A Stalker's New Life
Story based off of XV-Dragon's story, Stalker A Christmas Version

Here's another story that is based off another of my favorite stories by XV-Dragon who has graciously given me permission to use. Again, I hope that I can at least do justice to the original and make a decent story though this will be drastically different come Christmas morning.

I also wanted to thank Bonar who has given me a lot of advice on my problems with grammar and punctuation. I've tried to use a lot of his advice when writing this chapter so I hope it reads much easier than my previous work up until now.

And finally, the rest of Hate or Fear will be coming up shortly, though Homecoming may get the next update as I am rearranging some of my ideas for Hate or Fear. I still have most of the next chapter worked out for it but the last part is going to be very important to the story and inspiration for the scene actually comes from an animated movie that I love. I am waiting for the movie since I ordered it to I can watch it again for maybe more ideas.

It had been a month since Will found the picture of her mother in the attic when her father forced her to clean it out. Of course at the time she didn't know who it was, but quickly learned the truth. It was a lot of hard work cleaning the filthy room, though when she was half way finished, she stumbled across a picture of a beautiful girl wearing a cheerleading outfit. She had bluish-black hair that trailed down to her knees, deep dark brown eyes and a very healthy tan. The girl was beautiful, probably a model of some kind, but looking on the back of the picture was a small love note to her father from someone named Susan,

A small part of the thirteen year old girl wondered if this woman could have been her mother. It was not hard to see why the woman abandoned them if it was her mother. The girl was devastatingly beautiful and probably had a healthy life filled with fun and riches. Why would she want a drunk of a father and a worthless piece of trash for a daughter in her life? It was no wonder she abandoned them and ran off.

A small part of anger rose in Will as she looked in the picture. If this woman had stayed, or even taken her along, then the life of hell that the redhead had endured would never have happened. Instead, she was lucky to go a day without being smacked or talked down to. She was lucky to last a week without something angering the man enough to outright beat her down. There were even times when it was more like torture, tying her up and taking his belt and beating her until she passed out.

There was no escape from the pain since her father had too many contacts in the government. It was a hard lesson to learn, she told teachers several times about her life which ended up having her picked up by children services. They didn't help her though, they told her not to make up lies about Tony and dropped her back off by nightfall. She had suffered greatly both times as a result, being beaten into unconsciousness only being the beginning. He waited until she waked up only to start kicking her around as he berated her, reminding her that she was his property.

It was something that she was never allowed to forget, she was left by her mother giving him full custody. She was just his property and she knew there was no escaping it. It was partly the woman's fault in the photograph that Will found herself in this position. As she looked at the picture her hand started trembling as she fought back the tears. The girl didn't look hateful or uncaring, even the camera captured the love that was held in those eyes. They were the same eyes that Will had, though the emotions that reflected in the redhead's eyes were of pain and loneliness.

Could her father have been lying about her mother the whole time? If this was her mother in the picture could she have any feelings at all for Will and something happened? Maybe she was killed, or maybe Tony drove her away. There may be some flicker of motherly love in the woman's heart if she was really Will's mother.

The angry snarl alerted Will to her father's presence just before something struck her in the back of the head. Thankfully she was mostly out of it as the kicking and screaming began. She lost the picture as the man took it away and tore it up, all the while asking why she cared so much for her whore of a mother. The thing was, Will didn't know about a whore of a mother. The girl in the picture didn't look like one, but she had to ask herself why she cared. The answer was simple, despite being a little angry at her mother, she had always loved the woman and prayed that one day she would come back to save her.

It was later that night when she found the picture in the trash and spent a painstaking hour carefully putting the picture back together with tape. It took a little more time to find more information about the woman, but eventually found a marriage certificate as she was finishing the attic. Her parents were married in Heatherfield, which was actually not that far away according to the map at the library. She had found a place to start her search for her mother.

