Later that night, while she was recovering, Katherine had a visitor in her hospital room, and that visitor was Carston. ‘Katherine, are you okay? You freaked me out with being stabbed and all,’ said Carston. Katherine replied, ‘I’ll be okay, but I am not going back home until that person that followed me and stabbed me is in jail!’

She was understandably freaked out about Z following her and stabbing her. But for once, Carston knew that his friend was in trouble and needed comfort. He hugged her and told her, ‘If anything happens to you, have the nurses call me.’ She agreed, and he went on his way back home.

            Unbeknownst to both individuals, a red-hooded figure was outside the hospital waiting to make their next move, in a new game of cat and mouse. As soon as Carston was in his car, he drove off; but the red-hooded figure followed behind him in their car. Carston noticed he was being followed, but did not realize that it was Z. He arrived home, locked his car, and went inside the house where he was living with Noemi and her brother Troy. He closed the door and locked it. The red-hooded figure clenched their fist before walking off into the darkness beyond the streetlamps.

            The following morning, Dominic was awoken by his aunt Sally and uncle George arriving at Willa’s house to talk with him. Felicity greeted them and welcomed them inside, and then called up the stairs to Dominic. He came down the stairs, and hugged his aunt and uncle, who he was just starting to have a good relationship with. They had moved back to Fairlake weeks earlier, buying the house that Dominic and his late parents lived in until that fateful day back at the beginning of fall.

            ‘Aunt Sally and Uncle George, what’s going on?’ asked Dominic. Sally replied, ‘We came over because we wanted to see if you would want to go to dinner tonight, just us three and Jonah.’ Dominic was astonished, and thought in the back of his mind that this must be some sort of way they can disapprove of his relationship with Jonah. Dominic asked, ‘Why specifically us three and Jonah?’ George then replied, ‘We want to get to understand you both more, and we would rather get to know you both a bit more. Especially since we didn’t have such a good relationship before all the stuff with your parents happened.

            Dominic was skeptical, but agreed to the dinner plans. He let Jonah know through text message that this was happening. Jonah was also skeptical, but knew that this could be the start of something new for the strained family relationship.

            Meanwhile, Max was at the local gym working out, and bumped into Felix. ‘Felix, what’s up man?’ asked Max. Felix replied, ‘Not too much, just came to blow off some steam.’ The two were starting to become friends thanks to their friendships with Willa. The pair worked out together, lifting weights and running on treadmills that were side by side. By the time their workout session had ended, three hours had passed. Max and Felix walked back to Max’s apartment, and while they were walking; a red-hooded figure was following them. Felix turned his head around and gave Max a nudge. Max then turned around, and the friends ran off; the hooded figure was in pursuit of the pair, and eventually cought up to them. The hooded figure grabbed Felix’s arm, and used their bowie knife to slice into his right arm. Felix screamed bloody murder, and Max then punched the red-hooded figure in the face. ‘Whoever you are, you will pay for this!’ Then the figure ran off into the distance.

            Jennifer came running outside to see what all the commotion was about, saying, ‘What the fuck is going on here?’, and then she saw Felix’s arm. Now bleeding profusely, Felix collasped to the ground. Luckily Max cought him before his head hit the ground. Jennifer immediately called 911 and then texted Willa that Felix was hurt.

            While Felix, Jennifer, and Max waited on the sidewalk outside her house for the ambulance, Katherine was still in her hospital room, and was pacing around waiting for the nurse to give her medicine. As she was pacing around, she noticed that she wasn’t alone in the room. Carston and Noemi were there to visit her.

            ‘What are you both doing here?’ asked Katherine. Noemi replied, ‘Seeing you, of course!’ Carston interjected, ‘We also know about who followed you and stabbed you.’ Katherine was confused, and Carston continued, ‘They’re a stalker who’s been sending tons of messages to use and our friends. They will stop at nothing until their so-called game is over.’ Katherine was shocked, and Noemi comforted her. Katherine then asked, ‘How long has this been going on?’ Noemi said, ‘It’s been since the beginning of the fall semester.’

            Katherine was still confused as to why she was targeted, but now knew that she wasn’t alone. While talking, Noemi’s phone suddenly went off. She pulled out her phone, and saw a notification of ONE NEW MESSAGE. She unlocked her phone, and read the text message. It was from Z, saying:

Betcha wanna play even more hardball. Two in the hospital makes this game even more fun.

Love, Z.

