Carter’s funeral took place two days later.  All Martha saw during the service was black.  All the guests were blurred in Martha’s mind. She did see Anne, but Richard didn’t show up even though Martha told him, with Jasper’s permission.  She knew he wouldn't come since he was out of town, but he still needed to know.  After all, he was still Carter’s principle. Teegan hasn’t said a word since he found out. He wouldn’t talk to anyone and his face lost all emotion.  If someone said something to him, Teegan would just stare at them with a blank face. Martha didn’t push him. She knew he needed time to grieve and she let him grieve in his own way.  

Brick walked around the house looking for Carter and was confused when he couldn’t find him.  Martha tried continuing house work and just cried off and on all day long. She still wondered how Carter could have ingested so much gluten that it killed him in an hour.  She had been extremely careful to avoid this. It just didn’t make sense.

Jasper and Martha skipped their first day of therapy.  Their relationship wasn’t their first priority anymore.  They were there for each other during this grieving process and that is what mattered.  Carter was both of their son and they loved him equally. Yes, they did argue and the idea of divorce had come up, but they couldn’t break Teegan more than he already was.  He had just lost his brother and his best friend, they couldn’t bare for him to loose the comfort of his parents as well.

“Jasper, we need to stay strong for Teegan!”  They were in the kithcen. Martha was crying again.  Their frustration was getting the best of them.  “If he sees us fighting it is just going to make things worse!”

“Everything is going wrong!  What happened to our lives? Carter is dead!”  Jasper was crying too. Jasper doesn’t cry. Martha had been with Jasper for ten years and she has only seen him cry one other time, and that wass when the miscarriage had been announced by their doctor.  

“I know that, but we have to protect Teegan.  He doesn’t even talk to anyone anymore. He won’t even talk to me.  Do you know how that makes me feel? He used to always come to me with his problems because he was afraid that he would get in trouble by you.  It’s like he doesn’t trust me anymore.  It feels like I've lost both of my sons.”

Teegan was always a sensitive boy. He took things to heart more that any other boy his age. He was afraid to confess his mistakes, but he did anyways and Martha knew that it took him time to confess.  She always gave him the time to talk to her and she knew to be patient. Teegan always knew he could trust his mom, but this was a completely different situation.

Teegan came walking in, Brick following him.  Jasper and Martha immediately stopped talking to each other and looked at Teegan, hoping for some kind of reaction.

“How are you doing, Teegan?”  Martha knew it was a stupid question to ask and she knew that Teegan wouldn’t answer her.  It was worth a try. She didn’t want to push him, but she also didn’t want to give up on him.  She was there to support him as much as she could.

Teegan just looked at her with his blank eyes.  He opened the fridge, grabbed a bottle of water, and walked out without saying a word.  Martha heard his feet climb up the stairs into his room. Then she heard his door close.  It was 8:00 at night, but it was still a little early for bed. The past two days Teegan has been going to bed before it was completely dark out.  Martha knew that he just laid on his bed looking at the ceiling until his eyes drifted into a restless slumber.  He was in shock.

Back downstairs, Martha and Jasper continued their conversation.

“Teegan is desperate for us at this time.  He needs us now more than ever. I know it doesn’t show in his face, but we can’t be fighting in front of him.  He can see the anguish in our faces and we have to change that. There is something happening to our family. Someone is watching us and someone is out to get us. We have to be extra careful of what we do and who we talk to…” Martha trailed off.  She looked out the kitchen window, and there it was again. The figure that has been haunting her.

Jasper looked over at Martha, wondering why she stopped mid sentence.  His eyes followed hers out of the window.

It was standing in the same spot.  Just standing there. It didn’t have claws like in her dreams, and it’s eyes weren’t hollow, but it still had that creepy feel to it.  It just stared directly at Martha.

Martha heard the door open and she saw Jasper running outside.  Not caring that she was bare foot, Martha ran after him, calling his name even though it was pointless.  It was in Jasper’s nature to want to protect his family, no matter how screwed up it was at the moment.

The wild goose chase began.  As soon as the figure saw Jasper running toward him, he took off running as well. Martha was not a runner, but with the adrenaline that she felt, she thought that she could run a marathon.  She caught up to Jasper, but she couldn’t see the figure anymore.

