Chapter 35
Nathan
I’m back at Walmart. The fluorescent lights make everything look sickly.
Too bright. Too clean. Too normal. I’m halfway down an aisle I don’t belong in when I see him.
A man—mid-thirties, maybe. Big shoulders, ball cap pulled low, stubble that looks like it’s been there for days. He moves like he doesn’t want to be seen, but he’s not good at it. He keeps glancing over his shoulder. Not like someone who’s lost.
Like someone who’s checking for witnesses.
He’s standing in front of the little girls’ section.
Pink. Purple. Polka dots. Tiny jackets with glittery zippers. Socks so small they look like they’d fit in the palm of my hand.
He picks up a shirt. Holds it at arm’s length. Studies it.
Then he drops it into his cart like it’s nothing.
Like it doesn’t mean anything.
My thoughts go dark.
My body reacts before my brain catches up—muscles going hard, blood rushing, the air turning thin.
No.
No, no, no.
I watch his cart roll forward. A pair of leggings. A hoodie. A package of hair ties—a pack of underwear—small enough that it makes my vision blur for a second.
I can’t hear anything except the pounding in my ears.
He turns down another aisle, and I follow. Not close enough to be obvious. Close enough that if he looks back, he’ll feel it.
My fingers curl into fists. My mind starts pulling threads. He pays. Then he heads for the front entrance.
I follow him out into the parking lot.
Rain streaks the pavement. The air smells like wet asphalt and exhaust.
He stops at a car.
And my heart slams so hard it almost hurts. That’s it. That’s the car from the video. Not similar. Not close.
It’s the exact one
My hands are shaking when I get into my own car. I don’t think. I don’t hesitate.
I follow.
He drives like he has somewhere to be. Like he’s done this before.
He turns into a quiet neighborhood. Small houses. Dark windows. Lawns are soaked with rain. He parks in a driveway and carries the bags inside. The door closes. I sit there for half a second, staring at the house. Then I’m out of the car.
Up the walk.
At the door.
I knock.
Footsteps.
The door opens.
It’s him.
Up close, he looks… ordinary. Tired, even.
“Can I help you?” he says.
“You were buying little girls’ clothes.”
A pause. Barely there. “So?” he says.
A darkness spreads through my body, cold and immediate. I lean in just enough that he has to look at me. “Do you have a little girl?”
He frowns. “No. Why?”
Something inside me breaks loose. I burst forward through the door. The doorway disappears under my feet.
Suddenly, I’m inside an empty house.
Alone, standing in the dark.
And—
I wake up screaming.
My heart is trying to tear its way out of my chest.
My sheets are twisted around my legs. My fists are clenched like I’m still holding onto something.
For a second, I don’t know where I am.
Then the room comes back into focus.
The walls.
The dark.
The silence.
I sit there, breathing hard, staring at my hands.
I didn’t see what happened next. My mind didn’t let me.