Sincerely, Jennifer x

It was a few days after the first message when Katie came round to my Dad’s house. She stood outside the house for hours but I stayed up in my room, refusing to see her.

She kept calling my phone, and soon, my notifications screen was full of missed calls from Katie and threats from Bethany. I couldn’t stand it.

I turned my phone off, signed off from work early, and got into bed. Burrowing under the duvet, I began to escape from reality. Katie’s cries from outside of the window faded away, and I was at peace.

It didn’t last.

Nothing good ever lasts for me.

I awoke to suffocating screams. Clutching the blanket around me, I shivered and shook, staring around the dark room as the screams rang out from behind the door.

I knew that I had to look, but I was frozen, fixed to the spot like a statue, as a commotion was carried upstairs, and the danger crept closer.

It was my father’s voice, and as I watched the door, my heart sank as I spotted a small drop of blood on the carpet, growing with every second as it pushed its way under my door, until it was a pool.

“Daddy’s dead, Amanda.” The voice was cold, cruel and clinical. Robotic. Bethany. “You’re next.” A heavy hand pounded on the bedroom door, relentless and rage driven.

The door began to snap and break as the seconds slipped by. I stood from my bed, my whole body shaking, but my mind clear, for the first time. They had taken everything from me, but I refused to let them take me quietly.

Katie’s fist smashed through the door, and I grabbed the lamp from my desk. I slammed the lamp against her hand, over and over until her blood spurted down onto the carpet, but she would not stop, continuing to push against the door until it splintered and snapped.

I hit her with the lamp again and again but she didn’t even flinch. Her eyes were wide open, staring straight ahead as she wrestled the lamp from my hands and shoved me to the floor.

I was face to face with Katie as her phone fell to the floor and her hands gripped around my neck.

There was nothing there. None of the love we had once shared. No remorse. No regret. Just her angry obedience of Bethany’s barked commands from the phone.

“Kill her Katie!” I fought back with all I had, scratching against her iron grip on my throat praying that my last moments were not unfolding before me. “Kill her and then we can be together at last!” I fought back for myself. I was not going to die like that. Not by Katie’s hand and not by the order of software.

I kicked. I scratched. I struggled and squirmed until I was free, pushing past Katie and running down the stairs.

Katie wasn’t far behind, but I made it outside. I ran, helpless but holding on to the will to survive. I screamed at the top of my lungs, pleading with my neighbours for sanctuary.

When I found safety, I could barely breathe. The police dragged Katie away, kicking and screaming, still clutching her phone.

Nobody believed me.

Doppell sent me a cheque, but it sat in the envelope on my Dad’s kitchen table for months. I threw it away eventually. I didn’t want their blood money.

The police appeared to have been given a cheque too, because they called it a robbery gone wrong.

They acted like I didn’t even know Katie. She was my girlfriend, she had met my Dad a million times. They ignored that there was no sign of forced entry, and just acted like she was some crazy thief. They acted like it was just a horrible accident. A horrible twist of fate.

They wouldn’t talk about what Bethany had driven Katie too. They wouldn’t talk about the many attempts on my life before. They wouldn’t talk about the threatening messages. They wouldn’t go through Katie’s phone.

They didn’t believe me, because they didn’t want to believe me.

Nobody believes me. The doctor that I saw today didn’t, and if I could get an appointment with a real, human therapist, they wouldn’t believe me either.

Truthfully, they all thought I was a little bit mad. Sometimes, I wonder if they are right, but then, I visit my father’s grave, or glance down at the blood stain on my carpet that never quite came out, and I know that I have been right all along.