched so hard that I might just break a tooth.

He hovered like he thought that I was going to fall to the ground any second. While that wasn't too far off from the truth, I wasn't going to let him know that. I mustered as much strength as I could and kept my head tall.

We had only gotten to the end of the block when my left knee buckled under my weight. The ground was hurling faster than I could comprehend right toward my face. My hand grappled for purchase on the brick wall but there was nothing to grab.

And then, before I could break my nose on the pavement, Mitch's arms grabbed me around the waist.

"That was close."

I swallowed the lump in my throat. I stared for a moment wide-eyed at the spot where I could have ended up.

That was when I noticed that my hands were clutching onto his arm. I looked at my hands, my knuckles red and scabbed, and then at the fabric of his long sleeved shirt. The light gray looked like sleet. And for some reason, that made me feel safer.

I couldn't understand it. The way it looked so cold and uninviting made me like it.

"You can let go of me now. I'm not going to let you fall." His chest rumbled as he laughed at his own joke.

I couldn't get away from him fast enough. I shoved his arm away and straightened up as best as I could while my muscles were trying to fold in on themselves. I gave him an irritated look that hopefully conveyed how much I didn't appreciate his humor.

He held his hands up. "Just trying to help."

That was the problem. He was being too helpful and too nice. It was getting on my nerves.

However, as I leaned on the brick wall, I finally admitted to myself that I wasn't going to make it back home like this. Whether it was because I was on the verge of a panic attack or that I was actually injured and I couldn't tell, it was going to take me forever to walk