"It's not Gabe," Andrea confirmed for me on the phone on Thursday. "I questioned him, but he has alibis for a lot of things and all of his stories check out. He cooperated fully, let us look through his phone logs and the GPS in his car. He checks out."

"Okay," I responded, feeling like I already expected that answer. "Thanks for looking into it. What about the cameras that the cops found in my apartment? Did you try tracing them back to wherever they were bought from or something?"

"We're doing all that we can," she responded vaguely. I took that as a no, and it was frustrating. Despite having a detective on the case and multiple documented incidents of this person tormenting me, it still felt like this case was not a top priority. Like my life was not a top priority to them. I thought going to the police would immediately make things better, but if I knew that they'd be so useless, I never would have called them and Lina wouldn't have gotten hurt.

"Okay," I said again.

"As always, keep me posted if you think of anything," she reminded me, but it just made me roll my eyes. I didn't feel like telling her anything would actually help me all that much.

"I will," I assured her, turning off my car to get out and after grabbing my guitar from the back seat, I started hurrying toward the Jackroller Bar. In my light colored sweater loosely tucked into a short plaid skirt, the mid-November air was nipping at me as I quickly walked toward the bar.

My call with Andrea didn't really give me any news, as I already suspected that the person Ron saw at the mail box was the mailman rather than Gabe. I doubted that even if I apologized, I could get my job back, but I did consider it. I was sure Gabe would forgive easily, as he was a kind and understanding man, but the management at the diner was crap and wouldn't hear any of it.

I had to get my mind off of the Gabe situation before I entered the bar or my performance would suffer. I was slowly losing my mind, but I wanted to try my very best to keep any ounce of sanity that I could hold on to. So, I tried taking a few deep breaths and focusing on the show ahead of me.

This was my first time seeing Sev again after the scare with my car and I wasn't sure how I was going to handle the situation. I had moments of convincing myself that he could be Mrs. Lamb, however I was terrified of letting my paranoia get the best of me again, like it did with Gabe.

He was so nice to me, so understanding and patient. I didn't want to throw that away, if it was genuine. But was it? There were a lot of coincidences that made him seem kind of guilty and I noticed, after some thought, that he wasn't in any of the creepy pictures I'd found in my mailbox. Was that because he was the one taking them?

But he was with me at the Halloween bash when things were stolen from my desk drawer, and the hidden cameras were placed in my apartment before he'd moved to the city. I didn't know what was the truth, if I should trust him or not.

I used to love watching Pretty Little Liars when I was growing up, but I never wanted to live it. Now, it felt like I had my own personal A watching over me, playing with me like I was his toy. I wanted answers so badly, but I felt like every time I got close to figuring anything out, it ended up making things more confusing.

"Mojito?" Henri asked me as I approached the bar after soundcheck. I nodded, glancing over at Sev, who was making a drink further down the bar. I looked away before we made eye contact.

"Any more private meetings with you and Sev?" she teased me as she placed the drink in front of me and I started sipping.

"Don't think so," I said with a short chuckle.

"He was asking about you earlier," she told me with a sly little smile.

"What about me?" I asked her.

She shrugged, slightly distorting the tattoo of a bird on her shoulder with the movement, and then said, "Just asking how long you've been singing here, if your music is online, stuff like that. Sounds like you have a new fan, at least."

"I'll give him an autograph," I said sarcastically just as Sev himself approached and offered me a polite smile.

"Hey, how's it going?" he asked me in a calm, laid back voice. Henri excused herself to take some more orders from the growing crowd of customers in the bar, leaving me alone with Sev.

"Fine," I said shortly, still feeling completely unsure of how I really felt about him. Despite the fact that I've had my suspicions about him and with some things lining up, I couldn't help but feel an instinctual sense of safety when he was around. Like I could finally exhale all of my anxieties when he was around.

"Did you get your car fixed?" he wondered.

I nodded and said, "Yeah it just needed a tweak. Thanks for coming to the rescue. Again."

"Anytime," he offered with another smile. "Any luck on catching who did it?"

I shook my head, looking down at my drink as the paranoid side of my brain fought with the feeling of calmness that Sev gave me. If he was being genuine, he was a really empathetic and caring guy that I enjoyed being around. But there was always this voice in the back of my head, telling me that it was all an act. Maybe he was only asking just to see if I was onto him at all. "No. We got a lead, but it didn't turn into anything."

"That sucks." He looked sympathetic. I sipped on my drink to avoid eye contact. "How are you doing?"

"Hanging in there," I answered curtly, despite the fact that the safe side of my brain wanted to divulge everything to him, tell him about the pictures taped to my walls, the incident with Gabe at the diner, because he was such a good listener. Was I throwing away the potential for a really good friendship in the face of paranoia? Or was I being reasonably cautious? "Why were you asking Henri about me?"

"What?" Sev's face suddenly fell into a state of shock. "I wasn't." I watched as a soft redness started to glow on his cheeks and his eyes suddenly turned down toward the counter.

"She said you were."

"I mean, I asked about your music," he started to stammer, looking somewhat embarrassed. I didn't mean to embarrass him and I was starting to feel bad about being so blunt, but I was curious about why he wanted to know those things he asked Henri about, and I didn't have the energy to beat around the bush. "I think my sisters would like it."

"Could have just asked me," I said, not being able to hide the slightest hint of a smile from my face at his embarrassed reaction. I really didn't want him to be Mrs. Lamb. I wanted him to just be a guy who was asking about me, blushing because I called it out, maybe because he liked me? Or was interested in the possibility of liking me? Or maybe because he just wanted to know more about me, but was too shy to be direct.

"Aren't you supposed to be starting your show?" he retorted, motioning toward the stage.

