AUTHOR'S PERSONAL NOTE
This all began as an investigation into the events of someone else’s tragedy. I could never have imagined that I could somehow become involved, considering the events I was delving into occurred nearly 20 years ago. I can’t be sure yet, but I may too find myself a victim.
Originally, I had intended the following information to be published in book form. Unfortunately, that will not happen. I was supposed to have more time…but I refuse to remain silent. I have preserved some of the writing as I had prepared it for the book, so anyone who reads this will note: the intro paragraph immediately following this new segment was intended to be the original author’s note that I would have placed at the book’s outset.
Right now, I need to show the world what I can of the events that may have led to my own involvement in this madness. I will of course be posting updates about my own situation if I am able to discover more information about what may be happening to me. For now, I will begin posting the story I really wanted to tell – or perhaps more accurately, the story she wanted me to tell. Because I had not expected to be publishing this on Reddit, I have had to spend a good deal of time deciding what information was most important in an effort to get this all out as quickly as possible. I will include as many photographic supplements as I am allowed to, or feel comfortable enough releasing. Again, this was originally a much longer story, and for that reason have had difficulty in my hasty redaction. I have no choice but to run the remaining material as a series, as its length remains considerable despite my best attempts. (A single post can only be so long.)
I’ll update you all in 24 hours when I am able to post the next portion. For now, I have managed to get at least this far. I am solely responsible for this publication, and stand by this decision. I leave you with my best interpretation of “Ms. Z” and the horror she and her family endured during the fall and winter of 1998.
V. Flynn Lockheart
12/9/2014
PS – If my fears are in fact valid, preservation of this posting may prove difficult.
ORIGINAL AUTHOR’S NOTE
(Formerly Intended for Formal Publication)
Any information that follows has been compiled from personal interviews, private audio and video recordings, as well as some police footage, and any various documents and photographs that I was able to uncover throughout my own investigation into the events. The story you will read here while composed by my own hand, has been edited only for the sake brevity. I have taken artistic license for the sole intent of providing the most detailed and accurate account possible, merely by collecting and combining relevant data from the various aforementioned sources. Names have been changed at the behest of the relevant parties, in order to keep their identities unexposed. As you read, you will notice the story is told from a first person perspective; it should be noted that while this is in truth my own voice – I am only representing to the best of my ability, the true narrator and primary subject of my investigation. This story is intended to be read from the perspective of, “Ms. Z”, the woman who survived these events in the fall and winter of 1998. This is her account. I am simply the man she contacted to tell her story, acting merely as a conduit to write the words that she couldn’t bear to write on her own.
Further information may be released, dependent on public interest, and only upon receiving permission from anyone directly involved with these occurrences.
V. Flynn Lockheart
2014
PART 1
Ms. Z
I wasn’t a well-traveled person by any means before all of this happened to me. I’d spent most of my life growing up in the mid-Atlantic, and the furthest I’d ever journeyed was simply North and South along the Eastern Seaboard. That being said, I can’t be sure if all places in America or other countries have always had this same sentiment in their population, but where I’m from: cheaper is better. My family had been middle class growing up, and although my clothing was never bought used, I can distinctly recall my mother shuffling through the Sunday papers, in a never ending hunt for the coupons she needed to purchase my school clothes and Sunday dresses. But it wasn’t just the clothes that kept her bargain-obsessed brain on the hunt: it expanded to anything and everything that could save our suburban family a buck. And she wasn’t alone in this endeavor. When the local store had a sale, it seemed to me that every family friend and relative I ever knew would bump their shopping cart into ours. It was, and continues to be – on an exponential scale – a region of the country plagued by bargain addiction.
Though I am ashamed to say it now, the trait was passed on to me. By the time I was old enough to be buying makeup, I had accepted with an almost too-natural attitude, that the best deal was king. And by the time I was 25, the internet had matured into a veritable shopper’s haven – and that’s how it all began.
