Haunting-Adeline

And without a concern in the fucking world, he slowly turns and walks
away. The darkness reaches out and grabs ahold of him, swallowing him
into its depths un l he’s vanished completely.
When the cruiser shows up, I already want him to leave. For reasons I
can’t quite explain, I regret calling the police. I just… want him to leave.
The cop is an overweight man with short blonde hair and a ruddy face.
He looks like he wants to be anywhere but here.
I feel the same exact way.
“What’s going on here, ma’am?” he asks, huffing and puffing as he
makes his way up the front porch.
“A man was outside my window,” I say shortly.
“O-okay,” he says, drawing out the O. “Has this happened before?”
I tell him that I’ve made several police reports that came up missing, but
that this man has been coming around and breaking into my house for the
past couple of months. A er telling him of the previous experiences, he
pulls out his pad and starts wri ng out the report.
“You said your name was Adeline Reilly, correct?”
“Yes.”
He pauses from wri ng and looks at me as if he’s seeing a different
person.
“Aren’t you the one that had Archibald Talaverra go missing off your
porch?” he asks, looking me up and down, pausing on my chest for a
second too long, as if my ts are going to give him the answer.
“Yes,” I bite out, growing impa ent.
He hums in response and goes back to wri ng his report.
“You think it was the same guy?”
“It’d be pre y fucked if it wasn’t,” I mu er. When the cop just side-eyes
me, I sigh. “Yes, I do.”
He stops wri ng a er that and asks me a few more customary ques ons.
Do you have a descrip on, do you know who he might be, and so on. I give
him all the informa on I have, except what’s most important.
I don’t tell him about the text messages. I don’t know why, but they
feel… private. Which is fucking stupid. Makes no sense, but I can’t bring
myself to say anything. The police officer leaves with absolutely no helpful
informa on. But he s ll leaves with a police report, and that’s what’s
important.