"Sure," I commented, getting off of the stool and grabbing my mojito before making my way to the stage. I thought his embarrassed reaction was kind of funny and it seemed so genuine, but there was a gnawing voice in the back of my head wondering if maybe he was just a really good actor.

The second I started strumming my guitar, I felt the stress leave my muscles and bones. I was a paranoid mess most of the time, even in my own apartment, my own bed. I didn't feel safe in my car or out in public. But when I stood on stage, I felt safe and when I played my music, I felt sane again. It's a feeling that I didn't get to feel very often anymore, so I reveled in the few fleeting moments of sanity I got to feel a couple of times a week.

I plugged my social media at the end of the show and thanked everybody for their time before I got off the stage as people started to approach the stage to place tip money in the big jar sitting there. Since my gig at the Jackroller didn't pay much, I really depended on those tips to make this gig something that I could afford to do these days. Without my diner job, I worried that I might have to start finding other Thursday night gigs that paid better, but wouldn't worry about that for now.

When I returned to the sticky wooden bar to return my mojito glass and go home, Sev caught me before I could leave.

"Hey, can we talk in the back for a second?" he asked me.

My throat suddenly went dry as I tried to read the expression on his face, but it was impossible. I had no idea what he wanted to talk to me about, or why he wanted to get me alone in the back room to do it. My alarm bells were going off in my head, but then I realized that if it was him and he was trying to get me alone to hurt me or confess to me that he was Mrs. Lamb, at least I'd know for sure.

Looking back, the reasoning was stupid, but I was so desperate to know who Mrs. Lamb was that I was willing to risk my safety to get the answer.

"Sure," I stated, forcing my weak knees to follow Sev after he'd walked around to the other side of the bar and then we walked down the back hallway together. On the other side of the pool room, there was an employee lounge that was filthy, both vending machines were broken, and the couch was in terrible condition. Nobody really used this room anymore for lounging, and was mostly used for storage.

As we were walking down the hall, I glanced at the back door to the bar that led out to a back alley and considered just running. I stayed put.

"I just wanted to say that I lied," Sev explained to me once he shut the door behind me. I positioned myself between his body and the door, hoping that it would help me escape should I feel the need to do so. "I wasn't asking about you because of my sisters, I just couldn't figure out how to ask you what I really wanted."

"Well, I'm listening now," I stated, my fingers fidgeting with each other in front of me as I anxiously awaited what he had to say. I could feel my heart starting to beat out of my chest.

"I know you have a lot on your plate right now," he continued. "So no hard feelings if you're not into it. But I was wondering if you maybe wanted to go out to dinner or something. To get to know each other better."

"I feel like you already know me pretty well," I muttered under my breath before I could stop myself. Even if I was fully convinced that Sev was Mrs. Lamb, which I wasn't, I didn't want to blow up at him like I did with Gabe. That would just cause more social fallout, maybe get me fired from playing at the Jackroller, and I needed to keep my composure.

"What?" Sev cocked his head to the side in confusion.

"Is it you?" I finally asked, my breath hitching as I faced him head on. I wanted answers and I was willing to beg on my hands and knees to know the truth.

"Is what me?" he wondered, still looking so lost.

My body was feeling so overwhelmed that I could feel hot tears starting to build in the corners of my eyes. "I... I won't tell anybody. I really do like spending time with you, you don't have to hide behind a mask."

"What are you talking about, Maren?" he continued to ask me confused questions. After a long moment of silence, his eyes widen as he realizes what I was talking about. "Oh my god. Are you asking me if I'm your fucking stalker?"

"I just want to know." My voice was just above a whisper, wavering with every breath. There were a lot of things that would make so much sense if Sev was Mrs. Lamb, but there were also some things that wouldn't.

"You really think it's me?" He looked like he was feeling hurt and angry, both emotions dueling on his usually calm facial features. "When all I've done is try to help you?"

"I'm sorry," I heard myself saying. "But the letters started when you started working here, you're always there when I need saved, you saw David's ID. There's just a lot of coincidences. I won't tell the police or anything, I swear. I just want to know the truth."

I watched as Sev clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes at me before saying, "It's not me, Maren."

Beyond my control, I started to cry right in front of him. I held my palm against my lips to hold the sobs inside of my body. He looked so angry and even then, I couldn't tell if he was angry because I was accusing him of something horrible, or if he was angry because I'd caught on and was calling him out.

"Just forget I said anything," he mumbled, pushing passed me to exit the lounge. I shut the door once he was gone to let my body react to the tense situation I just put myself in.

Whether he was guilty or not, I didn't get any answers and if he was innocent, I probably just lost one of the only people who I felt like I could turn to in all of this. Even when Mrs. Lamb wasn't doing anything, he was still managing to ruin everything. He'd gotten so deep into my head that I was doing all of the ruining on my own now. I became an accomplice in my own destruction.

I felt like these emotional meltdowns were becoming a normal occurrence for me as my mind failed to cope with my decaying sense of reality. Never knowing what was true, never knowing what kind of game Mrs. Lamb was playing or where he was watching. I couldn't take it much longer.

This was one of my longest breakdowns, as I sat in that dirty lounge in a catatonic state for what felt like hours. My bones ached when I finally lifted my body off of the floor and when I checked the time on my phone, I realized that the bar closed a while ago. I was surprised that nobody came to kick me out yet, but figured they were still cleaning up for the night.

I had to stretch for a minute before opening the door into the hallway to go back into the main area to grab my guitar and head home, hopefully being able to avoid Sev on the way out. However, the second I took a step into the hallway, I froze. I peered down the hall toward the bar, where it was completely dark except for a dim security light, all of the wooden chairs were placed on the tables and it seemed like all of the employees had already gone home. Everything was eerily silent, except for the large gasp coming out of my lungs when I saw a tall dark figure standing in the middle of the room, looking back at me.