“Where... did… he go?”  Martha was huffing and puffing, but she didn’t want to give up.  She was determined to confront it.

“I saw him turn left up ahead.”  Jasper was in good shape so he sounded like he wasn’t running when he spoke.  She should’ve been playing more soccer with her family, rather than being naughty with the  principle. No, she couldn’t think about that right now. She was trying to catch a stalker.

They got to the next street and turned left.  Both of them came to an abrupt stop. There was nobody on the street.  Not one single person. The figure was gone.

“Where did he go?”  Jasper wondered in disbelief.  How could he have lost him?

“I thought you were watching him,” Martha snapped at him, right away she regretted saying it.

“We were chasing him together.  How could you have lost him?” Jasper didn’t mean to blame it on Martha, but it was just so easy to blame other people when the frustration levels were higher than manageable.  All they ever did was fight now, blaming each other for even the dumbest things.

“Don’t you dare go blaming this on me.  I make one mistake and suddenly everything is my fault?  You want to blame Carter’s death on me too?” Martha’s stomach dropped as soon as she said it.  She knew she had taken it too far, but she was frustrated.  The stress and grieving were too much for the both of them. Martha felt bile rising in her throat again.  She ran to a nearby bush and threw up the little dinner that she had eaten. Lately it seemed like she was throwing up more than what she was taking in.  Anne did say something about the flu going around. Maybe Martha had caught that bug too.

Jasper’s frustration immediately disappeared and walked toward Martha, taking a deep breath.  Even though he wasn’t happy with anything that was going on in their lives, he still hated seeing Martha sick.  

“Let’s get home before Teegan knows we are gone.  The last thing we need is him thinking we left him alone without saying anything.  We should also call the police.” Jasper and Martha headed home in silence. Martha was still out of breath so she couldn’t talk well anyways.  Now, her stomach felt sick and bubbly. 

They walked in and Teegan was still in his room.  He didn’t even know they were gone. He was probably, hopefully, asleep by now.  

Martha went up to the bathroom to brush her teeth.  The after taste in her mouth lingered and it was really nasty.  While she was brushing she heard Jasper downstairs talking to the police on the phone.

“Yes, it was a man standing right outside our apartment staring into our window”...”We don’t know who he is”...”This isn’t the first time that he’s been here”...”I don’t know, maybe 5’ 2”  normal built. I couldn’t see his face. He’s been coming when it’s too dark out…”

Martha’s phone started to ring.  She went downstairs, but missed the call.  It was Anne. What could she want this late at night?  Did she see her and Jasper running after a random stranger?  She was about to call her back when she noticed she had a voicemail instead.  She didn’t really want to talk to anyone anyways so she dialed the voicemail instead.

“Hey Martha, it’s Anne.  I am really sorry about Carter.  If there is anything that I can do to help, just let me know.  I mean it Martha, I am here for you. I also wanted to let you know about Richard.  You asked me the other day if the conference confirmed his arrival. They called me at school today and told me that he hasn’t checked in at the hotel.  I looked into it further and it looks like he didn’t even get on the plane. Do you know where he is? Let me know.”

The line went dead.  Anne sounded normal. She didn’t even sound the least bit sympathetic towards Carter.  Maybe she was still in shock. Everyone grieves differently. Martha wasn’t worried too much.  Maybe Richard decided not to go and have a staycation at home. Some people need alone time after a break up.  Martha knew that Richard didn’t love her, but maybe he was starting to miss her anyways.

Jasper was still on the phone with the police, so Martha slipped into the privacy of the bathroom to try and call Richard.  It went straight to voicemail. He must really not want to be bothered. She texted him instead, “Haven't heard from you since the break up.  Hope everything is OK.” She deleted the message before she sent it.  She had broken up with him. She wasn’t suppose to notice things like that.  

She was about to put her phone away and head to bed when it buzzed in her hand.  She stayed in the bathroom, but was afraid to look. Martha hasn’t told Jasper about the new messages or the photos yet.  With everything else happening she was afraid of his reaction. She took a deep breath and looked down at her phone. UNKNOWN NUMBER

ARE YOU SCARED YET??