The Annoying Sleepwalker novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Control Test

The only power outlet between our two beds was behind my desk.

For three years, Kelsey had plugged her phone into it every night and laid her grandmother's gold locket beside it.

That was the test.

I did not take anything of hers, and I did not move anything of hers.

I put one new thing on my desk for the night.

It was a thick black binder with a white label on the cover.

*LARKFIELD FINAL PORTFOLIO. ONLY COPY.*

Beside it I put an old external drive from my first year, wiped clean and with a sticky note on it that said *Backup*.

The real portfolio was on Casper's laptop in 3B, and in a cloud folder that nobody but me had the password to.

Casper set up the cereal box on the shelf.

He set a second camera behind a poster above my bed, aimed at Kelsey's side of the room.

"If she walks around her own phone and her locket," he said, "that's the end of her diagnosis."

"Maybe," I said.

"What if she walks into them?"

"Then I owe her a very big apology," I said. "And $15,300."

He took off his glasses and cleaned them on his shirt.

"Do you want me to stay?"

"No. Go to bed. I'll wake you."

I did not sleep.

At 3:05, Kelsey's blanket moved.

She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed.

Her eyes were open and pointed at the ceiling.

She stood and crossed to my desk in three smooth steps.

Her phone was lit up on the charger, and the locket glittered next to it.

She did not touch either one.

She did not even look at them.

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