He knew it would not last. He knew it would not stand. But Matt did not know what else to say. Sleepwalking was common enough that people apparently made jokes about it on videos on the internet but spontaneous sleepwalking? And both his children together?Compared to his wife, Matt thought he was doing a good job of reigning it in. He went around the room inspecting things, what he expected to find, he had no idea. He admitted to himself that nothing made sense and that scared him. He knew he had to do something, supposed to do something, but what? So, he paced.Finding that it did not help, not him or Emmy, he went to check on Gina and Jean. Emmy had already done it. He did it anyway. First to the older daughter’s bed. He checked if she was comfortable then put a blanket over her. He felt her forehead and was relieved that she wasn’t burning up.Next, he went to where Jean lay. She was already under the covers so Matt didn’t have much to do e

Matt came back close to noon and set about preparing the materials he needed for what he planned to do. First, he hauled of a bunch of 2x2’s from the back of the pickup truck and laid it in front of the house. Next, he carried several bags with him and placed it near the lumber. He had several rolls of wires, boxes of screws and nails, boxes of lightbulbs, electrical tapes, and two cheap CCTV cameras.He did not purposely buy the cheap cameras. He asked for something easy enough to set up and was offered those. He could not understand the manual as it was all in Chinese but the man at the store showed him what to do and how to install the software. He showed him the different modes and told him about the limitations. The rep tried his hardest to upsell a better model to Matt but since most of them worked only with home Wi-fi networks and he didn’t have one set-up yet, Matt ended up with the cheapest. The rep was still okay, considering all the other purchases. He

While Matt worked outside after she served him the snacks, Emmy noticed that her daughters started arguing. The TV programs from the broadcast channels had bored them. It was close to five in the afternoon and there were only dramas and reruns showing.Since no one was watching anymore, she turned the TV off and turned the radio on. Some music in the house would do them all some good, she reasoned. The reception from the stations were spotty, however, and Jean started pestering her to play her DVD instead. She relented. Gina fell asleep on the couch shortly after. Out of boredom, Emmy thought.Emmy only wanted to ensure they weren’t out of sight. As long as they were within range, she could act when needed. When Matt came in announcing he had gotten rid of the smell, she barely registered what he was saying. Absentmindedly, she proceeded to cook while her thoughts kept repeating her fears. Emmy dreaded nightfall.The only difference from the supper they ha

Then there was smoke. Or something like it. Matt let the feed play at normal speed so he could check it closely. Then he played it again at twice the speed. His brows knotted.It wasn’t smoke. It did not behave like smoke. It appeared in different places, captured in different angles but they did not move like smoke would. Even the cloud of smoke that appeared in one area moved in several different directions, splitting into thinner veins.Fog? He discarded the notion. It was not thick enough and this place was never foggy. It was also high enough that if it were a fog bank, it would have covered the ground and hidden the tree trunks. The feed buzzed out.Matt almost jumped out of his chair as the sudden, jarring change in the video changed from normal picture to white noise, then to black. It buzzed out several times, changing from black to white to gray then settled on white. He was not prepared for it. Matt played the video at twic

The very first thing Matt did after showering was to call his phone provider. He wanted to know more about the coverage of his plan and options for upgrading. The rep on the line who spoke broken English was just too happy to help. Matt ended up upgrading to unlimited everything – calls, texts, and interned. It cost him an additional hundred and ten dollars plus taxes and a renewed contract good for two years.He was also, apparently, getting a new phone in the mail because of the upgrade. All free, with a new number, and with basic plan of two hundred and fifty minutes, a hundred text messages, and a gigabyte of data a month. When he asked if he could change numbers from the phone he had to the one that was coming, he was asked to call back to do the transaction once he had the phone with him.During the course of the call, Matt was almost ready to drop the line and call again because of the rep. Not only did he have trouble understanding the rep, the rep also k