To catch up, read part 1 and part 2 first.
It was Monday, now. The agency she’d signed up to recently for supply work had called her this morning. As such, she was driving to school, ready to teach.
Forty-eight hours had passed since that eventful Friday evening that had started off so innocently for her.
The tutoring marking, the relaxing glasses of wine, her slumbering cats, and the teasing touches that Kate had indulged in, seemed so far away now. That evening should have been a blissful and enjoyable one.
But, it hadn’t been that way. M’s response had broken down every part of Kate. Emotionally, psychologically, and physically. How the hell was M able to have this impact on her?
“Why have I fallen for M’s stupid games again?” Kate berated herself for the umpteenth time.
Nevermind, Kate was nearly at work now, and she knew she must focus on her job.
After walking the distance from the car park to her classroom, Kate logged into the computer. Although she was classed as a ‘supply teacher’, she’d been given a laptop and regular classes. She was responsible for all of the things a ‘normal’ teacher would be.
She loaded up her emails, the lessons plans for the day, and registers.
Checking her emails, there were the usual bulletins, updates and general information emails. However, there was an email that didn’t follow the usual deluge Kate normal got.
Kate clicked on the most recent result that had come from the IT department:
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From: IT Team
To: Cosall, K.
Subject: Quarantined email
The contents of this email have been flagged by the IT team as suspicious.
For your safety, this email has been quarantined. If this is an error, please contact the IT team.
Sender: <M.hendon@outlook.com>
Please click here to review the contents of this email.
*****************************
“What is this all about? Who is ‘M.Hendon’?” Kate asked herself.
As far as she knew, no-one outside of the school knew her work email address. Plus, the only way to find it would be when searching for her name in the recipient box.
Kate had only been at this school a few weeks. There was no-one that she could think of that could possibly know her work email address.
“Hold on a second!” Kate exclaimed.
The sender’s first initial was ‘M’. Could this be the M, the one that had been playing a game with her for some weeks now? If it was, how could he have found out her work email address? The only way this could be was that M worked at this school. Or, possibly a disgruntled parent of one of the children she taught. Kate knew that it was possible to find out their children’s teachers, as it was sent when she set online homework.
If it wasn’t either of those, if someone was so inclined, they may have figured out her email address and emailed on a whim, taking the chance that she would receive it. After all, most workplace emails tend to follow a set pattern nowadays.
The fact that the email had been quarantined meant that either the sender, or the contents of the email, had been flagged up by the school’s IT system. Kate wondered if the IT team (well, the two people that dealt with IT issues) knew about this email. She knew that if the children were using their accounts suspiciously, the IT team definitely knew about it. Kate wondered if this email had already been flagged to anyone.
This was the last thing Kate needed, first thing before a full teaching day.
“I can’t deal with this right now. I’ll look at this later.” Kate muttered to herself.
Kate got on with her day, pushing M’s email from her mind completely.
Before she knew it, her school day was over and she was tidying her room after the last class had left. Her room was surprisingly tidy for a Tuesday.
The children had been pretty well behaved, and seemed to be warming up to her now. It was always hard coming into a school mid-way through a term. It took longer for the children to warm up to her, she had found. She knew it would be an uphill battle trying to win over the more difficult students, at least until Christmas.
“Oh, yes. That stupid email.” Kate remembered.
On the one hand, Kate really wanted to open the email. On the other hand, whatever was inside this email could risk her job. Kate was dying to read it.
Cursing herself for being so weak, Kate didn’t think twice.
Tentatively, she clicked on the link that allowed her to review the contents of the email.
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From: M. Hendon
To: Cosall, K.
Subject: For your eyes only
Dear Kate,
How are you? I trust your Tuesday is going well, and the kids are treating you with kindness.
I bet you’re wondering how I managed to get your email. Another mystery for you, I’m sure. I love playing games with you. All will become clear lovely Kate, but only when I choose it.
You didn’t think you’d get off that lightly, though, did you? Your childish message back, your stubbornness. You aren’t getting away from me that easily.
At first, my heart skipped a beat when you thanked me for my second, teasing message, and that you were looking forward to finding out more. But, as I read on, and you explained that you wanted to play a game with me, I was left disappointed in you.
You must know – you’re not the one holding the cards here, Kate. I know more about you than you probably know about yourself.
You see, I’ve been in your life a long time, you just didn’t know it. I was there when you left your old job, and I was there when you started tutoring. I know about every recent situation you have found yourself in.
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Kate had to pause reading the email for a minute. She needed time to digest what M had said to her so far.
If what M had said was true, then he must be a bigger part of her life than she had ever realised. Kate mulled over who was in her life right now that knew about her recent employment stints. It must be someone quite close to her since she hadn’t told many people about them. Kate didn’t even have that many friends or family. Her circle was small.
Kate started to think about possible people it could be. First off, she’d assumed that M was male. Most of the people in her life were female, or those close to her, anyway. Could M possibly be a female? The way that M wrote sounded male, or so she thought.
“OK. There’s Lois and Ellie.” Thought Kate.
Those were her two closest friends. Lois worked at her old school with her, in her department. Ellie was a long time friend she’d met before she started teaching. Ellie and Kate’s relationship went back nearly 10 years.
“Surely it couldn’t be either of them? No, it can’t be a woman; it can’t be Lois or Ellie.” Kate reflected.
Although she wasn’t completely sure it wasn’t them, Kate moved on and pushed them out of her mind.
Now, Kate started to think about the men in her life. M had, quite firmly, told her that they had been there during recent job changes in her life. M clearly liked control, suggesting that they were in some position of power. Although, she could be wrong with this, too.
Mind whirring, Kate thought about her last workplace. This was the one she had left before moving onto tutoring. Could it be her last boss, Ben, who always seemed so stressed by her? She’d left because of the workload. Maybe he was angry at her for leaving? Kate had been vocal about some of the issues that that place had; didn’t fit in there.
But, Kate really couldn’t envision Ben being so manipulative and controlling. Yes, he got frustrated at her, but it was only because he was a high achiever and worked differently to her. No, it couldn’t be Ben.
Next, Kate thought about her brief stint tutoring. The tutoring was to help keep her mind busy during the summer holidays, whilst bringing in a bit of money. After all, boredom was Kate’s worst enemy. She’d found tutoring vacancies online and applied for a few. Kate remembered that she’d had to weed through quite a few adverts, some more legitimate than others.
Only one of them had actually accepted her into their agency. The person she’d dealt with was called Will. He’d taken her through the interview stages, all the way to the onboarding stage. Will had gotten her tutoring positions, both online and in person. She’d been very thankful to him at the time. Will also seemed like a genuinely nice person.
Thinking about Will now, although unlikely, he did know her recent employment history. He had her phone number and personal email address, but didn’t know where she currently worked. But, he hadn’t come across as bossy or controlling in any way; only friendly and supportive.
“Who is M?!” Kate asked herself, even more frustrated than before.
Kate decided to go back to the email. She was only half way down the message.
I can tell you now, Kate, that you wanting to play a game with me won’t work. In your message, you said that you would do everything I asked of you, but only if you told me who I am. You don’t get to make demands like that.
Trust me, I was very tempted to give you a little snippet about me. Kate, you’ve been such a good girl so far. But I wasn’t ready to do this over our entertaining text exchanges.
However, I’m now ready to extend an olive branch to you. I’m going to offer you a clue about me, as I know you secretly and desperately want to know who I am.
So, here is your clue:
I am strong and ancient. My pieces have seen centuries of history and pain. People look to me for comfort, but I am cold. What am I?
Figure this out, and you’ll be able to find me.
To be continued…
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