------UNDER EDIT-------

There was a black Toyota sedan parked discreetly across the road, seamlessly camouflaging with the dimness of the descending evening. The headlight had been turned off and the windows were tinted such that no one could make out if there was any driver inhabiting the strange motor car. Situated 100 yards away in a library, I certainly could not make out any driver. Staring at the car from the library's large floor to ceiling windows had become my new favorite past time. 

I had first noticed the car when I was casually roaming the city district with Cheryl, trying to find a nice cafe dinner to finish off our usually busy college days with. I had not paid much heed when I saw it the first time, parked in the lot, while I waited for the local bus to take me home. It caught my attention as not many cars had tinted windows and it was covered in a thin layer of dust, as if the owner had recklessly abandoned it for a few days or didn't particularly care for the car's upkeep. Then, I noticed it the next day when I had made a quick run to my nearest neighborhood market for supplies for my Accounting project. It might have been another black Toyota Avensis but I took down it's number plate, in case I ever noticed it again. There was something disturbing about this car that invoked a sense of caution within me.

My senses went on high alert when I noticed it parked inconspicuously in the visitor's parking lot when I went to college the next day. It was the same tinted black Toyota Avensis with a CN-498-JC number plate. I casually strolled past it and tried gleaming if there was anyone inside, but the tinted windows blocked any view. Now, everywhere I went, I made sure to keep an eye out for the car and my suspicions were confirmed -- it followed me everywhere. Almost always just on the peripheral of being too perceptible. 

Leaning against the library window, I noticed it's outline in the evening air. The air was thick with humidity and heavy rainfall was imminent. I wondered who could possibly be interested enough with my whereabouts. Maybe Alceste was right -- I was a person of interest for the police given Alexa Durham's murder and my association with Jean Renauld. Or maybe it was something more sinister. It had only been two weeks since the fateful car accident and the strange cupid fac man's warning. Something in my gut warned me that this was just the beginning.

"What are you staring at?" Cheryl interrupted my bleak reverie.

I turned to find her carrying her heavy backpack, laptop in hand and a confused expression on her face.

"Just wondering if there's going to be another storm tonight," I said. 

"Ugh. I hope it doesn't. I can't stand it anymore," Cheryl said as she made her way past the occupied tables filled with students and towards a more secluded area of the library.

I followed her, my laptop bag in tow, silently shuffling past the undergraduate students who were busy with their study groups. 

"You're from London. Isn't this like any other day there?" I asked.

"We get bursts of rain. It doesn't last for more than a few minutes, and it's over before you know it," she said. "Kind of like my first boyfriend," she murmured.

I laughed.

"Was he that bad?" I asked.

We started climbing to the third floor of the library. The first floor was usually an area where students were allowed to have study groups and spoke freely without being interrupted. The second floor was reserved only for graduate students and the third floor was reserved for students, from all schools, who wanted to have a quiet area to study. Nothing above whispers were usually permitted in this area and it was perfect for finishing up our assignments.

"I don't want to be too harsh on him. We were sixteen and none of us had any idea what we were bumping," she said. 

We made it to the third floor and selected a secluded area in the corner that sported an elongated table with two chairs on each end. It was divided in the middle with a partition that had orange tube lights attached. This provided us with additional lighting, since the long library windows no longer provided us with sunlight during the evenings.

We started settling into our seats. I removed my laptop and plugged it into the charging station, while I assembled my books, notepads and pens carefully on the table. I was usually not so meticulous when I studied but Cheryl's anal habits when it came to prepping were slowly rubbing off on me. I was reluctant to admit it out loud, but having an organized study plan and a buddy to share it with, had helped me ace my surprise quizzes.

"Was your first time awful?" Cheryl asked. She smacked the side of her laptop and muttered a groan. "Bloody thing never works!"

"Shhh!" came a sound. We looked over to see the disapproving look from the student who shushed us.  She was rifling through the tall bookshelf in front of us.

"Sorry," Cheryl mumbled to her and got back to lightly smacking her laptop to get it to start. 

The third floor of the library wasn't nearly as packed as the first. There were only a handful of students spread across the 5,000 square feet expanse of the floor and we were safely isolated besides this one lady. Once she found what she was looking for, she slowly slipped away to her desk at the further end of the room.

"So, was it?" Cheryl asked me again. She peered at me with her almond shaped eyes, her face framed with a pair of round glasses that had a purple frame and red hinges. It would have looked absurd on most people, but Cheryl pulled it off with confidence. 

"Uh. . . ," I said. I was stalling to form a perfect response while I fumbled with the binding of my notebook. "I'm not sure."

"You've . . . done it, right?" Cheryl asked.

" Uh . . . ," I looked at her.