It was 1998 and as I said, I was 25 then. For younger readers (and as a refresher to those of us heading towards the proverbial hill) this means it was the Clinton years: a time where jobs were secure, money flowed and homes came cheap, and 9/11 had not yet occurred. I was a mother to my son “Casey” by the age of 18, so he was 7 by this point and growing and eating as he never had before. Plus, his father and I had split up shortly after his birth and he wanted nothing to do with Casey or myself, and I never wanted child support, my own pride deciding that not even that bastard’s money deserved a place in our lives – in other words, raising my son alone didn’t come cheap. But again, I was a savvy shopper, and the internet had just begun to show its true colors and companies like Amazon and EBay were finding their footholds, and they were lowering prices even more. I wasn’t wealthy by any stretch of course, but, I had worked as a leasing agent for a rental property for quite a while, managing to save some money and even graduated from college (not without some government grants of course) a few years before with a business degree. So, two years prior in 1996 I quit my old job, got a loan fairly easily, and managed to start up a small local bookstore/coffee shop called JavaScripts. The shop had just finally begun to turn a profit, and I found myself with more cash than I’d ever had before. I bought a snazzy computer, and before I’d had it a week – my love affair with EBay had begun. (In case there are still any out there who have never heard of EBay, it’s a massive online auction house where anyone can place bids on, or sell, any and everything imaginable.)
This computer was the first one I’d ever had to myself; I’d gotten to use them plenty in college and for work. Many might agree (undoubtedly for different reasons), that having top-shelf technology and internet access in the privacy of their own home makes for a whole different kind of experience though. And I went overboard. Online shopping became my favored frontier. I started to lose sleep and become increasingly unhealthy by spending untold hours just scrolling through the infinity of EBay’s pages. Buying was like a high for me – and even if what I was getting was used, it was new to me. Best of all though, was how god damned cheap it all was.
I went on like this for weeks until one morning when I was helping Casey get ready for school, he said to me, “26 and 21.” Confused, I asked, “26? 21? What does that mean honey?” He gave me the most stern of little boy looks and replied, “There are 26 packages in our living room, and 21 messages on our machine from your friends, wondering where you are.” He was dressed in a pirate outfit and nearly pouting – it was kind of adorable. But in all seriousness, for those of you out there who don’t have kids, there’s nothing quite like the shame you feel when an adolescent, especially your own child, rightfully reprimands you. I gazed upon the boxes that brought on his accusation; there really was a shitload of them, and I felt ashamed. Casey’s small intervention had an effect on me for this reason, and for at least a little while, I was able to keep frivolous spending to a minimum, though, I still spent a lot of time “just skimming” through EBay. (I did however decide to get him a little gift for being such a great kid. He loved to dress as all kinds of characters, and I knew he’d really enjoy one of those “Detective Kits” that have the outfit and things like magnifying glasses and faux-fingerprint dusters in them.)
But it didn’t last…because shortly after, came the day I found “DEALview”.
When I would find something that I liked from any EBay seller, I’d always click on their username and see what else was in their wares. As this is written in 2014, it is a common thing for user accounts on EBay to have sold thousands and even hundreds of thousands of items throughout their existence; in 1998 though, EBay was still in its infancy, and people had not truly had enough time to accumulate any kind of massive seller history, or open up the massive stores-within-stores or, “EBay stores” as they are now called and who currently represent a dominant presence in the auction-verse. Dealview was a username with hundreds upon hundreds of items for sale, and with a reputable and lengthy seller’s history, certainly much higher than most I’d seen at this point.
I was at work at the shop when I’d found this bizarre seller, and nearly drooling on the keyboard in the back office. This user seemed to have everything I wanted on offer. After just a moment of browsing through DEALview’s vast stock, I noticed something even stranger about many of the current, and past, auction pages: every single item was being sold for 1%-5% of its actual value. Most of the listings were even brand new, or in at least excellent condition, and many were available with the “Buy It Now” option (or, BIN – meaning available for immediate purchase, instead of the usual bidding) at these unreasonably low prices. In case that all isn’t clear, I’ll give some examples. A new big screen TV (the bulky old kind of course) had sold earlier that day for $3.21. A BIN, top-of-the-line, unused hot-tub for $8.21. DEALview was even selling a current year Suburban (yep, the vehicle) with less than 1,000 miles on it for something like $100.
Needless to say, I assumed something was wrong with the website at this point. I even considered that it was some weird joke by the user behind the listings. I’d never heard of someone buying, let alone selling, a brand new fucking SUV for a hundred dollars. So, I contacted the seller through the in-site messaging system. A few minutes later, came the response, which read:
The following is an exact replica of the original message - V.F.L.