Skipping her homework while at the library to use the internet she searched through every thing she could think of for more clues. It was a few day later when she got lucky. There was a newspaper sitting on a table where she sat to wait for a computer. Seeing the paper sitting there, she pulled it over to look through it and was shocked to see one of the articles. There was a picture of the woman being honored for all of her hard work at Simultech. Apparently she was responsible for over eighty percent of their success over the last five years. She changed very little from the photograph, her hair was a little shorter and the look in her eyes changed a little, but Will wasn't sure to what as the black and white photograph has hard to make out details. It just didn't seem to capture the emotion as well as the other picture.

Making sure no one was watching, Will tore the article from the page and hid it in her pocket. She was edgy the entire time she logged onto the computer since she was scared that someone saw her steal the article. She was able to find the address for the closest Simultech, which was in Heatherfield, the exact same office the article stated the woman worked at. Writing down the address on a scrap of paper, Will found a place to start her search for the woman but wasn't sure if she wanted to risk her father's wrath. She had it though if she decided to risk it.

She didn't know what to do, but her decision was made up for her. Her father found the newspaper article she had hidden in her room, thankfully it was the only thing he found, but she was punished severely for it. She didn't even know why it was happening at first as she was grabbed as soon as she walked in the door after school. She didn't have homework that day and wanted to try and have some peace and quiet before having to del with her father very much.

She found herself shoved onto her knees in front of the coffee table and roughly shoved over it. There was already some rope around the base that Tony used to tie her wrist and hold her over it. He shoved the newspaper article in her face and demanded to know what it was and what she was doing with it. When she started shaking he roared and started hitting her before taking a knife and cutting through her shirt and training bra, yanking them off to either side of her body.

She didn't know what was happening as she laid there crying, trying to pull her hands loose from her bonds. He left for a few minutes before coming back, the soft chuckle he gave sending chills up the redhead's spine. The real pain began then as the man had gotten a real whip from somewhere, one laced with something as it dug into her skin with each lash. She tried desperately to pull her hands free, but it only made her hurt her wrists hurt more as they dug and burned her skin.

Hours later she woke up, her body in even more pain than she ever remembered. The bastard was sprawled out in the recliner, passed out with several empty boxes of beer and cans littering the ground around him. Thankfully he must have untied her arms as she was able to stumble away from the table and into her room. She couldn't stay there anymore, she had to get away. Dropping the destroyed clothing she tried to put on another bra. The pain was too much though making her drop it. Instead she just pulled on a loose shirt and stuffed the bra and a few other changes of clothing in her back-pack. She didn't have any money, but she refused to stay there. She was in so much pain, and despite being used to it, this was just too much.

The shirt kept sticking too her, but she wasn't sure it was from her wounds or perhaps the beer that Tony must have dumped on her while she was unconscious. She wanted nothing more than to take a bath and clean off, but she was too scared to. If he woke up she wouldn't be able to get out of there, and she had to. She honestly didn't know if she could survive that again.

It was with that Will left the only home she could remember. She was dressed in a loose baggy shirt, an old gray winter coat and scarf that she dug out of one of the clothing donation bins out back of a closed Goodwill. The gray sweatpants she was wearing was basically the only kind of pants that she owned, and her sneakers were falling apart, one of them even having a gap between the sole and the shoe part where it began separating. Thankfully it wasn't too cold recently so she was sure she should be okay as long as the weather didn't get worse. Taking the time to grab the old picture and the address for the business, Will hurried off into the night to hopefully leave her past behind for a better future.

It took a few days to reach Heatherfield on foot, but she managed. The pain in her back making it hard to carry the back-pack on it, but her wrists were so sore from the ropes burning and ripping the skin. She was forced to sleep on the streets though, the chill night air biting into her skin as the wind just made it worse. She kept telling herself that she didn't have a choice, that just maybe her mother would take her in and actually love her. It was what she always prayed for, but unlike her prayers and dreams, she was going to her mother instead of the woman coming to her.

As soon as she reached Heatherfield the temperature seemed to take a drastic drop. Will started to feel sick but she knew she had to keep going. If she gave up she would never know the answers to all of her questions, she would never know if her mother loved her. She would never know the truth to why she was abandoned the way she was by the woman.

