Death followed after Ginny from a distance. She was holding her phone in her hand. She couldn't see him, since he was in his true form. Ginny walked over to a trash bin and dropped her coffee into it. She inhaled sharply, her shoulders shivering with pain.
He wanted to hold her, caress her as she poured her heart out to him about all the stress she had been facing. And then maybe, he would kiss her pain away, and fuck her until she forgot about everything.
Ginny inhaled deeply again, then held her phone up to her face.
"Fuck you! Motherfucking stalker! You think you're so smart, huh? Well, this ends now!"
Then she threw her phone into the trash bin.
❃❃❃
Ginny opened drawer after drawer, looking for that box. When she finally found it, she sat on her bed and pried it open. There were several old phones inside. She picked the newest one and turned it on, then set it up.
This would be her phone from now on.
Just then, her doorbell rang. She left her bedroom to open the door and found those two detectives standing outside.
"Hello, Ginny," one said. "We're here to talk about that Instagram post."
❃❃❃
Death was now aware that he was wrong. Ginny's problems did not start after Jane's death. They started long ago, when she dropped her phone on the street.
So he travelled through time, to the point where she dropped her phone. He stood at the side as he watched her forget to pick up her phone into her tote, careful not to interfere and change anything, just in case things worsened.
He stood and waited until finally, one man with a mask on stopped over the phone. He bent down and picked it up. Turning it over, he pocketed it. Death followed him back home and when he was there, he travelled through time with Ginny's stalker to the present.
He discovered several things.
First, this stalker was all talk and no bite. He often stole phones or picked up lost phones, then smashed their screens and directed the owners to a false repair centre to get their passwords, then install spyware into their phones.
He spent the days watching countless women undress, sleeping, peeing, pooping, having sex, talking, eating while holed up in his room. He was unemployed and in his late thirties and his mother was taking care of him, unaware that he was doing this.
He knew everything about his victims because of the microphone and camera he was spying into their phones. After all, nobody went anywhere without their phones. And whenever something significant happened, he would send them creepy messages to scare them. He got off on it, and that truly sickened Death. And he wasn't sickened by much.
This man had utterly no part to play in any of the deaths that Ginny's loved ones occurred. He was only a goader. And a completely useless person with no point to his life. But as Death considered this, it struck him.
Albert was killed for money. Jane died in a true car accident. Gemma took her own life because she was depressed. Ginny's father died from a natural heart attack.
The one responsible for the deaths of Ginny's loved ones was none other than him.
❃❃❃
Ginny closed the door behind the detectives, who had asked her several questions. They still had no idea that she had killed Harold but other than that, she had them completely up to speed with everything that was going on with her stalker. They took notes down, and told her that they would investigate. As time passed by, she told her mother that she would be stepping out to buy dinner since her mother was in no shape to cook.
But when she was walking down the pavement, a crowd formed around her and people pointed at her with their fingers and whispered loudly about her. A few kids passed by a market, took some eggs from a stand and hurled it towards her.
The eggs exploded on her body and she yelled at the kids, but they only called her names. As she unloaded her frustrations on the kids, people whipped out their phones to record her outburst. She settled down, knowing that those videos had no context and she would be blamed.
She returned home with a heavy heart and her mind drowning in pain. When she unlocked her door, she thought about talking to her mother about everything but she soon realised something.
Her mother was nowhere to be found.
❃❃❃
"Aren't you hearing me?! My mother is gone! My stalker has her!" Ginny yelled at the detective over the phone.
"Calm down," he said. "She could have simply stepped out for some food."
"No! My mother is in no shape to even eat, much less go anywhere! Search for her!"
"Just rest at home, alright? We promise we'll investigate."
"You know what? Fuck you," Ginny said, hanging up.
She had to deal with this on her own.
She flew to her door and when she opened, she found Bale standing on the other side of the door. He extended his arms out to her and she buried herself in them.
"Oh, Bale!" Ginny cried.
She told him about everything that was happening and about how her mother had disappeared.
"Bale!" Ginny said. "I'm responsible! I'm the reason why all my loved ones are dying. It's because I dropped my fucking phone. That's why they're all dying! It's my fault. I killed them!"
But Bale only kept quiet.