Noemi showed the text to Carston, who immediately called Jennifer. As soon as the phone picked up, she said, ‘Felix got hurt! He got his arm sliced to hell. We’re currently in the ambulance on the way there to the hospital.’ Carston replied, ‘Shit. Noemi and I are here visiting Katherine. What should we do?’ Jennifer then said, ‘Text Dominic and Jonah and let them know about Felix.’ Carston hung up and did as Jennifer had said tot do.

            Downtown at one of the fancier restaurants, Dominic, Jonah, Sally, and George were gathered at dinner, and were discussing life before John and Yasmin were killed. ‘We never really saw Dominic that much when he was younger. I guess with all the family secrets that John and Yasmin were keeping, we couldn’t stand any drama that could come out of it,’ said Sally. George then said, ‘If you two ever were to, you know. What would you both be doing? Jonah replied, ‘Get married?’, to which George nodded. Jonah continued, one of us would most likely be working all the time; but with everything going on in the world, both of us would have to work.’

            Suddenly, Dominic’s phone chimed. He excused himself from the table and walked towards the vestibule at the front of the restaurant. He grabbed his phone from his pocket and unlocked it. It was a text from Carston saying ‘Felix got hurt pretty badly. Jen and Max are following the ambulance to the hospital. Willa’s pretty messed up about it.’ Dominic texted back, ‘Shit. What do Jonah and I do? We’re out to dinner with my aunt and uncle.’ After a few minutes, Carston replied back, ‘Just stay there until you’re done, then go back to the house and comfort Willa. She’s beside herself.’

            Dominic walked back inside the restaurant and back to the table. Jonah asked, ‘What happened?’ Dominic replied, ‘A friend of ours got injured.’ George said, ‘If you need to leave, go right ahead. We won’t be offended.’ After some thoughtful consideration, the boyfriends agreed to leave, and said goodbye to Sally and George, who were both pleased to have had their dinnertime spent with their nephew and his boyfriend.

            As soon as they walked out, Jonah asked, ‘Which friend got hurt?’ Dominic replied, ‘It’s Felix, and Willa’s beside herself. Carston texted me.’ The boyfriends got into Jonah’s car and sped off home to the Raskin-Kerby house, getting home just in time to see Willa running out the front door in tears. Dominic got out of the car and hugged Willa, who said, ‘Felix and Max got ambushed by Z earlier, and Felix got his arm all sliced up.’ Jonah was now fearing for the worst, and rushed with the other two inside the house.

            Felicity came in from the kitchen and said, ‘She’s been like this all afternoon since Jennifer texted her. Willa’s refused to eat because she’s so worried.’ Dominic and Jonah escorted Willa up to her room, and sat her down on the bed.

            Now at the hospital, Max and Jennifer met up with Noemi and Carston in Katherine’s hospital room while Felix was being treated in the emergency room. Katherine asked, ‘How’s your friend doing?’ Max replied, ‘We don’t know yet, as we just got here a few minutes ago.’ The group of five waited with bated breath until Felix was sent to a recovery room just down the hall from Katherine.

            Outside Katherine’s hospital room, Carston, Jennifer, and Noemi were talking. ‘Why’s Z coming after our friends?’ asked Jennifer. Noemi replied, ‘They must be collateral to them. Any way to try and get them out of the picture before they come after us.’ Carston said, ‘So this means that Katherine was just in the woods at the wrong time of day yesterday.’ ‘Possibly, but we can’t just stay inside afraid for our lives. We have to find out who this new Z is once and for all,’ said Noemi.

            The trio then met up with Max, and they all headed home. Just hours later, Katherine was in her hospital room, when she was greeted by a red-hooded figure. She was about to scream, but the figure covered her mouth and slit her throat. Katherine was now bleeding profusely, and the nurses or security guards could not get to the hooded figure fast enough. Katherine, however, was saved in the nick of time by the nurses. They rushed her back to emergency surgery to close up the large neck wound from the bowie knife. One of the nurses called Carston and gave him an update on what had happened since he and the others had left earlier that night.

            Carston sped right back to the hospital and waited all night in the waiting room. As the hours passed, Carston kept texting with Noemi updating her on what the nurses kept telling him. Finally, at 3am, one of the surgeons came out and said that the procedure to fix the neck wound was successful, but that she won’t be able to talk for a few weeks.

            Outside, the red-hooded figure was busting the side-view mirrors on Carston’s car, and then ran off when a streetlamp turned on hours after it should have turned on.