Emily broke. I thought she would have avoided me after that night, you know, attached some sort of anger or blame to me, but no, she did the opposite. She would come and sleep with me every night. I forced her out one night and told her that she couldn’t come back, I even made sure to lock the door, but she came back into my room. She must have stolen a key.

It was getting annoying. Not only had I spent the week keeping an eye on every stern-looking face that passed me by, but I also had to keep babysitting this girl. I don’t know. Maybe I should have killed her then. If I did I might be following faces during the day and enjoying my free time at night.

The entire week this…change began to manifest I noticed that Abby had stopped coming to the company. I started to stick around places I knew she would be in, but she never came by. She didn’t come in or out of the company either.

With the thought of having wasted a month of my time, while creating a parasite I couldn’t get rid of, I decided that it was now or never. Each day the moment passed me by would be another day that Abby could decide to date someone. I had to confess.

When the moon hung heavy on the sky, and Leslie let me go, I found myself in front of her house, knocking, and waiting for a response. She was there. I knew she was there because If she wasn’t there then where else would she be so late at night?

Her face was Blank when she opened the door. The sweet smell of her sweat came out of the room and I loved it. I peaked at dirty clothes and empty bottles behind her. She had been inside for a long time.

“Jake.” Her voice came out like a statement made to nobody.

“Abby…I know this is strange, but I can’t stop thinking about that day we had by the river. I fell in love with you that instant, please, will you accept my confession.” I put myself on one knee and put out a flower. “Will you be my wife?”

There was silence. I could feel the door about to shut in my face. My last-ditch effort was about to come to nothing.

Then she broke out in laughter, “You’re very funny. Sure. Come on in. I mean if you were going kill me you would have done it already.” She walked into the room and I followed her. She sat on the same couch I slept in. Her butt was where I put my face to sleep… “Thank you, Jake. I liked this. I’ve never had a fan try to get me to feel better. Did Cathy put you up to this?”

“I…love you, Abby.” I looked at her laughing face and sat down next to her. She moved away.

Her face changed from laughter to worry. “I can’t, I mean I knew you were obsessed but you know that none of it is real? You don’t know me, Jake.”

“I don’t have to know you. I love you. Every time I see you, you make my life better!”

She looked away from me and to the blank tv in front of her. “What if I was planning on killing someone? What if I was planning on prostituting myself? What if I…what if I said I hated you?”

I gulped. “But you aren’t, you won’t, and you don’t.”

“Thank you for the confession and the flower. I…I don’t hate when you say things like that, I mean what kind of entertainer would I be if I didn’t like people confessing their love to me. But I think that's enough. You need to go home, find yourself someone better, and maybe end up having a normal life. There isn’t any point in continuing this. Please, leave.”

“I refuse.” With a twist of my body, I got on my knees and started to beg with my head down. “Please, please, please at least go on a date with me!”

I wasn’t delusional. I knew that Abby wouldn’t say that she loved me, that she would never be without me. A man could only dream. But I could at least get a date. It had already been a month since I started. I decided that if I didn’t get anything now I would start thinking of quitting this stupid, unrelated job and making up a new plan.

“That's very embarrassing Jake. Please get up.”

I felt my phone buzz. “If you’re not going to marry me then I won’t leave until you decide to go on a date with me!”

I looked up to see a conflicted face staring back at me. “Jake, I think you're misunderstanding me…”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“I’m not!”

She looked at me for several seconds before sighing. “Why not. Let's go on a date, Jake. I don’t know, maybe it will do me good to get out of the house.”

“Exactly! Think of it as getting out of the house! I would just be with you at the same time.”

“But..” She hesitated for a second. “I’ve been staying in my house for a reason…”

“What reason?”

She looked scared as she spoke. “I know that you aren’t a fan, but you must have been seeing what's been going on, right?”

Terrible People calling for you to be canceled and destroyed every day. People that I constantly fight every chance I get. “Not really.”

“I…started to get some death threats a couple days ago. I mean graphic stuff. Ever since that idol went missing, I don’t know if it's a good idea to go out. Some of my fans can be…a little crazy.”

“Idol? To be honest I don’t pay attention to news and stuff like that. But it can’t be that bad to have you like this.”

“It's got me freaked out. If my life isn’t bad enough with all this talk about my fake ex and how horrible I am I’ve been getting bloody cards sent to me. I mean that stuff doesn’t affect me. But someone telling me that they’ll kill me horribly?” her face looked away from me, frightened of what could happen.

