The dorm feels bigger, and way scarier with Gala still in the hospital. I haven't slept in three days since she's been in because every time I close my eyes I see the hooded figure standing over me with a knife. Or a rock. A Sword. 

I know that one sounds weird, but I see it. All the time. 

This killer is becoming unhinged. They go from wanting to not see me, to slipping a note under my door to attack me? Surely, they know that I won't go anywhere alone now. They have to be thinking of some new attack that will end with me lying in a morgue next to Victoria. A shiver runs through my spine as I remember the dream of her on the dock. 

Who are you? 

My alarm goes off, and I snooze it for the third time this morning. It's 6:45 in the morning, and I've already wasted so much time I'm not even going to have time to eat before class. I've somehow found a way to maintain a B average in the midst of this craziness, but my mind is doing cartwheels. Everywhere I turn is a threat. Every class I sit in I have eyes on me. 

I thought she was you. 

They wanted to hurt me. They wanted to punish me for continuing to look. Maybe Chip is right, maybe I should just turn it in to the police. This whole thing is starting to feel way over my head, and I don't know if I can continue to keep playing the game with the stakes constantly getting higher. 

I think back to Kilgore, with its one street light and a mini-Walmart that all the teenagers would hang out at after school. Mom and her dead-end jobs that barely kept us afloat. If I tell the police what I know I'll have to go back. There's no protecting me from an unknown killer. Especially if they're here at Riveroak. 

I'd be giving up everything. My life, my new friends, and Chip. 

Chip. 

I've wanted to call him in the middle of the night so many times. I've wanted his arms around me and to hold me close as the weight of the world rested on my shoulders. He makes me feel safe. He's shown me time and time again that he has my back, and now he's become almost like a crutch during my time at Riveroak. 

I pull out my phone and open the text messages. 

Thinking of you. I message him. I sit up in bed and cross my legs under the blanket. The nightstand lamp that I haven't been able to turn off and face the darkness of my room shines brightly as the sun has yet to peak in through the windows of our dorm. 

Did you get any sleep last night? He messages me back almost instantaneously. 

My first instinct is to lie and say yes. I don't need Chip to worry about my sleeping with everything else we have going on, but he made me promise no more secrets. Not to mention if he sees me later on today he's going to know that I got zero sleep. 

Every time I closed my eyes they were standing over me. I message him back. 

I get up from the bed and try to walk to the bathroom, but my head is spinning from the exhaustion that is getting more and more intense with each step I take. I sit down on the corner of the bed and let my head hang low. My long brown hair touches the mattress and I long for even a moment of restful sleep. 

Give me twenty minutes. That is all Chip says in response. 

I make another attempt to go to the bathroom to get ready which leads me to just sitting on the toilet questioning my life choices when a small knock comes at my door. 

All my exhaustion fades from my body as adrenaline floods my veins. The killer could very well be at the door right now and I could be dead in this room and no one would know until Gala got back from the hospital. 

The knock comes again, this time more urgently and I slowly get up and walk to the door. Several more knocks come before I get to the door and form a fist, rearing back ready to punch whoever is at the door. When I swing the door open someone comes toppling through and I let out a tiny yelp as the door slams behind them. 

"Shhh," says Chip as he wraps his arms around me until I'm able to breathe and calm down. "I come with gifts." 

As the adrenaline leaves, my body returns to its state of exhaustion as Chip guides me back to my bed. He holds a single grocery bag in his hand and dumps the contents on the bed. A sleeping mask, NyQuil, and a thermos all fall onto the bed next to me. He smiles lightly as he holds up the NyQuil and begins to measure the proper dosage. 

"We're playing hooky today," he says as he hands me the cup of medicine. I shake my head no and he gives me a stern look. "You need to sleep. This stuff is a certified knockout, and mix it with the sleepy time chamomile tea in this thermos and you're set to knock out for a good solid 8 hours." 

"Chip, I can't miss school," I say taking the cap and setting it on my nightstand. 

"I already sent an email 'from your doctor'" he says with air quotes. "Saying that you have the flu. Your teachers will email you your assignments and you can rest in your room until Gala returns. Oh, and you gave me the flu and I'm staying too." 

He takes off his backpack and winks at me. "I had to wait for the girls to leave the building before I snuck in, and I had all of this stuff left over from when I actually had the flu last semester. I'll stay up and start the assignments and you can get some rest. I'll be here when you wake up." 

Tears well in my eyes as he smiles and pulls his laptop out of his backpack. He begins to type and then looks at me with a frustrated look. "Woman, if you don't take that medicine and go to sleep-" 

I lean over and give him a kiss before he can finish the sentence. All the kisses that we shared before were passionate and awkward. This one was different. It was familiar, and it felt sweet. It's the kind of kiss that says so much to the other person even without it physically happening for a long time. 

