Something had been bothering Max ever since she started looking for a place to breakthrough. It was a subtle feeling that was just out of reach. She tried to ignore it as she searched the internet at the library. Unfortunately, she could only find a cave system around fifty miles away. There was just no good cave systems where she lived. It wasn't a place she could go to without drawing alot of attention to herself. It was now friday and she didn't have any hideouts to use so far. She only had one choice left, but it could only be used once. She would have to perform her breakthroughs at a place with lots of people. It would make it alot harder for them to figure out it is her that was giving off all that essence.
The first hour bell rang as Max got to her feet. She needed more alternatives. If only, she could make something or someone to lure her stalker and his essence radar away. She quickly got to class and tried to pay attention while thinking of a solution to her problem. She still had no answer by the time lunch came around. She was picking at her food when she saw Emily starting to approach. Here comes the show. Max turned to face her, but Emily blushed fiercely. Her expression quickly turned from embaressment to confusion and finally rage before she fled. Emily has done that every day since Max had kissed her. Max found her behavior quite amusing. Oddly though, Emily only walked a few feet before stopping. She turned back around to face Max with a determined look on her face. She walked straight up to Max before speaking, "Did you know there is a strange man asking about you?"
"Is it the heavily muscled brunette that looks like he should be on a high school football team?" Max answered.
"So you do know him!" Emily accusation almost sounded like she was jealous. Max discounted it off hand. It was obvious to anyone that had eyes that the girl prefered men.
"Oh, don't get jealous," Max says teasingly before continuing, "The creepo' has been following me around everywhere for the past few days. I have been wondering what to do about it. Any ideas?"
"Call the cops," Emily replied simply.
"Already have. It didn't do any good," Max lied. Because even if she did 'call the cops,' it would only mean a change of who was watching her. She rather know who to look out for. "Anyways, what was he asking about?"
Emily gave her a wierd look before answering, "Alot of questions about how you act at school and if you had any friends." Emily paused for a moment as if in thought. "At first I thought he was just dumb boy smitten by you, but it was his tone that made me worried. It was as if he wasn't interested in you at all, but instead was writting a research report on you." I am not surprised by that. It makes sense that they would try to get a psych profile of me. Probably to see if I am a loner or not. It would be a sign that I am hiding something. I wonder how he reacted when he found out I kissed Emily.
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She would have to check her room later for any surveillance devices. But first she had to discourage Emily from bothering her anymore. She knew it would piss Emily off when she asked with a mischievous smile, "Did you tell him that I kissed you?"
Emily's face was crimson as she growled in indignation at Max, "Go to hell." Emily storms away from Max. Max felt bad for teasing Emily so badly, but it is better for Emily if she kept her distance. It was better for everyone to be far away from her, if things went south.
The rest of the school day went by in what seemed like a blurr. After leaving her middle school, Max looked toward the high school down the street. She had a feeling that he was from that high school. Hence she had kept an eye out for her stalker leaving since she first saw him, but had no luck thus far. It didn't take long for her to spot him. She spotted him after watching ten minutes. He was walking by himself and didn't even try talking to anyone. It's not like he can afford have friends with a literal bomb around his neck. He didn't bother getting on a bus and started to walk in her direction. Max stopped looking at him and began to walk home. Max gave up waiting for her mother after she didn't come for three days in a row. She didn't bother her as much that he was following her since she knew all he was doing was observing her.
When she got home, she went to her room as she normally did and slowly looked it over. Everything was in the right place and everything that should have a light coat of dust still had it. She still wouldn't show any signs that she was cultivating. She sat down and did what homework she had and opened up her textbook to make it appear she is studying. She began cultivating and would flip the page periodically. She switched out textbooks when she reached the end of that particular chapter. It took her a bit longer than normal to cultivate this way, but it was an excellent cover, if she there were surveilance devices in her room. Even if there weren't, it wouldn't hurt to get into the habit for when there are some.
Her parents got home before she finished that session. Her father looked miserable. He had been sober for nearly a week. He didn't look like he would last much longer without some kind of encouragement. Without any hesitation, she walked up to him and gave him a hug while saying, "Thanks for trying so hard, dad." She didn't need him to break and start drinking again. Before she could break away, he had hugged her back. "I don't deserve you or your mother," he spoke softly. Damn right, you don't. They stayed like that for some time before her father finally released her. She said she had some homework left to do before returning her room. She finished her cultivation and got ready for bed when that bothersome feeling from that morning came to the surface. The name of the one of the first cities destroyed by an essence beast horde was St. Louis and Max currently lived the western part of Wentzville. She couldn't be much more than twenty five miles away from ground zero.