Stalker

oOo

It had started a week after the battle at Mission City. Sam glanced at his latest gift as it sat on his bed, shuddering slightly in fear as to what he might find.

It was a box, long and thin, covered in black wrapping paper. Sam slowly stood, walking over to his bed and pulling the thin black envelope from the black ribbon tied around the box.

Over the past year or so this had become a regular occurrence.

He'd find gifts on his bed or desk at odd intervals, sometimes two days apart, sometimes one gift would come a week from the last, but they were always expensive and tasteful and they always had a note attached to them, written in elegant handwriting and signed "The Watcher".

Sam opened the envelope and slowly read the note.

Beloved,

Do you not feel out of place among your comrades? Do they not confine you to a world of secrecy and hiding among your own kind?

Sam's hand trembled as he read the note. His stalker seemed to know everything about him, including his own fears.

Why do you deny yourself freedom? I could give you freedom, I could let you taste the air around you, give you wings to fly. I could love you like no other. Consider it, Beloved.

All you need to do is call for me.

Signed,

The Watcher

Sam shuddered as he closed his brown eyes, sitting on his bed in his cramped room and looking at the box. Slowly, he opened it, tearing paper off and sliding ribbons down the sides.

Inside a bouquet of a dozen roses lay, six black and six purple and all in tight buds with sharp thorns still attached. Sam picked up one rose and shuddered as he traced a petal with one trembling finger. Placing the rose back in the box Sam scanned his surroundings, as if expecting to see his stalker – The Watcher – standing nearby. Whoever it was, he was definitely not human – the types of gifts were not items that a human would be able to get a hold of - and definitely not Autobot – Sam could recognize the handwriting of each of their holoforms and he couldn't recognize the handwriting of the Watcher - so that left one option.

Sam buried his face in his hands and knees, trying not to let his mind wander to the answer he knew but still hoped to be false.

Unwillingly, the young human recalled Mission City and the face that still haunted his dreams.

Sam stood, clinging to the statue on the rooftop, watching Megatron approach him.

"Give me the cube, boy!" A voice from a nightmare or worse echoed around him and Sam turned, getting his first real look at the giant Decepticon.

He was larger than Optimus and the twisted metal of his frame made him look even more menacing, but, for a robot, there was no denying that he was probably attractive by cybertronian standards. Megatron froze and the two stared at each other for a moment before Megatron smirked and reached over to grab at Sam. The human screamed as he stepped off of the rooftop, Optimus catching him quickly and clumsily.

"Decepticons, fall back!" Megatron roared before transforming and flying off, his tetrajet form screaming off through the sky, military jets shooting at him and his soldiers as they brokenly transformed and flew off also.

"Are you alright, Sam?" Optimus asked, looking at the trembling human in his hands. Sam nodded, looking at Optimus, then the cube, then where Megatron's army had retreated. Holding out the cube, Sam stuttered out for Optimus to take it, to keep it safe. Optimus did so, tucking the Allspark into his subspace and setting Sam on the ground.

"Sam?" Bumblebee's voice drifted into the room and Sam kicked the box of roses under his bed, standing and looking over at his Guardian. "Are you alright?"

"yeah, I'm fine, Bee, just… Thinking about Mission City."

Bumblebee let out a sympathetic burble of cybertronian and reached in to stroke Sam's head with a large digit.

"My parents are going to be home soon, you better get back into the garage." Sam smiled at his best friend. "I really don't want to have to explain why there's a giant robot on the driveway."

Bee smiled, or did his equivalent of a smile, and gave a parting stroke to Sam's hair before retreating and folding into car mode. Sam spotted the note on the ground and picked it up, pulling out the locked box that all the other ones were in and shoved the letter in, pushing it back under his bed with all of the other gifts. Sam closed his windows, drawing the curtains and blinds before beginning to change, thinking of the clothes shoved into the bottom of his closet.

A black silk button-up shirt, a pair of tight black leather pants, a belt with a strange cybertronian glyph emblazoned on the buckle. Sam closed his eyes and shook off the thought of other gifts hidden in various places around his room.

On the book shelves, along with other books and knick-knacks was a human book called "Lolita" by Vladmir Nabokov (a strange choice, but Sam hadn't truly read it seeing as he was too afraid to touch it much less open it).

Downloaded onto his iPod was a song in cybertronian sung by a mech with a deep soothing voice. When he asked Bee about the name of the song Bee had told him that it was the song sung when a mech would "court" another mech. Then he had asked where Sam had gotten it and the boy had quickly lied that he had just found it in some old files Ratchet had on his computer.

Hidden in a drawer of his desk was a small black velvet box with a golden ring nestled in it with diamond studs around it. Engraved on the inside were more cybertronian glyphs, Sam not knowing what these translated into but not willing enough to find out what they meant.

He couldn't tell his friends, they wouldn't believe him. Megatron had done little more than raid fuel deposits every so often at odd intervals, why would they believe that he was stalking Sam?

oOo