This one says "Thank you for being so thoughtful, and I absolutely needed you to do this." He smiles as I nestle into his neck and lean against his body. The anxiety I've been feeling starts to fade away as he wraps his arm around my body and starts to rub his hand up and down my arm. 

"Take the medicine. Conk out and then you can copy my assignments when you wake up." 

I laugh as I lean over and grab the medicine from the nightstand and down it quickly. I lay down under the covers and grab my phone. This killer has taken to much of my peace, and I refuse to let it continue anymore. 

I open up my emails and go to the latest one they sent. The one where they threatened me and wanted to hurt me. The fear only grips me for a second as Chip's hand rests on my leg and he begins to read from his computer. 

We need to meet. 

I send the message as sleep finally overtakes me for the first time in days. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When my eyes open the sun still isn't up. Looking over at my my alarm clock I see that it's 8:30 at night. Chip is still on his computer, but his earbuds are in as he holds a piece of pizza in his hand and takes a generous bite out of it. 

He laughs at whatever show he's watching on his computer, and still hasn't noticed that I'm awake. I sit up, feeling rested for the first time in days, and needing to pee like I've drank a gallon of water. 

"Thought you were dead for a minute," Chip jokes as I slip out of my covers and run to the bathroom. A few minutes later, I'm back in my bed and Chip holds a pizza box up to me. Cheesy, greasy, goodness stares at me. My stomach growls angrily as I grab the biggest piece left in the box and take a big bite. 

"I thought I was too." 

I grab my phone from my nightstand and see an email notification from the anonymous email that came hours ago.

Not yet. 

I bit my lip in frustration. Not even a week ago they wanted to meet me to hurt me. Now they're turning down the opportunity to meet me because why? They're scared? They're frustrated that things didn't go their way? 

I feel myself becoming less scared and a lot more angry. 

Chip takes off his headphones as I take a bite of my pizza. He chuckles and raises an eyebrow at me. "What did that pizza do to you to make you chomp on it so aggressively." 

I don't respond and simply toss him my phone as he looks over the email between me and Victoria's murderer. "Elena, you can't just make appointments with killers," he says shocked. "Do you not remember what they did to your friend only a few days ago? That can happen to you if you just go off and make plans-" he pauses. "Wait, they're emailing you?"

"I told you they were," I say to him.

"No, you said they were messaging you. This," he says pointing to the phone. "This changes things." 

He takes his laptop and begins to furiously type into the computer. "I thought so!" he says loudly as he begins to type even more furiously. "If I can break through the firewall and hopefully go undetected I can figure out who is sending this or at least an IP address of the computer." 

"Chip," I say confused. "English, please." 

Chip chuckles as he stops typing and looks at me with a smile. "I realize I've never told you about my family. My dad owns the top tech security company in the nation. He has shown me so many ways to protect my computer, but as I got older I began to want to know how to dismantle them. Just for fun, you know?" 

Yes, because my idea of fun is dismantling computer program security features. 

"Anyway, he taught me some basic things, but I kept doing more and more research and eventually I became pretty decent at hacking. The killer is sending you emails on your Riveroak account. They might have figured out how to keep themselves anonymous when it shows up, but only other Riveroak accounts can email these addresses. They didn't want to get a bunch of spam mail coming into the system." 

"Oh my god, does that mean what I think it does?" I ask him.

"Yes, the killer is emailing you from the school server." 

I watch in silence as he continues to type. This time he isn't talking to himself. Pure focus is stretched across his face as he bites his lower lip. "My dad installed the security for the school," Chip says as a bright smile appears on his lips. "He's good, but I know his tricks." 

He presses enter on his keyboard, and a username appears on the screen before him. 

Victoria.Caldwell@ RiveroakPrep.net  

My jaw drops at the name, and Chip shifts in the bed clearly uncomfortable with what he's seeing. "She can't be..." he trails off.

"Chip I found her body. Whoever is sending this isn't Victoria." 

This killer is smart. They took serious precautions to keep their identity a secret. I think back to the missing pages in the diary. The ones that were ripped out when the killer ransacked my room at the start of all this. 

The motive is in those pages. I just have to find it. 

"It gets worse," Chip mumbles as he slams his hand down on the bed in frustration. "The IP address that's attached to the emails that you're getting sent to you is in the library. They aren't even using their own computer. "

"Do you think," I begin. My voice catches in my throat. My heart slams against my chest as this thought crosses my mind. "Do you think that the killer is a student?" 

"I think that is a surefire bet based on what we're seeing." 

Gauging on what I'm reading in Victoria's diary, she was feared. She wasn't liked. If the killer really is a student, we are looking at one giant suspect list. 

Everyone could have a motive to kill the girl who made their life a living hell.