Chapter 68: You're Done - No One Can Save You!
She drove terrified, constantly checking her mirrors to see if any car was following her. Fortunately, there wasn't one. But suddenly in the darkness ahead, a car was parked in the middle of the road without any warning lights. If she hadn't been an excellent driver and braked in time, she would have crashed into it.
Looking closer, it was the hooded punk girl's car. She immediately prepared to go around it, but the other driver started trying to ram her vehicle.
However, she was a skilled driver in a BMW. She swerved to the shoulder, then suddenly accelerated and left the other car behind.
When she sped back to campus and checked in with the guard, she looked back and didn't see the car pursuing her anymore. She finally breathed a sigh of relief, returned to the dorm building, gave the Coke to the security guard, and wished him a happy Thanksgiving. After receiving calls from her family, boyfriend, and best friend, she finally calmed down and immersed herself in studying again.
Suddenly, her internet signal disappeared and her laptop couldn't load any pages. She went out to ask the security guard about it, and when she returned, she found her laptop had been tampered with. The screen was filled with gruesome videos. As she was staring at it in shock, someone walked through the door. It was the hooded punk girl, holding a knife and looking at her with malicious intent.
This was too much. Even Justine, who had always been strong, was terrified and ran straight for the back exit.
She never expected this to happen. This was a Princeton University dormitory with security guards at the entrance. How did this girl get inside?
She was rational enough to run toward the security guard for protection.
Then she discovered the dorm building had been locked from the outside. The security guard who had rushed to help was murdered right in front of her through the glass door by a masked man.
Whistles echoed through the dorm building, and several figures began slowly approaching her. The hooded punk girl even pulled out her phone and started filming her directly, sneering, "Christie, we meet again."
"I'm not Christie!"
she protested, but no one listened. As they continued to approach, she could only run.
The hooded punk girl's group didn't rush to pursue her, just following at a leisurely pace. When she ran from the dorm building and found the familiar campus security officer, the armed man became excited. He ignored her advice to barricade himself inside and wait for backup. Instead, he insisted on playing hero, pointing his gun at the unknown figures in the darkness and ordering them off his campus. Naturally, he was killed along with his guard dog.
She started running again. After several attempts to escape, she finally realized this was a hunt.
The hooded girl's group was enjoying the hunt, treating her like the star of some twisted documentary.
But every hunt has consequences, just as every documentary has an ending. If she didn't fight to save herself, death would be waiting.
So when she managed to contact the outside world again, she immediately called Chuck.
This was something she had rationally considered while running and hiding.
Her previous call to 911 had been intercepted by the hooded punk girl, who had mocked her over the phone. She could only hope someone she knew could help.
Chuck's business card immediately came to mind. A private investigator must have experienced all sorts of dangerous situations. Plus, Chuck's presence gave off a strong sense of security. He was a better choice than her boyfriend Allen, who was just an ordinary college student hundreds of miles away.
When the call connected and Chuck calmly told her to hide and wait, she breathed a sigh of relief. Suppressing the urge to fight back, she used her agility and intelligence to evade the psychos searching for her in the library.
"Have you found her?"
"No!"
"Where is she hiding?"
"She's got to be in this library somewhere."
As time passed, the deranged hunters who couldn't find Justine began growing impatient. Some even suspected she had escaped. In that case, they wouldn't be enjoying a leisurely hunt, but rather wandering around the library like idiots in the middle of the night.
"This Christie is perfect! This is the real Christie—a wise and beautiful believer, heaven's darling. Hunting her is like hunting God himself,"
the lead masked man reassured his gang.
"Hunting God!"
Hearing their leader's words, the entire gang shouted excitedly.
"No matter where she's hiding, smell out her fear and hunt her down!"
The masked leader waved his hand.
All the psychos scattered with howls and continued searching for Justine.
The library was already empty, and in the silence of the night, this group's words reached Justine's ears, making her shudder.
These weren't ordinary criminals, but some twisted cult based on perverted religious concepts. She was being targeted by such an organization. This was terrible news.
She gripped the baseball bat tighter, and the urge to fight back that she'd suppressed surged back stronger than ever.
Being targeted by such an organization, for the safety of herself, her mother and sisters, her boyfriend Allen, and her best friend Cheryl, wouldn't the safest option be to eliminate this group entirely, destroy all evidence connecting her to them, or even fake her death and disappear?
Just as she watched a masked figure approach with a knife, her eyes hardened and she crouched with the baseball bat ready to strike, the masked figure suddenly collapsed to the ground, his knife clattering loudly in the silent night.
"Over here!"
Hearing the noise, the other masked figures began swarming toward the sound.
Panicked, Justine ducked back into hiding, then heard a calm, low voice: "Justine, it's safe. Come out."
"Chuck?"
Justine recognized that distinctive voice—the same one that could drive genius Sheldon crazy. She called out in response, but immediately moved to a different position, staying hidden in the shadows and observing.
"It's me."
With those words, the library lights came on. Justine squinted to adjust to the brightness and looked toward the voice. She saw all the masked figures lying on the ground, zip-tied and unconscious. Chuck stood there, checking his phone.
"What do we do now?"
Justine slowly emerged, baseball bat still in hand, and stopped at a safe distance from Chuck.
"I've called the police. Detectives will be here soon."
Chuck glanced at her.
Justine remained silent.
The scene went quiet.
When the sound of police sirens wailed outside, the masked attackers who had been unconscious began waking up one by one. Looking at the scene, they weren't afraid—instead, they shouted: "You're finished! You're done! Do you know who she is? If you don't want your families to die screaming, let us go right now."
The hooded punk girl looked at Justine, then at Chuck who was still checking his phone, and sneered.
Justine felt numb, her heart sinking. The sound of police sirens outside brought her no sense of security.
The thing she'd been most afraid of had finally happened.
(End of Chapter)
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