The Haunting of Secrets by Shelley R. Pickens Page A

us. This time he
stalks where I live. For me, it has become personal. Yet, all I can
do is wait. And I’ve never been good at waiting.
    “I hate this,” I begin my voice practically
hissing. “I wish I could figure out how to access another memory so
I could be of more help. If it doesn’t happen soon I may need you
to hit me over the head to force them out.”
    Dejana says nothing in response to my rant.
She turns from the computer to look at me, her face grim and laced
with fear. “Well you better prepare yourself then, Aim. I just got
an email from the school. They found a vacant high school in a
neighboring county that will fit all of us. School starts back
tomorrow.”
     

 
    Chapter
Eleven
    ~ Everyone Wears a Mask
~
     
    Leah’s fingers practically fly over the
keyboard as she types away on her Mac composing different databases
to organize the information she’s found on the girls that Dejana
and Aimee asked her to find. She stops momentarily and takes a sip
of her caramel macchiato, her perfectly manicured nails sparkling
in the soft light. Leah looks up at the other patrons sitting at
the small tables in the local Starbucks. The usual crowd surrounds
her, their focus on either the coffee or their own computers. Deep
inside, Leah pities them; they really have no idea what they’re
doing. She learned from an early age that given the right tools,
she could do just about anything. Given the internet, she could be
deadly. She feels most at home with a keyboard and a screen since
that world is the one she is able to control.
    Leah refocuses on the task at hand, as she
creates another program to help her find the elusive information
for which she has been searching. Dejana and that freaky girl,
Aimee, think they’re so clever not telling her everything. Leah is
constantly underestimated, thanks to the pretty face and body she’s
been blessed with. It has its uses on occasion, like when she tries
to sell her information or programs to rather unsavory men. With
one perfectly placed virus, she could bring down the whole city of
Atlanta if she wanted to. Sure, she’s sold her unique computer
viruses to shady people, but how else would she be able to afford
the kind of clothes she wears? Her parents are poor. Her mom is a
secretary for a company downtown and her dad is a janitor at an
elementary school. Mostly, Leah allows everyone to underestimate
her. It gives her the freedom to do the things she wants without
suspicion ever falling to her.
    Leah’s finishes compiling the database of
information Aimee and Dejana requested days ago. Now all she needs
is time to find out what they are hiding. For now, she’ll play
along, but soon she’ll have more than enough information to figure
out everything. If her fellow students are in danger and Leah can
help save them, then she damn well wants to. For the first time,
Leah has a chance to change fate, not just play with it through a
screen and an internet connection. She has the chance to actually
save a life; not just any life, but the life of someone she might
know. She lost her boyfriend Daniel from a cruel twist of fate
disguised as a bomb. She’ll be damned if she’s going to lose anyone
else she loves to an idiot psychopath.
    Leah wipes the fresh tears that have begun to
fall, but doesn’t let them deter her from her mission. She has no
idea how much time has passed, only that her drink has grown cold.
She continues to focus on her screen, staring at the code she
created, and trying to work out the kinks. She is so fixated on her
work that she doesn’t realize darkness has fallen. Her fingers are
numb from the constant typing, but she doesn’t care. It isn’t until
someone pulls out a chair next to her and sits down without so much
as a ‘hello’ that she even looks up from her Mac. She instantly
closes the laptop in fear that someone will find out what she was
doing. But as she looks up into the hazel eyes of a friend, she
realizes it wouldn’t have