To:*****Babe1973
The prices you are seeing are not a glitch, and yes, this is a real account. Have you had a look at our recent sales history and user feedback? If not, have a look. I think our 100% rating should help alleviate your concerns.
Hope you enjoy the shop.
Sincerely,
Everyone at DEALview
(NOTE: There is an image of a crudely drawn, owl-like head with large eyes here in the original message, succeeded by the tagline below. – V.F.L. )
Wise Owl is Always Watching the DEALS!
(NOTE: I was able to convince Ms. Z to attempt a recreation of the owl image. After a great deal of personal duress and hundreds of attempts on her part, I have chosen this as the most accurate.)
After reading the response, I went out to the register, and grabbed one of the guys I had working for me at JavaScripts at the time, named Chris. He had graduated high school the year before, and was a smart, but rebellious kid who I knew spent a fair amount of time on EBay as well. I dragged him by the arm to the back office, and began showing him the EBay user’s sales. He seemed to be as skeptical as I had been at first. Then I had him read through the message from DEALview. His excitement became plain at that point, and he asked me eagerly if I was going to buy the Suburban SUV. “No, I don’t think so. You go ahead!” I told him, as I couldn’t quite believe this was real yet, and figuring if it was a scam, better he lose out on a hundred bucks than me. Still, even then, I didn’t want to wait to find out if this was for real, consumed with want and unwilling to miss this deal of a lifetime. Quickly, he signed in to his own account, clicked the Buy It Now option, paid via credit card, and then had to put in an address - for free delivery. Free delivery? This was all too good to be true. It had to be. I had to force myself to, but I waited impatiently just to find out if his new SUV would actually show up. I did however keep a near constant watch over DEALview’s auction pages – the owl face making an appearance somewhere different on every one. I remember thinking it was a strange mascot, but certainly not strange enough to deter my curiosity. The day soon ended. The next day came and went, and so did the items for sale, countless other online shoppers clearly aware of the unbelievably low prices. I was back at work on the third day, a Friday, and just beginning to think DEALview was probably just some big scam after all. I was on my lunch break and eating lunch at a table near the café window when Chris pulled up in the parking lot for his afternoon shift.
He was driving a brand new Suburban.
I couldn’t believe it. Chris walked in the shop beaming, and I promptly asked him all kinds of questions. He answered energetically. It had arrived at his home that morning, apparently among a few other vehicles, on one of those massive highway-sized vehicle transports. The driver had even been wearing a jumpsuit embroidered with a DEALview logo, and told Chris that the other cars were out for delivery to other EBay buyers as well – each one a DEALview sale.
I immediately left work, and made arrangements with Casey’s friend’s parents and school so he could take the bus home with his favorite friend (I remember hoping he would want to stay there for a sleepover), all in order to spend as much time as I could perusing and purchasing all I could from DEALview. When I arrived home, the Detective Kit I got for Casey was propped against the front door, and I brought it inside. I spent the rest of the day and night clicking and buying. Beautiful framed artworks. A new big screen TV of my own for the living room. Fancy dishware. A treadmill. Even a small bouncy castle for Casey. There were no cars available that day, but I remember searching for one frequently, as new items would pop up by the minute. I truthfully can’t list all the items I purchased that first day, but it had to have been something like fifty in total, maybe more – and I don’t think I spent more than 200 or 300 dollars, when the actual retail value must have been somewhere between $10,000 or $20,000.
Casey stayed the night at his friends as I had hoped, and I went to bed late. The next morning, I returned to EBay and found the DEALview page again. I was exhausted from little sleep. As I clicked through, I remember realizing that most of the things I wanted or needed, I had already bought the previous night. But I bought more anyway – a microwave, an ornate headboard, a multi-setting shower head, and many other things that I didn’t actually need. At the very least, I figured, I could resell the shit I didn’t want for a huge profit on my own EBay page. Late afternoon came in a blink, and I reluctantly went to work, as I had to close up shop that night. I called Casey before closing to see if I had to pick him up, but he wanted to stay with his friend another night. I locked up and left. After returning home, I was beyond tired and just crashed on the couch.
