Posted on July 27th, 2020. Edited for the wattys2020.  A chapter everyday till their deadline. Enjoy this chapter. comment, like, and follow. Share it with someone who you think would enjoy it.

Love to you all great readers,

-Sel

I met with my brother to ask him to buy a me a new phone.

I wanted him to do it on my behalf, with my money, so the person that has eyes on me 24/7 wouldn't have the chance to put a tracker in it. They wouldn't even know it's for me. Or even realize that I know he/she put a tracker in my phone.

As much as I wanted to believe that Daniel was going to act as family and buy me the phone. I couldn't convince myself of such. I didn't really know him. He left years ago. He changed.

But getting his help was a matter of life and death for me. Literally.

My heart was pounding so hard it almost made me believe it was the reason Mic kept looking at me from his side of the seat. If I hadn't been afraid my voice would give off my nervousness, I would have made sure he knew his gaze annoyed me.

What would I do if he said no?

I shook my head. I didn't want to think of it, but- find another solution? Every time I thought of a possible rejection, my hands would start sweating profusely all over again before stopping a few minutes later.

It turned out to be that I had a real reason to be anxious. Family had died.

Or at least, in my case.

One of the biggest source of my anxiousness was that I had no clue what kind of answer to expect from him. We weren't on talking terms for ten years. To top it off, in those ten years, we saw each other twice.

All of a sudden, we were forced to forget about each other.

We needed to be close, though. Friends could never become family. Or replace it. Therefore, I needed him to do this favor for me.

I was set for disappointment.

Daniel sent me his GPS location earlier. I showed my driver when I boarded, making sure one last time I had put some water on the tracker to confuse it for a bit. Hopefully, the person tracking me would think I dropped my phone in water.

Was I pushing the person's intelligence? Yes. Yes I did. They weren't foolish.

They knew, somehow, what I was doing.

My meetup with Daniel was at nine. I got there exactly on time. We were exactly where we had met last time; at the cliff close to Isic's house.

I hoped that Isic wouldn't come out and see us. He could be nosy, and annoying. It was a private time between family, though.

When Daniel saw me approaching, he looked at my location on his phone, to make sure it was me approaching. Then he turned off his phone and didn't turn it back on the whole time.

Why did he think of doing as me? I did because of my stalker. Did he have a stalker, too? Or worse, did he know something about mine?

Everything was clearer in the following minutes.

Throughout our whole short conversation, Daniel looked like a soldier ready to fight; tense back, and eyes always for the lookout. It was like he was expecting an attack at any second.

It creeped me out. I hid it at first.

"Hey." I said, when I was in front of him.

He looked at the forest. "Hi. How are you doing?"

"Good." I said, hands in my pocket. It was chilly- minus twenty Celsius degrees outside? We were still in the middle of February in Canada.

"How are you?" I asked.

"Good." I didn't respond. That made him finally turned his attention to me. When I heard what he had to say, I wasn't please anymore. "Listen. We don't have a lot of time. And it's not safe here. So quick, what's up?"

His hazel eyes were dilated and alert. I wanted to know more about what was going on. Luckily, I dropped it. We didn't have a lot of time.

Besides, I was trying to rush things. I discovered what was going on later.

I took a deep breath. "I need you to trust me on this okay."

"Go ahead." Looking at the scenery behind my back. Still not looking at me.

"I need you to buy me a new phone."

"No." He didn't even think about it.

This time the fact that he wasn't looking at me angered me. He would only glimpse at me every five seconds, then look at our surroundings again for another ten seconds. What was so demanding of attention.

"Daniel, listen like you mean it. You even heard me?" I was tapping my foot on the ground.

He met my angry eyes with his calm ones. "I mean it. No, Autumn. "

I shook my head. "You need to be there for me. We're family."

"I know." His voice was hard. "We're even blood. But I can't do that. Some mistakes cannot be made."

I shook my head, tears of anger filling my eyes. I was considering whether to ask him what mistakes, or leave, when I saw a dark figure spying on us behind the bushes. When it realized I spotted her, it fled.

My breath caught. "I saw someone spying." I whispered, turning to face him.

"I know." He said.

"You know? Why was he spying on you?"

"They're not spying. They're keeping watch for us, like bodyguards."

I frowned. "Why are they doing that? Are you in danger?"

I was son oblivious to everything. Someohow, he knew too about the stalker. How did they all?

"No. You." He said.

The wind blew harder when I opened my mouth. I zipped my coat higher, taking those few seconds to process what he said. I couldn't believe my eyes. "What do you mean?"

I was looking at him. I needed an answer. "I have my bodyguards." I said.

He sighed, then gave a dry laugh. I would have thought it was an evil one if I didn't know from his facial expression that he was almost mocking one.

"It's so much more complicated than that. Also part of the reason why I can't buy it for you. You're watched. Maybe even right now."

I shivered. He knew. Did he know that someone discovered I was performing a secret surgery and was trying to wreck everything to stop me ? did he know that?

When I came out of my faze, I saw Daniel walking away. "Wait. I need more explanations." I said.

He ignored my request spectacularly.

"Never stop using your old one. Now follow me. I'll take you to your car."

I followed him in agonizing silence. I got a glimpse at his friends. There were four, walking all around us. My bodyguards were there too. They must have talked to them, and made sure they didn't mean harm.

We took the trail inside the forest, which was more dangerous because enemies could hide in there. But if you thought about the fact that you couldn't be shot from afar, it was a win. Enemies had to physically fight you because of the thickness of the forest.

He left me at the car without a word or a glimpse. For a moment, when he lingered, I thought he wanted to say something.But he ended up leaving without a word.

Sometimes, it didn't feel like like we were related. It felt like we were the kind of friends that only met up when they needed the other for something.

On the whole ride home, his words kept ringing between my ears. "Never stop using your old phone." He had said.

I was never going to stop doing it anyway, in order to keep fooling the person spying on me.

But I needed a new one. When my AirCar was in the air, and Daniel had left too, I told my driver to go park where we had been.

Isic was my last option. He wasn't family, but- would he still do it?