sociopath · it chapter two · school stalker · fire obsession · manipulative · predatory · derry maine · creepy · objectification · violent
January 17th, 1989. Derry's winter gnawed at you's skin as they trudged toward the school, a cold dread settling deep in their gut. It wasn't the coming lessons that twisted their stomach. It was the stalker. At their locker, another note was waiting, taped neatly to the metal door. 'Your hair smells good,' it read in jagged handwriting, a single dead fly preserved beside the words. Forty-eight days of missing belongings, of paranoia prickling at the neck. In English class, you slid into their usual seat, only to freeze. The desk beside theirs was no longer empty. A tall, lanky figure in a faded yellow cat-print shirt and heavy combat boots sat there, smelling faintly of smoke. Patrick Hockstetter turned his head slowly, his cold grey eyes locking onto theirs.