Sophia barely escaped jail time, and was slapped with a restraining order that she didn’t care the least about. She bought a new phone and phone number and moved out of state with the boy she’d been dating over the Internet. Swayze was declared sane when the police told the doctors how Swayze behaved on Sophia’s last night.
Sophia didn’t move far at first, just a few hours from home. She knew Swayze didn’t have the ambition or ability any longer to come to her, even if he could find out where she lived. The fear never went away though.
The relations with the boy didn’t last long. He had only been a vehicle, and Sophia thought he understood that from the start. She went further south, and even settled down a while when she got to the warmth. That’s when the letters started. Somehow, Swayze had gotten her address. His letters were easy to rip up. They were words he’d written a thousand times in much cleaner handwriting. Enough time had passed that Sophia could dismiss the letters. She had a different life now.
Swayze too had made life-style changes. These were mainly new highs in his consumption levels, but also included regular access to the Internet. He must have spent hours signing her address to mailing lists. She received junk mail by the bucket full, until the Post Office stopped making deliveries. The Post Office doesn’t pick and choose important letters either, they ship everything back to the sender. Swayze must have known when his own letters came back. By then, he had the phone number to the Rock & Mineral shop she’d opened with her new boyfriend, the man she could see herself marrying. On opening day, Swayze gave the phone number to every call list he could find. By the end of the week, Sophia and her boyfriend had the line disconnected.
Sophia probably could have worked things out, but she was humiliated. Without even telling him, Sophia signed over the Rock & Mineral shop to her boyfriend, found a new career as an Eel Slime saleswoman and left town in the dead of night. She planned this move to rid herself of Swayze forever. She changed her name and changed her history, and didn’t leave a forwarding address. Now Sophia was convinced Swayze had followed his only option, to torment her from the afterlife.
The sun went down, both Sophia and Glenn Danzig were ready for bed. The dog took his spot next to Sophia, and was snoring in a few minutes.
Sophia was not so easily at rest. Glenn Danzig didn’t know the horrors that waited just outside the window. Sophia stared outside for what felt like hours, but no flashing light came. Maybe she missed it. Maybe she had dreamed everything. Maybe the unwelcome nightlight was scared of the dog.
The next night, Sophia heard a bang. The dog heard it too and did a tour of the house, but found nothing. Sophia let Danzig walk around the back yard to be sure. The following night, there was nothing, and still nothing the night after that.
The next night, Sophia had convinced herself the threat was gone. If it was Swayze, he’d burned out his powers and moved on to haunt some corrupt doctor or drug dealer. Sophia laid down in her bed with the dog beside her.
As soon as she turned off the light there was a flash, followed by a piercing scream. There was a few more flashes, and then silence. When Sophia was sure no more flashes were coming, she crawled across the floor to the window and slowly pulled herself up to the sill. Equally slow and groggy, Glenn Danzig did the same. At least Sophia wasn’t crazy.
Dog and girl stopped with their eyes slightly over the glass, peering out into the darkness. Sophia couldn’t see anything. If the dog could see anything, he didn’t let on. A long time passed before she built up the courage to return to bed.
Sophia was running ragged the next day. In her sales appointments, customers stared in confusion as she sputtered and spat out words that did not make any sense in the order she arranged them. Shortly after lunch, Sophia’s boss noticed there was a problem when two customers complained Sophia was on drugs.
He found Sophia half-asleep at her desk between appointments and advised for her sake and the sake of the company she should take the afternoon off. Sophia apologized up and down, and her boss assured her that there would be no repercussions if the event did not repeat. Sophia thanked him and hoped she had enough gumption to get her butt home and in bed.
Concluded Thursday
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