Chapter 32
Thirty-Two
Unknown
I smile because there’s nothing like a perfect smile, is there?
I can’t help but let that smile turn into a laugh as I glance up at Seventeen Bramble Avenue, in the hope of catching a glimpse through the windows at the ball I’ve started rolling.
The lights go off, one by one. Panic is setting in but they won’t do anything.
Why? Because I have all the power. I create the game, I make the rules and the price of losing is hell.
No one ever wants their compromising videos sent out into the world.
The woman next door turns her porch light on.
I lean against a tree opposite, one of the many that don’t stand next to a street lamp.
I hold my phone to my ear and start walking up and down as if talking on my phone.
No one suspects a person who is always there, always in plain sight, and most of all, always wearing a smile.
Only this time, I don’t have to smile. She takes no notice at all and leaves an empty milk bottle on the doorstep before going back in.
I’m average. I’m normal. I’m like you or your neighbour. I’m not extraordinary but I’m not a no one that shrinks into total insignificance. A woman passes and smiles. I enjoy smiling back.
‘All right,’ she says, not expecting an answer because she’s now about to turn a corner.
She’s hot. I wonder what she might look like on camera. After she’s passed, I slap my own hand. That is not the person I want to become. I have morals and standards that must be obeyed, if not, what does that make me? I. Am. Not. A. Monster.
Stop it, I tell myself. There’s a lot of work to do. These distractions are getting me nowhere. There’s a time and a place but it’s not now. Ugh, there’s blood under my fingernail. I take a tissue from my pocket and wipe it off.
The camera on my phone is rolling. Action. Let’s just get the door in and the number, all from afar. There’s a doorbell camera and I can’t be caught on it. No cameras around the back – I checked – just a long path between gardens and plenty of space to park the van close by.
Let the show begin.