She found Simultech easily and watched it closely for three days hoping to spot the woman she walked all this way too find. She was trying her best to fight off the cold and the growing fever that she had picked up on her journey. She was getting worse though and she knew it but she couldn't stop.

Thankfully since she was in Heatherfield she found a little Chinese restaurant called the Silver Dragon. Each day if she went at a certain time she would find a mostly full container of take out sitting on top of the city trash can by the corner. It was still warm each time and to Will that was a blessing. She had to eat much worse at times thanks to her father.

The second time she had to run with it though as a young Asian girl coming out of the restaurant saw her and called out. She was scared that the girl would alert her parents or something so made sure to be extra careful around the place.

It was the third day though that she discovered where the food was coming from and was shocked. For days she had been keeping a close eye on Simultech to find Susan and here she was eating the woman's leftovers each day. For once Will left the food go and decided to follow, but every time she tried to call out to the woman fear gripped her heart. What kind of woman was her mother? Just what would she think about Will and would she even care enough to help?

All those questions and more ran through her mind as she followed the woman ducking into alleys to peer around the corner. It wasn't until a few stores later that the woman went into a small diner where the redhead was wishing she could follow. Instead she leaned against the cold brick wall of the alley and sighed, she was trying her best to fight off the effects of her growing fever. The fever was like a siren's call trying to lull her to sleep, but she couldn't do that. If she did not only would she lose the woman, but she felt that if she gave in this time she may not even wake back up.

It had to be so warm in there, a part of Will was screaming to follow inside, but she didn't want the woman to catch her. She was lost in her internal debate when the woman appeared beside her holding a steaming cup. She couldn't believe that she let herself get so distracted that she didn't realize the woman left the diner and actually managed to sneak up on her.

Susan loved her extended family, her 'sisters' and their families were a godsend. They helped her get through times like now, the Christmas season with only four days away from the big day. It was a holiday meant for families to be together and show their love for one another. It was a time when Susan felt the loss of her daughter the most as that bastard who was once her husband had kidnapped her precious baby girl.

She hated Tony Vandom with a passion as he seemed to be able to find contacts and supporters everywhere he went. They seemed to protect him from being discovered as not even the best investigators Susan could afford to hire could find a trace of them anywhere. And those investigators didn't come cheap, she was a high ranking employee in Simultech, though she still had superiors within the company. Those superiors were why she was in her current predicament of having to brave the holiday season without a job.

For months she had been spearheading their newest project and had finally finished it. She had been spending twelve to sixteen hour work days for six days a week, sometimes seven, to get everything finished. They did finish the project, and though she refused to admit it, her body was exhausted. Her boss who seemed like a second father had threatened to fire her if she didn't take a vacation, and while he was joking, she was the only one he had ever had to threaten like that to take time off.

Now she was stuck with no excuses to escape her family's mercy, they had been making sure she had eaten every day while she was off. They knew she wouldn't exactly keep a healthy diet being off from work since it was her assistant that made sure she ate meals. After Yan Lin's lecture Susan gave in and stopped off at the Silver Dragon every day to not only help with the training for the new generation but to also eat. Training , despite not liking it much, was something she suffered through. The meal was something she didn't though as she took a couple bites to make her friends at least know she ate something. On the way out of the restaurant she dumped the take out container in the trash can at the end of the block as she passed by it on her way to look around.

With only days until Christmas, and despite the pain the holiday brought her, Susan window shopped while daydreaming about Wilhelmina. What was her daughter like now? Was she healthy? Was she happy? Was Tony taking good care of her? All these questions and more constantly ran through her head as she wondered if Wilhelmina would like each thing Susan looked at. Thinking of those thoughts made Susan even more saddened as she wondered just what kind of things Wilhelmina was into.