I had Sunday off, so when I got up, I expected to be spending the morning on the DEALview page again. To my surprise, the plethora of goods I had seen over the prior days were gone, and all that remained were many, many listings for vehicles. There was also another message from DEALview. It was clearly a mass message intended for the numerous customers of the EBay shop, informing the recipient that the shop had to unexpectedly close. It continued on to say that for storage reasons, all the remaining vehicles from their inventory had to be liquidated – all for the low, low price of 99 cents. The only stipulation in the sale of the cars, was one per customer per household. I clicked through the listings, and as the message stated, the only remaining auctions (more accurately, sales, as all had the 99 cent Buy It Now option) were for vehicles – the usual myriad of things simply non-existent, gone.
Of course, I bought one immediately. A four door Lexus. I was beyond excited at the prospect of receiving the luxury car, but I was genuinely saddened that my DEALview days were done. I wanted more, even though I had not actually having received a single package yet. Still…I wanted more…
I was pondering my loss, when I heard the sound of a vehicle pull up at my house. Despite the fact that it was a Sunday, a large box-truck looking much like the typical UPS or FedEx sort, was indeed pulled up outside my home. I didn’t think my deliveries would come on the usual day-without-mail. I watched from the front bay window as a man in a jumpsuit with a DEALview logo jogged to my front door. I made the few steps from the window to the door and I opened it to greet him. “Got a bunch of deliveries for a Ms. Z,” he said gruffly, though not wholly unpleasant. “I thought packages don’t come Sundays,” I said with a hint of questioning, but with a smile. Beneath the DEALview name was the owl drawing, this time in patch form. For some reason, and for the first time, the sight of it made me uneasy. All of a sudden his presence just didn’t feel right. Buy why? It couldn’t be just the owl causing this, so I considered other possibilities. I thought it was odd he was delivering packages, sure, but DEALview was clearly a wealthy company and I figured they had a private delivery system or something. It wasn’t the deliveries though. It was the man himself just standing casually on my doorstep that was making me feel strange. He looked at me and smiled. Not ugly, not unfriendly. There was just something about his…aura. I brushed the feeling away. He responded, “Just a DEALview perk. Would you sign here please ma’am?” I did as he asked without much hesitation, and he hopped off the porch. Two other men got out of the truck to assist him. “Just bring them all into the living room!” I called out.
The awkward feeling dissipated slowly as I watched them for perhaps an hour, bringing in the boxes of all sizes, saving the larger and heavier items for the end - and then they were done. They left quickly before I could even attempt to tip them, and I went back toward the computer. Before I could make it to the desk chair though, I stopped. I turned back towards the living room, and just stared at all the boxes and crates adorning my living room. (I hoped that the gift I’d gotten for Casey – among the other few things I ended up buying for him – would stay any more accusations.) Then, I realized that these were just the first round of deliveries. The same strange feeling the delivery man had given me unexpectedly returned. I figured it was just something inside me that was still unconvinced that even the most wealthy or generous of companies would ever willingly forego the potential profit all this stuff could have easily brought them. Theories began to form in my head, an attempt to convince myself once more that my doubts were somehow unfounded. Maybe some eccentric, modern day Siddhartha Gautama had decided to renounce his worldly possessions and wealth under the guise of the mysterious DEALview name. I moved closer to a box on top of one of the stacks. I opened it, and within was the most ornate espresso maker I’d ever laid eyes on, better even than the two I have at JavaScripts. The joy of ownership suddenly filled the space formerly occupied by my now decidedly unfounded doubt and suspicion. I surprised myself as I laughed aloud, giddy with anticipation at the thought of opening the rest; it felt like that Christmas where you got exactly what you wanted.
I decided to check back on EBay before I started the unboxing. In the hour or two since the truck had arrived and left, DEALview’s remaining listings had disappeared entirely from EBay – either purchased by others or taken down completely. I went to my message inbox, and clicked the hyper-linked DEALview username from the notice they’d sent earlier. A new page appeared on the screen, informing me that the user no longer existed. When I’d read the message earlier, I’d felt sad, but with the distraction of getting the car and then the deliveries, I guess it didn’t sink in. It sounds ridiculous now…but I genuinely felt a sense of loss at the prospect of losing any further chances to acquire more things for myself. “At least I got all this,” I thought. “And I’ll still be able to make some extra cash by selling off the next portion of stuff that comes.” The computer room was a little breezeway-type connecting area between the kitchen and living room. I spun in my desk chair, stoically watching the rooms whir around me. When the chair stopped rotating, I was facing the living room, and I took in the sight of the piles of cardboard boxes and wooden crates again.
