Next Day
The bell for fifth period had rung, but Raj hadn't moved from his desk. The classroom emptied around him, echoes of sneakers squeaking and backpacks zipping fading into silence. He stared at the school laptop in front of him, its screen glowing with an email client he'd never touched—yet it was open.
A message blinked.
Subject: STOP.
Message: Tell Peter to stop digging. You're next.
No name. No address. Just the looming void of a sender masked behind layers of digital fog.
Raj closed the laptop slowly. His breath was shallow, but not from fear. It was... calculation.
So they were watching Peter too now.
As if on cue, Peter slipped into the classroom from the side door. "Thought I'd find you here."
Raj didn't reply immediately. He stared out the window, where a pigeon was perched on a flickering security camera.
"I got a message," Raj finally said. "On the school laptop. I didn't log in. I didn't even touch that account."
Peter narrowed his eyes. "Another one?"
Raj shook his head. "Different tone. Less warning, more… threat."
Peter moved closer, lowering his voice. "You think it's that woman again? The one who followed you before?"
Raj stood up, stretched, and glanced toward the hallway. "She's not just some woman. She's in her thirties, moves like a soldier, and managed to trap me on a basketball court without leaving a footprint. That's not normal."
Peter frowned and muttered,"Monica".
"Someone who doesn't want you helping me," Raj corrected. "They know your name now."
Peter tilted his head, stepping back. "What, they mentioned me in the message?"
Raj nodded. "Told me to tell you to stop digging."
Peter let out a low whistle. "That's bold. They're getting desperate."
"No," Raj said, voice clipped. "They're getting organized."
He paced slowly around the classroom, checking corners, pausing once to glance at a ceiling smoke detector that was definitely not a smoke detector. "You ever feel like we're rats in a maze? And every time we find a piece of cheese, someone watches from above and moves the walls?"
Peter leaned against a desk. "I've been feeling that since I got bit by a spider."
Raj shot him a look, then smirked.
Peter added, "But yeah, this is bigger than you or me. They're watching from the shadows. Changing tactics. First they tried subtle. Now they're pushing."
Raj opened his hand, letting a faint golden shimmer pulse across his palm. "And they're scared. Not of what I am… but of what I might become."
Peter nodded, but his tone was serious. "And they're scared of what I might help you become."
There was a silence that felt heavy with decisions. Two kids standing at the edge of something much bigger than school crushes and pop quizzes.
Raj finally sat back down. "We need a plan."
Peter pulled up a chair. "Okay. First step: we stop reacting."
Raj raised an eyebrow. "You have something in mind?"
Peter glanced around, then whispered, "You know Midtown's IT guy?"
Raj gave him a skeptical look. "The one who smells like tuna and plays Minecraft during lunch?"
"Exactly. He owes me a favor. Helped him recover a deleted engagement ring search from his browser history."
Raj blinked. "That's... oddly heroic."
Peter grinned. "We use that favor to trace the message. It came through school servers, right? Maybe we find a lead. An IP. Something."
"And when we do?" Raj asked.
"Then we track it. Flip the maze. Make them feel like the rats."
Raj's smile was slow, but dangerous. "Now we're talking."
Before either of them could say more, a soft chime echoed from Raj's phone.
Another message. This time, not from the laptop.
He lifted the phone. It was a photo.
A grainy shot of him and Peter sitting on this very desk, timestamped three minutes ago.
No text. Just the image.
Both boys froze.
Peter muttered, "That was just now. That photo was taken… right now."
Raj turned toward the window—no one there.
Peter sprang into action, sprinting into the hallway. Raj followed, but by the time they reached the lockers, the corridor was empty.
Just flickering lights. A janitor cart. And silence.
Peter whispered, "Someone's in the building."
Raj exhaled, forcing himself to calm down. "They're not hiding. They want us to know."
Peter clenched his fists. "Why keep taunting us like this?"
"To test our boundaries," Raj replied. "To see how much we'll tolerate before we snap."
They returned to the classroom to find the school laptop missing from the desk.
Peter looked furious. "Seriously?"
Raj shook his head. "We have a mole. Or a tech inside."
Peter's face went pale. "That laptop wasn't supposed to be networked to anything external. Someone's bypassing firewalls like they're made of string cheese."
Raj checked his phone again. No new messages.
"They're escalating," he said. "And they're close."
Peter nodded slowly. "Too close."
They stood in silence, back in the same classroom that now felt like a stage for invisible watchers.
After a moment, Raj spoke again. "Earlier… in the alley, I was warned. Someone told me I had power but no direction. They said people like me are useful to the wrong hands."
Peter narrowed his eyes. "So you were followed. What else did they say?"
"Just that I was being studied. That I'd make a fine weapon."
Peter looked sick. "That's what this is about. Someone wants to use you."
Raj nodded. "And maybe hurt you if you keep helping."
Peter straightened, his voice clear. "Let them try."
Raj stared at him. "You sure?"
Peter's expression didn't waver. "You're not alone in this. Not anymore."
The moment lingered between them—two teenagers facing something dark and shapeless, with only each other and a handful of instincts.
Raj looked down at his glowing hand again, the light coiled and pulsing softly now, no longer unstable.
He clenched it into a fist and said, "Then let's make sure they regret watching."
Outside, across the street, Monica stood in the shadow of a lamppost, her phone glowing.
She watched the school's live security feed on her device.
The camera zoomed in on Raj's glowing hand. She narrowed her eyes.
Then, to someone on the other end of the line, she said:
"The situation is evolving. Authorization may no longer be enough."
The call ended.
She turned and vanished into the crowd.