"Dam," Cheryl whispered.

"I just never got around to it. I've always had more pressing problems that took up my time," I tried explaining myself.

"No no. It's completely fine!" Cheryl said. "I mean you're just nineteen. To be honest, it's not all it cracked up to be."

"Right," I mumbled dejectedly.

"I'm serious!" Cheryl said. 

She shut the lid of her laptop so she could see my face clearly. "It's . . . okay the first hundred times. I wont lie and say there are sparks flying or toe curling orgasms for women. But, there's this . . . intimacy that you feel with the other person. There's nothing closer than being part of one body."

 She sighed and went back to her stack of unfinished assignments and books marked with post its. "Don't rush into it. Because when it's bad, it really really bad."

The rest of the evening was spent with our heads trained squarely on our laptops, trying to catch up with college work. Adam was supposed to meet us but had instead decided to stay with his study group on the first floor. After spending four grueling hours on my latest Statistics assignment, I had resigned myself to the fact that I would probably never end up being a actuary.

"You ready to leave?" Cheryl yawned at me.

"I can't. I have tons of this shit to still deal with," I said as I cupped the thickness of the Statistics book that was left to be read before next week's lecture.

"Come on, let's get to bed. It's nearly eleven in the night. You won't get much done here," Cheryl said. "Also, it getting creepy here. We're the only ones left."

I looked around and noticed how most of the table lights had been turned off and besides the desk that was inhabited by Cheryl and I, the entire library was bathed in darkness. I could hear the sounds of crickets penetrating the silent floor. The isolation was a bit daunting with nothing to keep me company if Cheryl left but the stacks of decade old books and manuscripts.

"You're right. We should probably make a move," I said.

We packed up our belongings and exited the library. There were heavy winds ripping our coats as we forced our way towards the cab pick up spot where we had called our Uber.  The sky crackled with thunder and the sound of wind in my ears could was drowning out the voice of Uber driver I was trying to speak with. 

I looked at my phone to make sure I could guide him to the entrance when my phone battery gave out.

"Fucking shit!" I screamed. "My phone died. We can wait at the pick up spot for a few minutes for the Uber. Otherwise, you can call another one."

Cheryl crammed her body as close to me to hear over the thundering and raised her thumbs up as a sign of acknowledgment. We made our way slowly across campus and towards our spot. There was no soul out and about at this time. All dormitories and housing was done a few kilometers away and I could bet most people were choosing to stay indoors instead of braving this storm. We trudged leisurely along the footpath buttressing the single lane road that swirled around campus.

"Ella . . . " Cheryl called for me.

"What?" I said.

She turned her head back, overlooking her shoulder and then at me. "I don't want to sound paranoid, but there might be somebody following us," she said.

My body froze for a millisecond and then resumed walking at the same pace so as to not alarm Cheryl, or worse, the person following us.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"I don't see any reason for why a car should be slowly cruising around campus with no headlights on at midnight.  Do you?" Cheryl said.

"Do you know what car it is?" I asked.

She turned around to glance at the car when I halted it with a firm grip on her arm. "Don't turn around. Do you remember what make it is?"

"No. I couldn't make out much. All I could make out was a black sedan," Cheryl said. I could sense fear in her voice, or maybe I was  projecting my own insecurities on her at this moment.

"Okay. Maybe it's just a drunk college student trying to prank us," Cheryl said. I could hear the fake sincerity in her voice. She didn't buy that excuse for a second.

"Let's not take any chance. Follow me. And don't make any sudden movements," I said.

The memory of being chased by a car only a few short weeks ago was fresh in my memory. What were the possibilities that I would yet again be a target for a deranged assassin? Ever since I had stepped into Anna's world, I seemed to be dodging bullets and barely making it out alive. The first was in Delhi and the second on a highway in Paris. 

I walked straight ahead, at the same steady pace, as if nothing were amiss and a strange black car hadn't been following me. 

"Hold up one second," I told Cheryl. I bent down and shifted sideways to pretend I was tying my shoe lace. I could notice from the peripheral of my eye, a black Toyota sedan, briefly stop next to the Chemistry Lab building's entrance. I got up and resumed walking besides Cheryl.

"What are we going to do? The Uber pick up spot is another 10 minute walk," Cheryl said. Panic had started seeping into her voice, but she remained cool and collected enough to not make any hasty or unwarranted moves to attract any unwanted reaction from our stalker.

"Just follow me," I said, determined to make it out of here alive.

 I slightly picked up the pace of my walking and linked in hands with Cheryl to make sure she followed me step for step. 

"You see that building with the red banner?" I asked Cheryl.

"The admin block?" Cheryl said.

"Yeah. Remember, we got our student ID's made here?" I said.

