Emily was sitting on the steps of her house when she first encountered him. She was just waiting for her friends to come and get her when he came up to her. Emily didn’t know who he was, she had just seen him around the neighborhood. Emily was only about 75% sure that he lived down the street from her. She had never actually talked to him before, but her mom had always taught her not to be impolite to people. Though then again she had also always been told not to talk to strangers, she wasn’t sure though which if the man fell into the stranger category.
He seemed just like the rest of Emily’s neighbors, normal and maybe a bit of a loner. She thought his name might be Mr. Johnson or Mr. Jones, something like that. Emily couldn’t even remember a time where she had seen him talking to someone. Though she could remember seeing him walking around by himself plenty of times. She, herself enjoyed sitting on her porch at night and watching the sunset. She did it almost every night and she usually saw him taking a stroll around the neighborhood around the same time. He was about middle-aged, maybe 35 years old. He had brown hair, slightly gray around the edges and rather striking features. It was surprising that he wasn’t married, considering how good looking the man was. It was even more surprising that he had managed to stay off the radar of all the single moms in the neighborhood, normally they’re first to prey on a single good looking man.
There were a lot of things that Emily questioned about the man who she was now 100% sure lived in the corner house. She had seen him walking out of it one night when she had been outside a little earlier than usual. Emily watched him nightly as he walked past her. He would usually just walk right past, without even glancing in her direction. But tonight was different, tonight he came and talked to her. He didn’t ask anything other than the usual, same mundane questions that every teenager gets asked by adults, ‘How is school?’, ‘Does she like her friends?’, ‘Are her grades good?’, you know the usual. But for some reason she didn’t feel comfortable standing there alone with him. Maybe there was something about the way he stared at her. His eyes never left her face and that pure concentration made her feel uneasy. She soon found herself fidgeting as they talked, eyes constantly looking up and down the street; praying her friends would show up already. When her friends finally did show up, she politely excused herself and ran down to the car. As they drove away, she could still feel his eyes watching her.
Emily continued to watch the sunset every night, watching as the man walked past her night after night. But it was different now, now his eyes would stare at her as he walked past, not leaving her figure until he too far away for it to be normal for him staring. Although the staring made her uncomfortable, she never said anything. She was a beautiful teenage girl, it was almost normal for her to be stared at. Even if this stare seemed to hold something different than all the other stares she got from guys. Emily knew if she told her mom, she would just be told that she was being silly, that there was nothing different about the man, he was just quiet and unusually shy. Maybe if she had told her mom, things would have turned out differently for her.
It was a week later that Emily was pronounced missing. She had gone out just like every night to watch the sunset, but she had never come inside. Her mom was frantic in her search for Emily. There were almost no clues as to where the girl could be. She wasn’t likely to run away, had good grades, and seemed to live a pretty happy life. And that left the police with only one, tragic conclusion, Emily had been abducted.
No one could figure out who would have taken her. None of the neighbors had seen anyone strange around the neighborhood. Every neighbor when questioned said the same thing, ‘No one here would ever do such a thing.’ With only the little information the neighbors provided them with they didn’t have much to go on. It really seemed like a dead end for them and they were beginning to lose hope that they would ever find Emily.
When weeks later there was still no sign of the girl people began to forget about it. They all still sympathized with the mother, but it wasn’t their biggest concern anymore. They all felt like it was an isolated incident, something that wasn’t likely to happen again. But they were all wrong.
One week later, an exact month since Emily’s abduction, a little boy from the neighborhood went missing. Jason had been playing outside, waiting for his mom to call him inside for lunch when he disappeared. Jason’s mother had gone outside to call him in for lunch, but she couldn’t find him. At first she thought he was just playing hide and seek, but when ten minutes later she still couldn’t find him she knew something was wrong.
The neighbors later could be heard saying that they had heard her scream all around the block, it was so loud and full of anguish. It didn’t take long for the neighbors to all be gathered at Jason’s house, trying to make it look like they were comforting the distraught mother, but were actually trying to get information from the police. Even with their nosy personalities they were all silent when the police showed up five minutes later, letting the mother tell them the story without a word. Everyone was hanging on every single word the woman said, waiting to hear more information, hoping to figure out who would abduct two innocent children, who would disturb their peaceful neighborhood so horrifically.
No matter how much the police questioned the neighbors and how much they questioned each other and silently watched each other, they weren’t any closer to figuring out who would do something like this. It didn’t make sense to them. They had all known each other for years, with the exception of the man on the corner who had moved in only a couple of years ago. But he didn’t strike any of them as someone who would do something so horrible. He may be a bit odd and reclusive, but he wasn’t a kidnapper, they were all sure of it.
The police questioned every one, over and over again. They refused to let up for three weeks, desperate to find the little boy. But once again they came up with no leads, the case slowly drifting out of people’s minds again, leaving two devastated mothers and two missing children.
The case didn’t get any other clues until a month later when instead of a child, a grown woman went missing. She had been on her morning jog when she disappeared. Once again no one had seen anything. Police went through all the neighbors, questioning everyone over and over again but they kept coming up with dead ends. It was like the people were just vanishing into thin air. No one ever saw anyone and there was never a trace of the people who had been abducted. The police were actually starting to lose hope that they would ever find the person doing the horrendous crimes.
This time though the case didn’t fade from their minds. Three people all abducted from the same neighborhood wasn’t a coincidence and the police were h*ll bent on figuring out what happened. They wouldn’t rest until they had the case solved, they owed it to the families, the neighbors, and even at this point themselves.
They had figured out that it was every month that someone was being abducted so they got ready, they knew they had to have all eyes out when that day came. The police set up numerous plans and stakeouts in practice. They weren’t letting the kidnapper go free again, they couldn’t. This was a neighborhood that never had crime, they needed to return it to its peaceful life.
When the day finally came around the police had several people staked out around the neighborhood, all prepared to finally end the terror that had come over this serene place.
It was the early hours of the morning when the police noticed a man start to walk up and down the street, like he was waiting for something. They watched him for a good ten minutes before someone moved in to confront him. Before they got a chance to the man turned and quickly walked into the house on the corner.
The police all found it suspicious and got a court order to let them search the house. Normally it wasn’t something that the judge would allow, a court order on something so small but she also wanted this case solved as quickly as possible.
The police were at the house on the corner in under 30 minutes, happy to see the car in the driveway. They knocked on the door once and without waiting for the man to answer the police forcefully ended. They stalked through the house, shouting clear as they checked every empty room and moved their way upstairs. That rhythm was interrupted with a loud scream as they moved to the second floor.
They had yet to find the man, but a woman police officer entered a room and was greeted by a sight she wasn’t likely to ever forget. In the room the man had his victims propped up in sitting positions, the little boy playing with toys, the girl having a tea party, and the woman appeared to be watching them. It was the most horrifically creepy things any of them had ever seen. It took them a good while to be able to move on from the sight and try to find the man.
They had no luck until they reached the attic, finding the man curled up in the corner, gun in hand. He had shot himself the day that he saw the police all around the neighborhood. He knew he was about to be caught and had no way of escape, instead he killed himself in hopes to be with his ‘friends’ forever.
Although people were angry that they didn’t get justice on the man, they were happy that their peaceful neighborhood was soon returned to serenity.