Chapter 4 - The Silent Observer
I returned to Maple Avenue that evening with a singular mission: surveillance. I couldn't alert Meredith, and I couldn't let her know that I knew.
I stopped at an electronics store on the way home and purchased a high-end, discreet Wi-Fi camera. I told myself it was for "home security," a common enough request for a man living in a Victorian house with expensive electronics.
"What's that for?" Meredith asked as I set it up in the living room. She was holding a glass of wine, her eyes tracking my movements with the precision of a hawk.
"Piece of mind," I said, smiling the way she expected me to—warmly, almost foolishly. "With all the recent break-ins in the neighborhood, I want to be able to check on you and Lily when I'm on the night shift."
She watched me, her expression unreadable, before the corners of her mouth curled up. "You’re so protective, Logan. It’s almost sweet. Just make sure you don't record anything you don't want to see."
I finished the installation and synced it to my phone.
That night, I retreated to my makeshift office in the basement. I pulled up the live feed. For hours, nothing happened. But at 2:00 AM, the footage flickered to life. Meredith entered the living room. She wasn't carrying a glass of wine now. She was talking to someone—or something—in the corner of the room.
"They're all the same," she whispered to the empty air. "They think they can save you. They think you're worth the effort. But they’ll see. When the smoke starts to rise, they’ll run. They always run."
She began to pace, her movements erratic, her face illuminated by the blue light of the television. Then, she stopped and stared directly into the lens of the camera. My heart stopped.
She smiled, a slow, terrifying expression that suggested she knew exactly what I was doing.
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"He's watching, isn't he?" she whispered to the empty room. "Tell him, Lily. Tell him what happens to people who try to fix things that are already broken."
I closed my laptop, my hands shaking. I wasn't the hunter anymore. I was being hunted.