“You know Leslie gets those death threats all the time.” She doesn’t, but she is such a horrible person I’m surprised that she hasn’t got half of the hate that Abby gets. “I’m an expert at sniffing out the fake letters from the real ones. Let me see.”

she hugged herself. “Are you sure?”

“Yea, how bad could it be?”

It was pretty bad. Whatever sicko was making this wrote it in red paint with nothing but the word “disappear” on it. Behind the paint-splattered word were pictures of different dead and disemboweled bodies, each with its head replaced with different pictures of Abby's head. It was insane and it was very effective. Maybe I should think of passing this along to Leslie?

“It's a complete fake.” I asserted. “Whoever made this won’t hurt you, they’re trying to scare you away from…I don’t know….did you start any new show or album?”

“No. I haven't picked anything up. I haven’t been getting a lot of jobs since I left my group, so it can’t be that….”

I felt my phone buzz. I looked at my flip phone, it was Emily. I hastily responded to her and focused back on the conversation. “Then you have nothing to worry about! They’re trying to get a reaction out of you. They won’t do anything.”

She hugged herself tighter “I don’t even know what I did to deserve this, do I deserve this?”

“You don’t! It's just some freak that has it in his head that he has to get back at you for something you didn’t even do!”

“Something I didn’t do?…Whatever,” She took her eyes to me. “They won’t have to send anything anymore, I’ll disappear.”

I looked at her. “Huh?” I felt the panic in my heart.

She gave a chuckle. “Has anyone told you you react too easily? It's a joke, it's a joke. I’m quitting the industry. Although maybe you could say that I’m disappearing…in a way.”

My original plan was to have her marry me and retire to some faraway place where we would have kids and live a happy life with nothing but ourselves. It wasn’t a bad thing that she was quitting now. I could see this making everything ten times easier.

“If you feel like that's what you have to do” I twisted my face into something sad. “then I can’t stop you, even as a huge fan I wouldn’t have the right to stop you.”

She looked at me for a second. “Good. Thanks again.”

“Now about that date?”

She snorted. “You still want that date? I feel like I’m thanking you a lot today. Maybe you deserve it. How about…” she put her finger on her lips. “How about tomorrow? I can do something tomorrow. Late at night, at some random bar, or maybe at karaoke?”

I blushed. “I was thinking of a late-night stroll in the park?”

“That works too.” I felt my phone buzz.

*smash* “Ahhhhhhhhhh!” Abby screamed.

I twisted my head. A red brick smashed through a window. Pieces of glass and debris surrounded it on the floor. Abby covered herself without looking up, her body quivered at the aftermath. I stood up. With a nudge, I told her it was alright.

I walked over to the window and then to the red brick. Neatly placed on the brick, in the middle, was a note. ‘I’m going to kill you, you stupid lying bitch.’ I put it into my pocket, that would be a little bit too far right now, maybe she would be too spooked to go outside.

“W-what happened?!”

“Tsk tsk tsk, someone threw a brick at your window. You should call the cops Abby.”

“The cops?” her eyes grew wide in panic. “No, no cops.” She hushed the idea away.

Why wouldn’t she want cops involved? That's strange. Her frail body hugged itself onto the couch. “I think staying here alone might not be a good idea. Whoever hates you might do something while you’re alone. Why don’t you call someone?”

“I don’t know,” Her eyes were lost. “I don’t know what I did to deserve this.”

“Listen. I’m going to go.”

“No! Stay! I...I can’t think of anybody right now. Just stay tonight, you can’t leave after somebody threw a brick in my house!”

Oh, what a shame! I have to stay here another night with my beautiful Abby. I thought she would ask after the cops had come, but this is good enough. “Do you want me to sleep on the couch?”

“Yes.” She picked herself up from the couch and rushed to her bed. She came back with sheets and a pillow. “Please, just stay for tonight.”

“I asked you to marry me, Abby, how could I just go away now?”

With the sounds of sleep in the house, and a breeze from the sheet-covered window, I opened my flip phone.

‘Where are you?! You said that after I threw the brick you would leave?!’

‘Don’t worry too much.’ I replied. ‘It seems like Abby wants me to stay. I can’t say no :(‘

My phone buzzed and buzzed but I put it on silent and it stopped. Tomorrow was going to be a fun day.