Susan was shocked and a little scared when she saw a hooded figure stalking her as she continued her browsing. Of course it was possible that the figure was just going the same way, but with her side job she could never be too careful. Quickly coming up with a plan Susan set it into motion, stopping at every other shop window while making a big production of browsing the window's displays. She wasn't though, she was watching out of the corner of her eye to see the person hiding poorly in the alley watching.

At first Susan's reaction was to confront the person since they actually looked like they could be a young teenager. Then again, she saw much worse masquerading as a young child so this maybe be something similar. Her gut instinct was telling her the figure was safe though, as well as her sixth sense telling her what she needed to do. Making her mind up she slipped into a diner and purchased a large hot chocolate with extra marshmallows. A few moments later she was back outside standing next to the figure who was leaning up against a wall breathing heavily.

"Tell you what, tell me why you were following me and it is all yours." Susan said while offering a gentle but firm smile to the figure. Instead of taking the drink the figure started shaking their head no while stumbling backwards. Susan was about to warn them bout the ice, but it was too late as the figure slipped and fell onto their back. She would have laughed as the figure acted like a turtle with the back-pack making it hard for them to get their footing on the large patch of ice.

"Are you okay?" Susan asked while stifling a giggle as she helped the figure sit up. She quickly pulled the threadbare scarf and collar out of the way with her free hand revealing a very pretty, if dirty face. The figure tried to struggle, but was quickly loosing as they didn't seem to have much strength.

"No...Stop..." A voice wheezed, a very feminine voice that sounded very weak and young. It solidified her suspicions of the child being a young girl that was around maybe twelve or thirteen.

"Here, drink up. You look cold and it should help you warm up a bit. Don't think you're getting out of explaining yourself though, because I'm not letting you go until you do." Susan said, her voice kind but firm as she held the cup of steaming liquid to the girl's lips helping her take a sip. Leaning towards the cup the girl gave in taking the offered drink, sipping it slowly with Susan's help. It took maybe five minutes for the girl to finish it, but she could tell the child felt a little bit better.

"Now would you care to tell me why you were following me, or do I need to call a friend I have on the force?" Susan asked, her voice still holding the kind but firm tone from earlier. The look in the girl's eyes were of pure fear which confused Susan while also making her heart break. No child should hold that much fear in their eyes at the mere mention of contacting the police, or anything else for that matter.

"P-P-Please d-don't…I-I'll talk just d-don't c-call any cops." The girl begged while on the verge of tears. Susan sighed as she could tell that the stutter was from the cold, but even more from the fear that was reflecting in her eyes. The girl's skin was very pale worrying Susan a bit, she needed to get the child somewhere to warm up soon or she could get very sick.

"Okay, I won't for now, but do you think you can walk?" Susan asked gently while holding out her hand to help pull the girl to her feet after the child nodded an affirmative. After helping the girl to her feet and steady her, Susan continued, "Good, then you can tell me where you live so I can take you home. You can also explain just why you were stalking me."

"I...I'm sorry, I don't have a home." The child said softly. almost too soft for Susan to hear. She did hear no matter how much she wished she hadn't. No child should be out on the street, especially this time of year. Even though she felt bad for the child she wasn't Susan's problem so why was she standing here worrying? Her only concern was Wilhelmina, not some street kid that was probably a runaway.

She knew better though as she pushed the darker thoughts out of her mind, this was a young girl who was freezing and deserved better than this. Susan decided she could at least get the child warmed up before making any major decisions on what to do with her.

"Come on then, we're better off leaving the explaining until after we get you warmed up." Susan said realizing the longer they stood there the longer the girl would grow even colder. Susan couldn't help wondering just when she would learn window shopping during this time of year wasn't a good idea, in fact it usually only caused her more trouble and pain.

The walk back to her car took longer that it would if she was by herself as she had to support the child. The girl was hard to keep steady the farther they walked as the strength just seemed to keep seeping out of the child. They finally reached where Susan left her car and helped the girl into the passenger seat before Susan got in the driver seat. After starting the car Susan cranked the heater to full power hoping that it would help the girl. Susan reached over and made sure the seatbelt secured the girl in the seat before buckling herself in.