I should have burned it all right then. I smiled instead.
Part 2
The First Signs
The phone rang then, and startled me out of my daydreaming. I reached out for the corded receiver on the computer desk. It was Casey, telling me he was ready to be picked up. I got dressed and readied to go fetch him, when I noticed the calendar on my refrigerator. In big, red-inked lettering on that day’s date – October 25 – I had written: JOHNNY COMES HOME! “Shit!” I thought, “How could I forget that?” In the DEALview obsession-haze that was the past weekend, I had completely blanked it – and I also realized he was likely going to be furious about the amount of stuff I had bought. (He never liked my often-frivolous spending habits.) Johnny was my boyfriend of a year-and-a-half by then and was coming home from a 2 month stay in China that afternoon, and I was supposed to pick him up. He did travel often, but this had been the longest work-related trip he’d taken in all the time we’d been dating. Johnny was an artsy guy and a reputable brand consultant/graphic designer that ran his own freelance company and being the sole employee, was also a frequent guest on plane rides and hotel beds so he could work face-to-face with his employers from around the country, and recently, around the world. I hadn’t answered any calls since Thursday, so I checked the answering machine and bit my lip in shame, as five or six messages of increasing annoyance in Johnny’s voice played through the crackling speaker. “I’m a terrible girlfriend,” I thought, “but at least not terrible enough to not show up when he lands!”
I snatched up the Detective Kit before I left the house and then I was on my way. I made the short drive to Casey’s friend’s house, and chatted idly with his parents for a bit. I’d also never liked doing the typical “mom stuff” (mom gossip sucks) so I rarely stayed long, and we were gone in a few minutes. After Casey buckled up in the backseat of my late-80’s, ALL- burgundy interior (…and exterior) Tempo, I reached into the passenger side floorboard and charmingly snapped, “Think fast!” grabbing and tossing him the gift as I did. The car rolled along slowly, and I watched his face light up in the rear-view mirror. “COOL! Thanks mommy!” He didn’t call me “mommy” much anymore, so I was confident that I did a good job. He was opening his new toy up and I told him we were going to go pick Johnny up from the airport. Johnny was the first guy I’d ever brought home to meet my son, so he’d been painfully shy around him for months, but they got along well now. “Are we going to see the airplanes too?!” he asked excitedly. I laughed and told him yes, and got on the highway towards the airport.
We picked Johnny up, and he took us all out for a “reunion” dinner. I apologized for not returning his calls, but he wasn’t mad at all. Johnny still didn’t live with us, but stayed the night most weekends and despite it being Sunday (school night for Casey), I invited him over anyway… two months is a long time, if you catch my drift. When we pulled up in my driveway, it was getting dark and Casey had fallen asleep in the car already. Johnny carried him out, and as we got to the front door, I paused before unlocking the door, turning to my boyfriend. I’d almost forgotten about the living room. I felt the nervousness building inside my stomach, feeling sure that Johnny was going to be pissed at my irresponsible spending. I turned up the charm. “Don’t freak out, okay?” I grinned. He gave me a puzzled, coy look and raised his eyebrows, Casey snoring in his arms. His jaw nearly dropped when he saw the amount of stuff in the living room. I told him to take my son to bed before he said anything, and I took the moment he was gone to grab him and I a beer. “What is all this?” he asked, awe-struck, as I handed him the drink. I clinked my glass into his, flirtatiously trying to keep the mood light.
We sat on the couch after clearing a path through the stacks, and I explained everything to him. He seemed to get more and more suspicious as the story continued, but didn’t say anything harsh like I feared he might, asking only for clarifying details instead. (I decided to not tell him about the Lexus at all yet.) “Well, let’s start unpacking then!” he said after I’d finished. I was surprised to say the least. Maybe he was just happy to see me and didn’t want to spoil our first night back together? He smiled, but it seemed forced. “That must be it,” I thought, “He’s just holding his tongue so we can have a good night.” I was happy to get this reaction; after all, I hadn’t spent that much in truth, even if it seemed that way. He moved to stand up and reached towards a box, but I stopped him. “We’ll start after we finish…” I said, trying to act and sound sexy, and then pulled him by the hand towards the bedroom. We were in there for at least 2 hours, but after we were done and had some food, we stayed up until the whole living room was unpacked and every item put in its place. It was fun, and though he seemed a bit distant the whole time, I chalked it up to shyness from having been apart for so long.
