“After you?” Amber asked. “Why would anyone be coming after you? What does that mean, Adam? Hey, please answer me.”
Adam ran out the front door. He stopped at the top of his porch steps and scanned the neighborhood. He didn’t see any suspicious cars or people in the area. As a matter of fact, he didn’t see any pedestrians at all. He hustled down the steps, then he dashed across the lawn. He stood on his tiptoes and looked over the gate at the side of his house.
He spotted three windows. One window looked into the laundry room, another into a hallway, and the last one into Adam’s office.
A rake lay beside a pile of gardening tools between the office and hallway windows. It was the source of the noise Adam had heard, but he couldn’t admit it.
Impossible, he thought. Someone pushed it down. Someone was watching us. It’s the only explanation.
“Who’s out here?!” he yelled at the side of his house. “What do you want from me?!”
Amber came out of the house, face livid. She approached the porch railing to her right and found her husband walking in circles on the lawn. Sitting on the floor in the living room, Riley continued whimpering while sucking her index and middle fingers.
“What are you doing?” Amber hissed while glancing around the neighborhood.
She was embarrassed by the unwanted attention. She could see her neighbors moving about in their homes, curious about the ruckus. It was an upscale neighborhood with an active Neighborhood Watch program. It wasn’t common to hear people yelling or arguing outside in the middle of the day.
As if she were scolding a child, Amber said, “Come inside, Adam. Right now.”
“Where are you?!” Adam shouted as he spun around on the lawn.
“There’s no one here! Come inside!”
Ignoring his wife, Adam yelled, “If you want me, come get me! I have a… I have a gun! You hear me?!”
“Adam, wha–what are you… What?”
Their next-door neighbor, Vince Edwards, stepped onto his front porch with a can of beer in hand. He peeked over at the Miller residence. He was surprised to see Adam out there, barefooted in a bathrobe with his hair unkempt and knotted beard covering most of his neck. He didn’t recognize him at first glance. It looked like his neighbor had started falling apart before the pandemic even began.
“Vince,” Adam said upon spotting him. He marched over to the short wall separating their properties. He asked, “Have you seen anyone snooping around here?”
“Snooping?” Vince repeated.
“You know like a prowler, a Peeping Tom, a–a stalker.”
“A Peeping Tom? Hell, Adam, I haven’t heard of any of them since—”
“This isn’t small talk, Vince,” Adam interrupted. “Have you seen anyone around my house or on the street? You seen anything suspicious around here? Anything at all?”
Vince was caught off guard by Adam’s aggressiveness. He had always known his neighbor to be kind and welcoming. He looked at him with an expression that said something along the lines of: Who is this guy?
“I didn’t see or hear any ‘prowlers’ around your house, bud,” Vince said. “Matter of fact, your shouting and hollering is all I heard all day. How are you two doing over there, Amber?”
From the porch, Amber looked down, rubbed her forehead, and said, “We’re fine, Vince. We’re just… Adam’s a little… agitated about this whole situation.”
“I think we all are. We just gotta remember—”
“Vince, you need to check around your house,” Adam interrupted. “Check inside your house, too, okay?”
“Uhh, yeah… sure.”
“I’m serious. There’s a dangerous—”
Mid-sentence, Amber stepped between Adam and the partition. Adam didn’t even hear her coming.
Amber waved at Vince, smiled, and said, “Everything’s fine. I’m sorry if we bothered you.”
“It’s no bother at all,” Vince responded.
As Amber pushed him back to the porch, Adam shouted, “Check around your house! And you call me if you hear anything! Vince, you call me, okay?!”
Vince nodded and raised his hand at him, lips wrinkled like a tilde. He was concerned about the Miller family, but he didn’t feel comfortable involving himself in their situation without an invitation. Amber managed to get Adam back into the house. She kicked the door closed behind her.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Adam said quickly. “I need to warn the others. We all need to—”
“Be quiet,” Amber said, tears stinging her eyes.
“You don’t understand! We’re in danger!”
Riley took her fingers out of her mouth, drool hanging from her fingertips, and she bawled.
“Stop it. Please stop,” Amber pleaded.
Adam shouted, “At least lock the damn door! Do something!”
“Be quiet!” Amber screamed at the top of her lungs.
The house became quiet in an instant. Adam clenched his jaw and breathed deeply through his nose. Riley stopped crying. She had never heard her mother yell before. For a moment, she didn’t recognize her parents. After a few seconds of silence, she sucked on her fingers and whined.
Trembling with anger and fear, Amber stuttered, “Wha–What’s gotten into you, Adam? You’re screaming a–about… prowlers? Women coming after you? Guns? You have a gun now? Because that’s news to me. So, what is this about? The serial killer?”
Adam had already said too much. In a panic, he had inadvertently unveiled part of the truth. The angel on his shoulder told him to tell her about his affair while the devil on his other shoulder advised him to stay quiet. He just nodded at her.
“Why?” Amber asked, her voice shaking as if her entire body were trembling violently. “Why would a serial killer—a killer that’s only supposed to be targeting lonely children out there—be prowling outside of our home? And why’d you say ‘she?’ The cops haven’t identified the killer yet, have they? What do you know? What did you find?”
Adam said, “I’m just trying to protect my family.”
“From who?”
“There’s a maniac out there, Amber.”
“So, you do think that serial killer’s coming after us… but why?”
Adam took in a deep breath, then he said, “You just have to trust me.”
Tears dripping down her cheeks, Amber said, “Adam, you’re… you’re changing. You’re paranoid. You have to stop this. You can’t let this quarantine mess with your head like this.”
“You think I’m crazy?”
“I think you’re stressed and tired and… and scared and confused.”
Adam chuckled, his own tears now flowing down his cheeks. He said, “So you think I’m crazy.”
Anxiety often triggered psychosis. Amber didn’t want to call him ‘crazy,’ that would have been disrespectful and tasteless, but she believed he was losing touch with reality. People changed as they aged, but Amber felt like she was watching her husband transform into an entirely different person. Everyone in the living room was crying—Amber, Adam, Riley.
Adam said, “I’m going out.” Amber sprawled herself against the door, arms outstretched to each side. Adam said, “I need to go. Just lock the door until I come back.”
“And where are you going to go? What do you think you’re going to do?”
“I’m going to protect us.”
“No, you tell me exactly where you’re going to go or you’re not going anywhere.”
“I’m going to buy a fucking gun, Amber.”
Amber’s joyless laughter echoed through the house. She swiped at the tears on her cheeks and mucus on her lips with the back of her hands while shaking her head.