Morning all. Welcome to this rainy Tuesday morning. It feels much earlier than it actually is but with luck the sun will put in an appearance later today. At least for a little while. Maybe. For now, we have coffee brewing and a morning prompt to do. So, lets get to it. Timers set and off we go.
I like the idea of this but I am not sure it starts in the right place. In these prompts I often get the idea and then add bits of information that she would have found out. Sometimes I like not providing the scene where she learned it, but I think in this case I want to go back and show the suspicions and the uncovering and then build the excitement of the count down until the others realize they have been found out. But that is for another time.
Tuesday, May 27th: She bit her lip.
She bit her lip. This part was going to take some thinking. She knew they were watching. She also knew that they were sneaky. She caught them going through her things often enough, but only recently had she started to realize they were doing more. There were comments made, snide and things she had practice dismissing. Comments about her likes and interests being boring, stupid or a waste of time. In fact she had so much practice ignoring the comments that she almost missed it. However there was a pattern emerging.
The things they commented on were things she routinely looked up on her laptop. She generally took her laptop with her elsewhere when she looked into things so there would be no way for them to see what she was looking at, unless they used some sort of spy ware.
While her laptop was often left at home when she was at work, her cell phone remained on her. She took it in for a check up, making certain there was no spyware on it. She then converted things like banking to a mobile app instead of using her laptop. She changed all her passwords and then for good measure. Opened a new bank account at a different bank. She had all her funds transferred to the new account, going into the bank directly to handle the transfer, worried that she had not been careful enough when severing the digital ties.
The bank had dealt with many issues with spy ware before and was happy to assist her. They also recommended several people who were good at detecting and removing spyware. She had their numbers but at the moment had not yet determined if it was a good idea to call. If she did, it would remove everything and she would be assured that what she did on line, especially financially would not be tracked. On the other hand, it would let the others know that she figured out they were spying and she was certain it would drive them to new and greater lengths.
While she was starting to feel a little paranoid, a few days prior she heard a snippet of conversation regarding her change of passwords.
“We’ll just find out the new one when she next checks in,” her stepfather said as he and her step brothers discussed it. “She always checks the balance before she pays her bills. You can’t take anything before then anyway or she will see it.”
She knew she was not paranoid. She also knew that her first bills of the month would be due in five days. They would expect her to check. She recalled the small amounts that seemed to go missing every month. They were small amounts, barely noticeable and she always assumed she used her debit card and forgot. Coffee, fast food on a day she was running late.
Realizing they were adding up and wanting to put more in savings, she had stopped most of those things and yet the money still seemed to go for them. It was, combined with the snide comments, part of what made her think of spyware. The orders were all for a delivery service where her card was given. ‘It won’t help now even if the number is on someone’s file,’ she thought. That bank account was closed. And she had five days to figure out what to do.
Ten til Midnight 