Them

Janelle Stone giggled to herself as she watched Lauren shower. Damn, did she love the dark web and all it had to offer! After 10 minutes, she stepped out of the shower and dried herself off. Janelle had to admit she looked good, although a bit too thin. She could tell the woman was a bit down, but mostly anxious. Good. She deserved to feel a little anxiety of her own after the way she made her feel lower than low over a decade ago. Janelle still stewed when she remembered some of it. She also hated herself for not catching on sooner. She’d watched numerous interviews regarding herself as well as read many articles also regarding herself over the years. Most of it was bullshit as far as she was concerned, but she couldn’t help but remember the time a psychologist was interviewed who had spoken to her in the hospital to help her process her drama over being abducted and the loss of her marriage and friend. To make matters worse, she had been informed that her pet had died during her stay in the hospital, as well as her parents. None of this changed the way Lauren treated her. She still mostly gave her the silent treatment as she continued to hover over her. Never once did she give her condolences or act sympathetic in any way. She didn’t understand how one could come off as lacking in both empathy and compassion. These alone were red flags. But as the psychologist said, Janelle Stone was the kind of person who would rather ignore red flags if they weren’t good ones and focus on what she wanted to hear and believe. She hated to admit it, but in some ways this was true. She wanted so badly to believe that this time around, the police were on her side and were being truthful about the deal they’d made, and therefore she chose to ignore her gut instinct and the warnings it was sending her. Boris and the fucking pigs knew she was desperate for good things, and that’s what they gave her. But none of this excused the fact that they were lying to her. Apparently, it was done to make her easier to deal with. Well, now she would be anything but easy to deal with. She would make damn sure of that. Lauren stepped into the bedroom and put on gray sweatpants and a purple shirt. When she left the bedroom and went out of view, Janelle switched cameras. She found her victim in the kitchen making coffee. Janelle typed a text message and hit send. Then she watched as the detective picked up her phone when it vibrated and read her message in horror, eyes growing wider by the second. Then she glanced all around her and ran from the house in a panic and straight to the undercover police cruiser sitting in front of the house. She switched cameras again but couldn’t make out any sound because of the distance. She didn’t need to. She knew Lauren was showing the message to the cops and how she mentioned her using a green bath towel, looking good in purple, and needing to tidy up her kitchen after she finished making her coffee or tea or whatever was in the brown mug she was using. A moment later, Lauren got in the back seat of the cruiser and was whisked away. Janelle was still laughing when the house was soon teeming with cops who were tearing up the place and pulling out all the cameras they could find, making each quadrant of her screen go black. Then she sent one final text to Lauren that day. It was a quick video of her laughing her ass off. Trying to get ahold of herself, she laughed, “How’s it feel to be the one scrutinized and made to feel smothered?” After another round of laughter that drew tears to her eyes, she said, “How does it feel not to know if the person you’re dealing with is telling you the truth or not? How do you know Heidi and Timothy are gonna stay alive?” Then her face turned serious and her eyes went from light brown to jet black as they normally did when she became angry. Large round face looming closer to the screen, she said, “You shouldn’t have fucked with me, and neither should Boris have.” Then she signed out and her anger returned to genuine amusement as she laughed heartily. She could imagine just how freaked out Lauren was at the moment. Oh man, was this fun! Between the dark web helping her along with Montenegro not having any extradition treaty, she didn’t know if she could ever stop torturing these two. It was just too much fun.