Kristie wasn't totally sure if she was loosing mind or not. Since she had moved in, she was having trouble being able to tell the difference between reality and dreams. The only thing she knew for sure was that the creepy man she called, "The Watcher" had appeared several times at strange times and would just watch her. He would usually show up when she was having sex with her husband, naked or even going to the bathroom. She was too afraid to say anything to anyone, because she knew how crazy it all seemed. So she decided she would just block him out like she would do with her husband when she was mad at him.
It was a Saturday morning and Kristie was sorting through the dirty laundry in the basement, when she found a piece of paper in a pair of Tony's pants. She unfolded the wrinkled printer paper. It was a printout of an old news story about the death of a young couple. Kristie froze in place as her eyes drifted over the picture of the couple. It was the Watcher and the blonde woman from her dream. The article said their names were, Steve and Heather Jones. The article said it was a murder suicide, but Kristie immediately thought about her dream. Or was it a dream? Could it have been a vision of the past? She ran upstairs and grabbed her laptop.
After several minutes of searching for the names of the couple in the article, she was only able to find little bits of the story from 1982. The only thing she could find was what the article had already said. Her curiosity was peaked now. She felt a drive from within to learn more.
Sitting crossed legged on the couch, Kristie thought back to the dream of the repairman barging in and fighting with the Watcher. Well, Steve. The blonde woman she now knew as Heather had looked to be trying to defend her husband when the repairman knocked the gun towards Steve causing him to be shot. The repairman ran off when Kristie woke up from the dream from the noise of the gunshot. Wait, it was the glass shattering on the floor that woke her. But it felt like she heard a gunshot and now Kristie wondered if that's what it actually was. Something wasn't right. Dreams weren't usually this vivid.
Tony came walking into the room with dirty boots caked in dirt. He had been outside working in the yard. As Kristie looked up at him she cringed at the sight. His hair was matted in sweat, his arms stained with dirt and his shirt looked like he had just jumped in a pool it was so wet.
"Hey Honey, What'cha doing?" He asked casually.
"I found that article of the couple that owned the house in your pants and I was trying to see if I could find anything else about them."
"The article never said they owned this house..." Tony said, wondering how she knew that part. He never printed out those details.
Kristie's mind scrambled for an answer. She knew she couldn't say that she saw them in a dream.
"Oh well, I just assumed that's who they were. Am I right?"
"Uh, yes you are..." Steve sensed something was off, but she had acted weird since they moved in, which is why he never showed her the article in the first place.
"So did you find anything?" He asked.
"No. Did you? You clearly did some digging already." She asked, not looking away from the laptop screen.
"Not really. I looked up the former owner of the house and then found the article by searching his name. I think he owned a local business. I kind of ran into a dead-end. Not a lot of records are online from the eighties."
"Hmm." Said Kristie in thought.
Tony noticed her intrigue. Maybe this was just what she needed to get her out of her funk.
"Well, I'm going to head into town to pick up some supplies for work the yard." Tony said as he left the room.
Kristie heard the door close, but was not interested in anything to do with the yard. She continued to search online and the time slipped away from her when she was jolted from her trance by the doorbell. She went to the door, wondering who could be there. Their street didn't get much traffic so she thought it might be a solicitor.
She could see the shadow of someone on the other side of the stained glass as she opened the door cautiously, but a smile quickly appeared on her face when she recognized Trey.
Trey was Tony's younger brother. At 19 he was a year out of high school and not the slightest bit interested in college. In school, he had been a popular athlete, but wasn't quite good enough to get a scholarship. While their parents were willing to help Trey financially, he just had no desire for further education. Since he graduated, he had worked several different jobs including everything from retail to construction. Tony had mentioned having Trey help with the house since he was in between jobs again, but they had never made any final decisions about it.
Kristie opened the door and gave Trey a big hug. "Hey! What are you doing here?"
"Tony told me you needed help fixing up your new house! Didn't he tell you?"
Trey bent down and picked a blue duffel bag off the porch that Kristie hadn't noticed. It had been a few months since she last saw Trey and he looked like he had put on about twenty pounds of muscle. She noticed the veins stand out on his forearms as he clutched the large bag.
"Um, yeah. It must have slipped my mind." Kristie said as Trey walked in the house without being invited.
Kristie closed the door. "So what's in the bag?"
Trey dropped the bag with a thud on the hardwood floor. "It would be easier, if I just stayed here while I am helping out, right?" Without waiting for an answer, he continued, "Where my room?"
Kristie liked Trey alright, but he was a bit of a trouble maker and Kristie didn't want him staying there. That would be on Tony though.
"Upstairs and to the right." Kristie said.
Trey grabbed his bag and headed up the stairs. Kristie noticed the way his tight jeans stretched over his hard ass. At the top of the stairs, Steve stood there with a big grin on his face. She quickly diverted her eyes and pulled her cell phone out of her pants and went to the kitchen to call Tony.
"No Honey, I didn't tell him he could stay. I didn't even tell him for sure about helping. I will be home in a bit and I will clear everything up." Tony told his wife over the phone.
Kristie sighed in relief and set the phone down on the kitchen counter.