"Guess I need to start talking now?" The girl asked nervously, her voice soft though Susan suspected it was more from being weakened.

"That would be a good start." Susan said as she put the car in gear and pulled away from the curb where the car was parked. Susan could tell that the girl was growing even more nervous making Susan wonder what kind of trouble she was in. Was the girl running from someone? Did she steal something from someone?

"You're...You look just like her." The girl said while looking away from Susan, refusing to make eye contact.

"Like who?" Susan asked, curious to just who she looked like to make this young girl stalk her for lord knew how long. Susan's curiousness grew to concern as she could see tears welling up in the young girl's eyes. "Who do I look like, sweetie?"

"Like my...my mom." The girl said with a small sob, her body shaking a little as she hugged herself. Susan was shocked at this admittance making her pull over and try and comfort the crying child. "You look so much like her! I had to, I just had to see you...ever since she died..."

Susan gasped when she reached up to brush the child's tears away and felt how hot her cheeks felt. Quickly reaching up to pull the girl's hood completely back to feel the girl's forehead, Susan was shocked even more. The girl had a mop of messy red hair which made Susan want to think that this could possible be Wilhelmina. She quickly crushed that line of thought as the girl already said her mother was dead. Feeling the girl's forehead confirmed what Susan thought, the girl was burning up with a fever. Susan was very worried by how hot it the girl felt.

"How long have you been feeling sick?" Susan asked softly as she pulled away from the girl and pulled the car back out and toward her home. She had a bad feeling that things wouldn't end well if she went to the hospital so she would have to take the girl to her apartment to help her.

"Ever since I got here." The girl said, hesitating a few moments while it looked like she was thinking. She was looking at Susan with a little bit of fear and confusion from the question. "Three days."

Will shrunk back into her seat unable to believe just how fast the fever had gotten to her. Yes she was feeling sluggish earlier, but now she felt like she could pass out at any time. Thankfully she was getting help for it, unlike usual where she had to fend for her self and suffer through being sick without any help. Then again, she did have her oh so loving father who demanded she clean the house with a temperature of a hundred and beating her for not moving fast enough.

Contrary to her father's behavior this woman, her mother, was actually acting worried. She was too scared though to tell the woman just yet who she was since Susan was acting so kind and loving. Will couldn't help but wonder briefly if this is what a mother was like, loving and gentle while caring for their child.

"If you were sick for so long, why didn't you go to a free clinic?" Susan sighed while looking back and forth between Will and the road. Despite the annoying semi lecture, Will was beyond happy being here with her mother, even if she was too scared to tell the woman who she really was. She lied about her mother dieing to hide her identity because she just couldn't tell her yet, she had to know what kind of woman Susan was. Would her mother really care about her if she knew the truth? "Maybe you should have went to the police, they could have at least contacted children services and found you a foster home. Surely a nice warm home would be better than living on the streets?"

"N-No, please no foster home." Will begged trying to open the door when the car stopped at a red light. The door was locked letting Susan have enough time to reach over and calm Will down some.

"Don't worry, I won't call them for now. I do want the full story later though, do I make myself clear?" Susan said, her voice the gentle, but firm tone she seemed to favor when she was serious but caring all the same.

"Yes Ma'am." Will said as she leaned against the door while soaking up the heat coming from the vents. It felt so good but she still felt so sick. She was feeling so hot while freezing at the same time. All of her strength seemed to be leaving her as everything around seemed to spin off and on. Her head was starting to pound viciously though now that she was relaxing, everything seemed to start piling up and it's weight was getting to her.

After watching the scenery fly by for wheat seemed like forever, Will closed her eyes taking deep breathes. For the first time in a long time, she felt safe even if she knew she should be scared. She didn't know this woman beyond being with her the last few minutes so didn't know what would happen, but her heart was telling her to just enjoy it. Taking a final deep breath Will blinked a few times before falling deeply into the darkness, letting sleep finally over take her.