When Kate awoke again, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Mr. Snuggles had fell on the floor sometime while Kate was sleeping. Picking him up now, Kate laid him on her pillow and looked at her clock, alarm instantly in her eyes. It was 8:58am, and she was late for her first class! All of her professors had a policy, which was

‘Arrive on time, or not at all.’

Not a single one tolerated a minute of tardiness. Sighing, Kate contemplated what to do. Her next class started promptly at eleven. Taking a shower should clear her head. Getting up and grabbing the towel that was slung over the back of her desk chair, she headed into the bathroom.

Turning the hot and cold knobs this way and that, searching for the perfect shower temperature, Kate pulled the knob to turn on the showerhead. It sputtered a second, and then kicked on full blast, hot water emanating from the showerhead and instantly filling the bathroom in a cloud of warm steam.

Kate began shampooing and conditioning her hair first, as she always did. Once the conditioner was rinsed entirely from her hair, she turned around, facing the shower and let the hot water pour out onto her face. Running her hands backwards across her face, Kate saw what looked like a small 5/8th inch bolt next to the cover the showerhead was attached to on the shower wall. Squinting and leaning closer to get a better look, Kate saw that it wasn’t a bolt, but she wasn’t quite sure as to what it WAS.

Quickly rushing through the rest of her shower, Kate hurried and dried off, throwing on the first set of clothes she saw --sweat pants and an old gray t-shirt that read ‘Go Glendale Bulldogs’ on it. Snatching a letter opener from her desk drawer, Kate returned to the bathroom.

Picking at the ‘bolt,’ Kate eventually loosened it enough to get a grip on it with her fingers. Pulling it out from the wall, there was a long black wire attached to the back of the device. Yanking harder, Kate had the thing pulled out far enough to hold it right up to her nose for the closest look possible.

No, it wasn’t a bolt, as Kate had originally thought.

It was a teeny tiny camera lens.

Someone had been, and probably still was at this moment, watching her! Terror inundated Kate. Thank goodness she was already in the bathroom because she immediately started heaving into the commode.

Collecting herself, Kate went and sat in her desk chair, the wire and camera lens hanging from her bathroom wall. She already knew that getting the police involved wasn’t an option. Then a thought occurred to her.

‘If there was a camera in the bathroom; are there others?’ Kate looked around the desk, unmoving. Her eyes skimmed across the items on her desk: phone charger, laptop, miscellaneous papers, a pen, a folder, and her small desk lamp on the right hand side. Kate’s eyes rested there, on the lamp. It was just a small, black, everyday desk lamp. Nothing fancy or glamorous by any means.

Picking it up a few inches from the desk and leaning closer, Kate saw another tiny ‘bolt’ on the base of the lamp, this one about 9/16th of an inch in size. Kate quickly snatched up the letter opener she had laid on the other side of her laptop. Picking at this ‘bolt’ like she had done the other in the bathroom, it was soon loosened from the lamp’s base. Another long wire on the backside of the lens. Another camera.

Setting the lamp and lens carefully back down on the desk, making sure the lens was pointed at the floor, Kate slowly rose from the desk chair. School --and going to classes-- was the last thing on her mind now. Kate scanned the room with her eyes, trying to think like ‘Pete’ would. Kate knew that it probably wasn’t going to be very long before ‘Pete’ was either calling or texting her. If there were other cameras, and Kate was sure that there were, she had to find them, and find them fast.

Slowly walking around her room, Kate wondered:

‘If I were some creepy stalker hiding tiny camera lens, where would I put them?’ Kate was now by her double set of windows that looked down onto the busy street below. With the letter opener in her right hand, she ran her left hand along the wall, and up one side of the window frame, and down the other. About halfway down, her fingers stumbled upon another ‘bolt.’ Prying it free, Kate pulled another lens and its wires loose. Carefully pointing the newfound third lens directly at the floor, Kate moved on.

Kate ran her hand up and down and across every space of the walls in her room. From the window, she ran her fingers across the wall that was opposite her bed, and then onto the wall that her message board and exit door to the hallway were on. She peered carefully --and closely-- at the message board. Finding nothing, she moved onto the door. Upon close inspection of the door handle, hinges, and locks, she found yet another camera disguised as a bolt against the deadbolt lock. This one she also pried free, although it took a little longer time to do so than the others had.

Moving on, Kate had run out of walls and options. Sitting on her bed with a sigh, Kate looked at her alarm clock. 11:23am.

“Yup. No class today, it looks like. Oh we---” Kate stopped mid-sentence as her eyes saw something on the alarm clock that she had never seen before. On the plastic display area, in the upper right hand corner was another ‘bolt.’ It was so small, and so easily missed. Letter opener still in hand, Kate picked at the tiny ‘bolt,’ which she knew by now was another camera lens, and cracked the display screen in the process. Using what she had for fingernails, she pulled the minuscule lens away from the clock.

“Huh.” Kate said to the practically microscopic lens. It was no bigger around than the opening on a clickable pen. “Crazy,’ Kate muttered, carefully placing the clock back in its place and draping the wire so that the lens was behind her nightstand, facing down towards the floor. Before Kate could form any kind of thought process or plan, the cell phone on her nightstand started beeping. A new text message. Picking it up and flipping it open, Kate read the displayed message:

‘I see you’ve discovered one of my little secrets. No matter. We’ll be meeting in person soon enough. --Pete.’

****

[A/N: This is the end of ch. 18. I will upload ch. 19 tomorrow sometime, once I think it up =) hope ya’ll are enjoying my little story =) ]