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2
LUKA
Seven o’clock. She’ll be sitting down to dinner by now.
A glimpse out my kitchen window confirms this. I can see straight into her kitchen from here. The thin curtains on her window allow me to watch as she sits down with her meal at the small table. Our houses are laid out the same, but there is a difference between my dark, almost sterile kitchen and hers: she’s decorated it to the hilt, like the rest of her house. It’s a wonder there’s room for her to turn around, much less cook a meal with a fully decorated tree in one corner and racks of homemade cookies cooling on virtually every flat surface.
She’s a creature of habit, following the same pattern every evening. After this, she’ll spend more time baking, then sit down to a holiday movie in her living room. Last night she wrapped gifts at the same time. I assume she has a large family or a lot of friends, considering the stack of boxes already colorfully wrapped.
She doesn’t bother closing the front curtains, preferring to show off her enormous, shining living room tree. Does she realize how dangerous that is? With all those presents lying around, all it would take is the wrong person getting a look inside. The next thing she knows, she could be robbed blind.
The girl needs help. Lucky for her, I’m the man to provide it. She doesn’t know it, and that’s by design. I’ve never been one for small talk, and even if I was, I wouldn’t share the confidential details of my former job. One in which it behooved me to learn as much as I could about my clients and the people they needed protection from. I’m sure if I were to even hint at her needing protection, she would laugh it off before adding yet another ridiculous light-up reindeer to her front lawn.
It’s so bright I hardly need lights in my house, thanks to the ambient glow shining through my windows. These past few months, my opinion of her hasn’t changed. She’s a little strange. Quirky. At first, I figured her overly friendly act was just that—an act, the persona she puts on. But no one can maintain that level of energy for months on end without showing a single crack in the I. If anything, she’s only gotten worse, more determined to make friends and to cheer up the neighbor I’m sure she sees as a grouch.
She has no idea who she’s dealing with. If she did, she wouldn’t waste her time on me.
Outside her house, everything’s quiet. I have yet to catch whoever’s been fucking with her decorations. At first, I decided to let it go, telling myself that it’s her problem. However, if she’s going to be up on a ladder trying to replace the damaged strings of lights, I need to put an end to it before she breaks her neck. I have a few security cameras in the garage I never bothered putting up because, let’s face it, this neighborhood is perfectly dead. Not that I mind. I had enough excitement before I unofficially retired.
Maybe it’s time to break them out.
Only the rumbling of my stomach is enough to distract me from my silent, lonely vigil. I head back to the kitchen to heat up something from the freezer when movement outside the window stops me in my tracks. At first, I figure it’s somebody cutting between our houses to reach the ones whose backyards face ours, something people do all the time rather than walking down to the corner, then around. In this weather, I can’t blame them.
But no, they’re not moving much, and instead of walking upright, they’re bent at the waist.
I open the back door quietly, hoping to catch them before they run. Unfortunately, they’re close enough to the rear of the house to hear it, and I’ve barely stepped off the back stoop before they take off at a run.Damn it.I watch their retreating figure, my breath hanging in a fog around me, thanks to the frigid air. Whoever they are, the size of their bootprints tells me they’re a grown male.
I thought it was just kids fucking around. Now I’m not so sure.
“Hello?” I freeze like a scared rabbit at the sound of Noelle’s voice. She steps out through the kitchen door, rubbing her arms, shivering as she scans the area. God, she’s beautiful, the moonlight reflecting off the snow turning her blonde hair platinum. “Who’s out there?”
She turns my way before I can escape. The recognition that touches her face and turns confusion into anger makes my heart sink. “You! I should’ve known!”
“What?” Confusion laces my voice.
“It’s been you all along! Messing with my lights.”
I didn’t expect this. She’s got me at a loss. “I’m—”
“Don’t bother trying to make up a lie. I’ve seen you with my own two eyes.” Baby blues which now well up with tears while her face goes beet red and her chin quivers. “Just because you’re a miserable grinch doesn’t give you the right to screw with other people’s Christmas spirit! How could you?”
“Hang on, damn it.” But it’s too late. I’ve covered half the distance to her back door, but she’s already inside, slamming it hard enough that some of the snow on the overhang plops to the ground.
In my mind’s eye, I see myself kicking that door down. She’d whirl on me, gasping, stunned that I would make a move like that—because she doesn’t know me, does she? She doesn’t have the first idea of what I’m capable of. What I’ve done in the past.
How many nights I’ve spent fighting the impulse to go over there and make myself part of her life?
Instead of breaking down the door and setting her straight, I turn around and trudge back to my kitchen door. The fact is, she doesn’t need me to be a part of her life.
And if she knew me, really knew me, she wouldn’t want any part of my darkness.
3
NOELLE
Funny how what seems like a good idea at the time can look like anything but by the next morning.
I shouldn’t have freaked out without waiting to learn the facts. Just because Luka was outside doesn’t mean he was messing with my decorations. I was too quick to charge.
