Task 6 – Ashley King

“Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt you,” the officer asked, but Lily’s mind was elsewhere. Staring at the flashing blue light that flooded through the window from the cop cars outside, Lily found herself thinking of her childhood. Growing up in Willow Creek, a small, sleepy town in northern Maine, Lily couldn’t remember a time in her childhood when she was afraid. Willow Creek was the kind of community where people used to leave their doors unlocked back in the day. Some of the older members of the community probably still did. It was the kind of town where generations of the same family lived next door to each other, and everyone knew everyone’s name. Children walked home from school alone and stayed out late with their friends without their parents worrying about kidnappers or worse. Lily used to walk the two miles to her house every day after school. Out of all her friends, she lived the furthest from the school, so after she’d passed all their houses, she’d walk alone. This never bothered her. When you know everyone in your town, you’re never really alone. She hadn’t been taught to fear strangers because, in Willow Creek, there were no strangers to fear. 

“Miss Jenkins,” the cop said, snapping her back to reality, “If we’re going to help you, you need to answer our questions.”

“I… I’m sorry, what was the question?“ Lily responded.

“Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt you,“ the cop repeated.

“Umm, no. I’ve only been here for one semester. I still don’t really know many people on campus,“ Lily responded, unsure what to make of the cop’s question. Why would someone want to hurt her? That seemed absurd to her. She’d always gotten along well with everyone. Even now that she was at college and surrounded by so many new people, she hadn’t met anyone who seemed to dislike her. How could she have made an enemy in her first three months at college?

The cop continued questioning, “What about someone who’s obsessed with you or has feelings for you? Do you have any exes who might not be over you? Any relationships that ended badly?“ All his questions were of that manner, but Lily couldn’t think of any reason someone would want to track her. The cops were running out of questions, and the reason behind the AirTag Lily found shoved under the license plate was only becoming less clear. When the cops first arrived, Lily felt a sense of relief. She thought they’d swoop in, figure out who did it and why, and her life would return to being safe and uneventful. But now the reality of the situation was setting in. 

“Unfortunately, without any names or other leads to go off, there’s not much we can do. We can take the AirTag and try to find out who it belongs to from Apple, but that will take at least a month. Here’s my card. If you can think of any other information that might help us, give me a call,“ the officer said, handing Lily a business card. Lily reached out, taking the card from the officer’s hand. She thanked him and walked him to the door of her apartment. 

As the blue lights disappeared, Lily stood motionless by the front door, staring at the simple card. Her mind raced. She didn’t know how to feel. At first, she was scared. She’d never experienced anything like this before. She had so many questions. Who was stalking her? Why were they stalking her? Where were they right now? The cops had searched the property of her apartment when they arrived, but for all she knew, that person could be outside watching her through the windows of her apartment. As she thought about this, the anger set in. Just hours ago, her life had been perfectly normal. And then she got that damn notification on her phone, that one little notification that turned everything upside down. She had never even heard of people using AirTags to track people, nor did she have any reason to think someone would want to follow her. But now, someone knew everything: where she lived, worked, and went to school. They probably even knew where her friends lived and maybe even her parents.

When Lily got her acceptance letter from Maplewood College, they acted excitedly for her, but she knew they were also disappointed. They had hoped Lily would attend the local college that was only a town over from where she grew up. But Lily had to get away. She felt trapped in that small town. Maplewood College, named for the town it was in, was only an hour’s drive from home. It wasn’t like she was going out of state. Now, though, Lily felt a tinge of regret. Maybe she wouldn’t be in this situation if she had gone to the local college. Right then and there, Lily decided not to tell her parents what was happening. If they knew that their little girl had a stalker, they would freak out. They might even force her to transfer schools. Besides, there was no reason to worry them if this was nothing. Lily was hopeful this would be nothing, that the AirTag would be all the cops needed to catch her stalker, and that this would all quickly resolve itself. 

Suddenly, the lock on the front door clicked, and the door swung open. Lily let out a small involuntary whimper as she jumped back in surprise. From the other side of the door emerged her roommate Jesse, who looked just as surprised as Lily. 

“Dude, what the fuck were you doing?“ Jesse exclaimed, “You scared the shit out of me.”

It took Lily a moment to gather her thoughts and respond to Jesse. “I’m sorry,“ she said, turning and walking into the living room, the overwhelming urge to sit down taking over. Now concerned, Jesse followed Lily to the living room and plopped down on the chair opposite the couch where Lily had sat. “You will not believe the day I just had. I’m still shaken up. I’ve never had to call 911 before.“

“Oh my god,“ said Jesse, leaning forward in her seat. “What happened? Are you ok?“

“So when I was driving home from work tonight, I got this notification on my phone,“ Lily said, pulling out her phone and showing Jesse the screenshot she’d taken of the message from Find My iPhone. Jesse stared at the message, looking confused. “Jesse, I don’t own any AirTags.“ Lily could tell by the look on Jesse’s face that she was following the situation now, so she continued, “When I got home, I searched my car, and I found this shoved under my license plate.“ It bothered Lily that someone went through the trouble of removing the bottom screws of her license plate to place that AirTag. Lily scrolled to the next photo, a screenshot of the map showing where Lily had gone in the last two days. “This shows everywhere that I went with the AirTag on my car. Look at the date,“ she said, the panic audible in her voice despite her attempt to sound calm. 