"Yes, why?" Cheryl asked.

"When I say go, we bolt to the fucking door. Okay?" I turned to Cheryl to show her I was serious.

"What? Are you crazy?!" 

"No."

"Okay, I might not have had a stalker before but I have seen enough movies to know that we should just pretend that nothing's wrong and make it to the Uber spot."

"The Uber driver has probably reached and is trying to contact my phone. How long do you think he'll wait before he cancels the ride and leaves us stranded here? Do you want to wait while we book another cab?"

"Ok. But maybe we should just call the police," Cheryl said.

"We're not exactly on the best of terms right now," I said. "Besides we don't have time."

"I think we should think this through."

"I'm counting down from three and we run when I saw NOW," I ignored Cheryl.

"This is crazy," she said.

"Three."

"You're fucking insane."

"Two."

"I can't fucking run. I have zero eye-leg coordination," Cheryl panicked.

"One."

"I'm going to kill you if we make it out alive."

"NOW!"

"Bollocks!" Cheryl screamed.

We both ran towards the red banner building. The sound of our feet slapping against the cobbled road was drowned by the sounds of our heavy panicked breaths and the sound of the sky crackling with an impending storm. We ran across the manicured lawn and raced up the two flight our stairs of the building. I swiped my student ID card and pushed open the door to let Cheryl and I in. I slammed it firmly shut behind me.

Cheryl bent over her knees and was panting heavily, her head resting between her knees. Before I could go over and console her, I saw the black Toyota sedan speed up and vanish right past us into the starry night. It had barely slowed down for me to read the number plate, but I was right. It was the same car and it finally knew that I was onto them.

Now that I knew that the car had vanished, and would not be able to enter this building without an ID card, I turned my attention towards Cheryl. I went to her and gently stroked her back.

"You alright?" I asked. Cheryl was still bending over and making dry heaving sounds as if she were about to vomit. She heaved in response to my question and I continued soothing her with sincere platitudes.

"What. In. God's. Furry.  Ass," Cheryl spat out. Each words punctuated crisply and followed by a large lungful of air. 

"The car's gone," I said in relief.

"I don't give a fuck. What the hell is wrong with you?!" Cheryl snapped at me. She stood upright and threw off my hand on her back.

"What?" 

"You have a crazy maniac following us and your first reaction is to run?!" Cheryl screamed.

"It's okay. That car has been following me for days now and has never explicitly done  anything besides blend in the background. I doubted it would this time too," I said.

"But were you SURE?" Cheryl asked.

"Well . . . I was confident enough," I said.

"That's not good enough!" 

"Cheryl, if we continued walking there, we'd be sitting ducks. Even if he turned out to be psycho, we're safe in this building," I said.

"Are we though?" she asked.

"We are in a campus building with CCTV surveillance. It's better than waiting on a barren road," I said in my defense.

Cheryl paced up and down, trying to see if she could physically shake off the jitters that had engulfed her body from the adrenaline fueled run.

"Sorry. I know I'm panicking but this is freaky," she said. She stopped pacing and looked at me with suspicion. 

"You know, I've gracefully kept my mouth shut when the police officers dragged you the first time. Or how you went MIA these past few days. Or even that there's absolutely no digital trace of you on the internet. Not a single social media account. Not even a LinkedIn account," she said.

I listened to her, my brain trying to scramble for a coherent thought that would spit out a reasonable excuse for all these aberrations.

"And  now this car following you at night," Cheryl finished. "Are you involved in something?"

I looked to the ground and tried to buy some time but I knew Cheryl was too smart to be fooled, and too good a friend to be lied to.

"I . . . can't discuss much," I said desperately.

"Are you in trouble,  Ells?" Cheryl asked me. She had never used a pet name for me before. Something about it broke down my insecurity about revealing my true identity. I knew I had to share my burden with someone. I still hadn't spoken to Anna in days and I missed having a friend.  I needed more people in my life, who were there for me, unconnected to any Renauld.

"Maybe. I can't say much right now. But, I promise I will when I can."

She smiled demurely and hugged me. The warmth of her embrace comforted the most broken parts of me. A hug was all I needed and I was glad to have Cheryl by my side.

"Let's get out of her," Cheryl said as she let go of me.

"My phone's dead. You got any juice in yours?" I asked.

"Yeah, hold on."

Cheryl booked us both and uber and I safely made it to mine, without the dread of being followed by any black Toyota. I made sure of that. I kept turning back in my backseat as I made my way back home. Everytime I passed the highway where Alessandro was shot, a spike of electricity jolted within me. I don't know if it was a premonition of something bad headed my way, or if my body was recognizing the spot where I almost died.

The Uber dropped