Chapter 24: NOW - The Safe Room

More than an hour slides by with the electricity off. I can’t check anything because the Wi-Fi is down too. I can’t check the security cameras around the house. I can’t check with the electric company whether this is a problem elsewhere. Now my daughter is telling me about a strange woman who sneaked onto the field next to her school just to talk to her.

Emily could be right. Sophie does have a great imagination. I’ve seen her playing with her stuffed animals, giving them all different professions and inventive names. But this feels a little out of character for her. She’s never been the kind of kid who has an imaginary friend.

If there was a woman near the school, who could it be? Maybe Peter has an accomplice. Sophie said the woman was old. Perhaps it could be Mary Harlow. I don’t know why she’d target my child, but Mary was never particularly stable, especially not after Peter started stalking me. I make a mental note to check with the school after all this is over. Maybe they spotted someone hanging around or caught the mystery person on CCTV.

Sophie’s story has me on edge and I can’t stop thinking about Peter. I watch her and Emily watching Bluey together and my mind drifts back to the last time I saw him. It was last year. I shiver, thinking about that day in the hospital, holding Ed’s hand, watching the life fade from him, then walking down the hospital corridor only to see Peter waiting for me again.

“Wow, Amber, it’s so great to see you again,” he’d said, with no trace of shame in his voice, talking to me like we were old friends.

Before Ed passed away, I didn’t see Peter for more than five years. The longest stretch of keeping him out of my life. I’d assumed that seeing him in the hospital was punishment for the stretch of time I managed to have a life. I grieved my husband and feared for my life at the same time. I thought he’d be lurking everywhere. Near my house, at my work. But when that never happened, I realised he still didn’t know where I lived.

What if he figured it out?

“Are you all right, Amber?” Emily’s head is tilted slightly like she’s talking to a grieving widow at a funeral.

“Yeah, yeah. Fine.”

“Can we play the game again?” Sophie asks. “Mummy never had her turn.”

Emily’s face brightens into a smile. “That’s right! Go on, Amber, what are your two truths and a fib?”

“Right.” My mind is too busy to think up any believable lies. I’ve been stalked since I was fifteen years old. It made me want to kill myself. It tore my family apart. I haven’t spoken to my parents or sister for years.

All true.

“Why don’t we make it more interesting,” Emily suggests.

Sophie giggles again. I can see she’s really warming up to Emily now.

“Why don’t we make it things we’re afraid of. Two true fears and one fear that’s a lie.”

Ordinarily, I would shut this down thinking it too scary for Sophie, but I’m so distracted that I just watch the two of them play.

“I’m scared of the dark,” Sophie says. “And butterflies… no, wait. I’m scared of aliens and toilet flushes because they’re too shouty.”

That last one makes me smile. I remember potty training Sophie when she’d run away from the toilet flush. Sometimes she stood in the bathroom doorway and chastised it for being too noisy.

Emily catches me smiling and knows the toilet one is true so now I feel guilty for giving the game away.

“I think the lie is the aliens,” Emily says. “I don’t think you’re scared of aliens at all!”

Sophie giggles into her hands.

“Am I right?” Emily asks.

My sweet daughter nods her head. I pull her into my lap and give her a squeeze.

“Your turn, Mummy.”

I feel my palms sweating and my throat goes dry. Sophie shimmies off my lap and folds her legs under her small body like an adult. Her little face is beaming, waiting for me to play.

I sigh. “All right. I am afraid of heights. I am afraid of…” I trail off as I almost blurt out that I’m afraid of losing the people I love. But maybe that’s too dark for Sophie. “I’m afraid of spiders, aaand… big dogs.”

Before the others can guess, a clattering sound comes from upstairs. We all turn our heads towards the stairs. It sounded like a window rattling. A cool sensation spreads over my skin and my pulse quickens. I get to my feet and take a step forward, but I hesitate, not wanting to go up there.

“I should check that out,” I say.

“Wait. I’ll come with you,” Emily suggests.

I frown, looking at Sophie. “No, you should stay with her.”

“I don’t like the idea of you going up there alone. Maybe we should all go together.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right. Strength in numbers and all that.” I reach out for Sophie’s hand, grab a lit candle—I want to conserve my phone battery—and the three of us head upstairs.

Sophie’s hand grips mine tightly and a jolt of guilt runs through me. Maybe I should have insisted that Emily stay downstairs with her, but the truth is, I couldn’t bear the thought of trusting a stranger with my child. Whatever we find up there, Sophie will see it. I send out a silent prayer that everything is okay.

Maybe I should have brought a weapon.

There’s a cold chill up on the landing. I keep Sophie close to me and check her room first, considering it’s the closest. I’ve never known my daughter not to be chattering away. Right now, she’s so silent it makes the air in the room heavier.

I step into every nook and cranny of the room, illuminating shadows and corners. But there’s no one here. I quickly check all the windows are locked and yank open the wardrobe doors half-expecting Peter to burst out like Michael Myers in Halloween.

“Okay, there’s nothing in here.” The words come out of me with a sigh of relief.

I notice Sophie has moved closer to Emily, her tiny face scrunched up with fear.

“Everything is okay, Soph. Don’t worry, we’re just investigating the noise. It’s like a mystery.”

“Okay.” Sophie sticks a thumb in her mouth which she hasn’t done for years.

I turn to Emily. “Let’s check my bedroom.”

Emily, not smiling, nods once. We’re all on edge. That rattling sounded like an open window to me. But how is that possible? I always keep them locked.

“It’s going to be okay,” Emily says.

“We’re exploring, like those crime fighting twins you read about,” I tell Sophie.

My words sound strong, but my legs are hollow. We leave the comfort of Sophie’s pink room and head down the hallway to mine, aware of Emily right behind us. But before we reach the room, I step in front of Sophie so I can protect her better if anything happens.

The room is freezing cold. This has to be where the chill is coming from. My gaze sweeps the room; the icy breath caught in my lungs. I feel Peter’s presence here. I sense him watching me, like he always watched me, never within reach, always somewhere in the shadows. I imagine the ghost woman my daughter saw. Who was I kidding thinking I could carve a place in this world without him at my back? He has always been here and he always will be.

I walk slowly over to the window and the candle goes out. Sophie screams but I hear Emily telling her it’s okay. When I pull back the curtain, the window is open, rattling in the wind. I pull it shut and lock it, gasping for breath, cold sweat forming along my hairline.

“I locked it,” I mutter. “I always keep the window locked.”

I peer down below. Is it possible that someone could climb up the drainpipe to get into this window? Peter would be in his late thirties now, but I have no idea what kind of shape he is in anymore. Then I gaze out at the boundary of the property which is in darkness. But the rest of the road is not. I can see Emily’s house from here, about three houses down, and can see the light on in the upstairs window. Her husband, Steve.

The rest of the houses are lit up, too, as well as the lamp posts.

When I hear Emily’s voice close to my ear, I almost jump out of my skin. I hadn’t noticed her approach at all.

“It looks like the street got their power back.” Her eyes narrow. “I wonder why it’s just your house that isn’t back on yet.”