Jesse took the phone from Lily, closely examining the map. “First seen with you at 9 am Friday!?“ She uttered to herself, looking up at Lily in disbelief. “If this thing has been on your car since Friday, why did your phone just notify you today?“

“I don’t know; I don’t know how that shit works. But look at all the places it tracked me,“ Lily said, gesturing back to the map. “Whoever put it there knows everything.“ Lily spent the next hour replaying the night’s events to Jesse. Eventually, she started to cry, and Jesse joined her on the couch, pulling her into a tight hug. Jesse stayed there comforting Lily until she drained all her tears and fell asleep out of exhaustion. Lily woke early the following day, gasping for breath and drenched in sweat. Her eyes darted around the room as the haze of sleep wore off, and she realized she was alone in her living room. Based on the hint of light coming through the window, Lily guessed it must only be 5 or 6 in the morning. She picked up her phone off the coffee table, confirming it was only 5:15 am. Lily didn’t know exactly when she fell asleep, but it had to be somewhere around 2 am. There was no way she was going back to sleep now. Lily’s awful, vivid nightmare during her brief slumber wiped away any lingering tiredness. In her dream, she was walking across the giant parking lot designated for commuters on the outskirts of the Maplewood campus. Behind her was a man in a hoodie, his face not visible. Dream Lily was always utterly oblivious to the man, cheerily humming to whatever music played through her AirPods. For every step she took toward her car at the far end of the lot, the man behind her took two, gaining on her with concerning speed. Lily was watching this from above, not from dream Lily’s perspective. She watched helplessly as the man crept up behind her, grabbing her, placing a hand over her mouth to muffle her scream before dragging her toward a white van parked a few spots away from her car. A few spots away from safety. It was just a dream, Lily reminded herself. This thought provided little comfort, though.

The next month was hell. The AirTag and whoever put it there had become a constant distraction for Lily, and her grades showed it. Lily obsessively checked her phone, hoping to hear back from the officer handling her case. Day after day went by without a word from the cops. Lily was counting the days, waiting for that one-month mark. The cop had said it would take at least a month. Surely, there was some sense of urgency, though. Lily imagined that the cops would take the stalking of a young woman quite seriously. In her mind, it certainly seemed like an urgent situation. Lily needed to find out something. The terrible nightmares had continued since that first night. Each time, it was the same idea. The location and the details changed, but every dream ended with Lily waking frantically. After the dream, the mystery man attacked Lily. It got to the point that Lily didn’t want to sleep, fearing another visit from the mystery man. It was starting to show. Jesse had commented on Lily’s appearance purely out of concern. Lily was one of those girls who always looked put together: a fresh face of makeup, styled hair, a curated outfit, and matching shoes and accessories. Since that night, though, she hadn’t been herself. Her usually gorgeous face was sickly, the deep purple bags under her eyes the only color left on her face. Although they had only been at college for one semester, Jesse and Lily had known each other since grade school. In all those years, She’d never seen Lily like this before. But if anyone asked if she was ok, Lily’s response was always the same: I’m fine.

The one-month mark finally came and went without a word from the cops. Lily was sitting in her morning lecture, aimlessly doodling in her notebook, which was completely void of any notes related to the class, when her phone began to vibrate in her pocket. She quickly whipped it out. The incoming call was from a number with no caller ID. 

“Phones away, please,” the professor’s voice echoed in the classroom, but Lily was already on her feet, her heart pounding in her chest. She rushed out of the classroom, accepting the call the moment she was out, her voice trembling as she said, “Hello?”

“Hello, Miss Jenkins. This is Officer Bennet calling about the AirTag you found on your car,“ said the voice on the other end of the line.

Lily was ecstatic, “Yes! Hello! Did you find out who it belonged to?”

There was a long pause before Officer Bennet replied, “Unfortunately, the AirTag is registered to an account with a fake name. Without any additional information, there isn’t anything else we can do. Have you thought of any other information that might help us? Has anything else happened since that might reveal this person’s identity?“

“No,“ a now dejected Lily replied. The rest of the conversation was brief, the cop restating everything he had told her that night at her apartment. That’s it?, Lily thought to herself, Now I have to wait for something else to happen before the cops will do anything? Once again, Lily felt the anger well inside her. She couldn’t go on living like this.