The next morning, I was tired when the alarm went off, but got up anyway, happy about the prior night had gone and grateful at least that Casey wouldn’t get to give me a hard time about the formerly-packed living room. He was adamant about wearing his detective suit that day to school, and I let him. We were running late, and I didn’t have much time to admire all the new stuff adorning my home, but Casey noticed immediately and was of course very curious about where it all came from. “I’ll tell you afterschool baby,” I explained. We finished our morning routine, and Johnny left with us, and I dropped each of them off at school and home before heading off to work. I told Chris and my other JavaScripts employees all about the DEALview success, discovering Chris already had told some of them about his own experience. Apparently, two of the others even ordered cars of their own, and I congratulated them. Work went by fast, and I got off around 3, leaving just in time to get Casey off his bus myself, instead of having our neighbor do it.
I lived in same the neighborhood that I used to work for as a property manager/leasing agent before I opened the shop; it was a townhome community in a decent area, and I still got a discount on the rent for having worked at my old job longer than five years.
When I turned onto my street, I didn’t notice it at first.
Suddenly, my heart suddenly sank into my stomach as I approached my home and saw my front door wide open: two jet-black box trucks parked outside. I can’t say for sure if I was scared or angry, but it was probably a bit of both. I sped the short distance to my house and swung into a parking spot beside one of the black trucks. Guys in DEALview uniforms were exiting through the open entrance to the house. I got out of the car, and nearly screamed before I noticed my neighbor tagging along behind the delivery guys.
“Tom?!” I half spoke, half shouted in my confusion. “Ms. Z!” he responded in his typical, overly-cheerful, obnoxious neighbor way. He was about 60 or so, completely bald, and very flamboyant – but harmless and trustworthy all in all. “These nice young men were knocking and waiting for nearly two hours when I finally came out to see what they were up to.” One of the men I’d seen yesterday passed me by with a package in his arms, and smiled. Tom continued, “They said they had a few packages that needed to be dropped off immediately and just refused to come back later; so, I let them in and signed for the packages – but I didn’t expect, ‘a few packages’ to mean THIS MANY!” I started to calm down. Tom had a spare key to my home for emergency use. I knew his intentions were good, and he’d meant no harm in doing this. My relief didn’t last. As another man exited my home to gather up some more boxes, I noticed that owl drawing beneath the DEALview logo on his chest, and felt that same unease from the prior day return once more, even stronger than before. “Sorry, Tom. I thought they’d gone in on their own accord; I didn’t mean to seem angry with you.”
A voice from behind me suddenly spoke, “We’d never do a thing like that, Ms. Z.” I jumped a little as I turned around, startled. It was the guy who’d needed my signature last time. He looked exactly as I had remembered him, but now…I felt something almost sinister in his presence. I chuckled nervously, and scratched the back of my head, avoiding eye contact altogether. “Nearly finished, and we’ll be out of your hair for a while,” he spoke again and left to shut the still-open vertical slider on the back of his black truck. Why did he say “a while”? “Shit, they have to drop off the car still…” I thought.
I noticed that I had goose bumps, but kept my cool and turned back to my smiling neighbor. We spoke for a few minutes, I thanked him, and he went back towards his house just as Casey’s bus arrived. Casey was still in his detective outfit, and had all his detecting tools tucked into his pants. I waved to the bus driver, and gave my little detective a kiss on his head.
The DEALview delivery guys had finished, and we were walking past their box-trucks when Casey pointed to “the signature man” who was looking down at his clipboard, standing and humming (I couldn't make out the song) next to the open drivers’ side door of his black truck. Casey looked up to me and asked, “Who are those guys mom?” Before I could respond, the DEALview employee stopped humming and spoke without even looking up from the clipboard, “We’re the people who bring all kinds of gifts to the good people of the world.” I felt the motherly protection instinct kick in, like my body was telling me to keep my son away from that guy. But Casey happily replied to the man, “You mean like Santa Claus?!” The man looked up at my son, and grinned. “Yes, little guy – just like Santa Claus,” and as he said this, he was tapping the embroidered owl patch on his jumpsuit.
I hurried Casey along, pressing into his back with my palm. He waved to the man, and skipped off towards the front door. My skin was crawling. I remember feeling the same kind of creepy unease that you get as child when you lie in bed late at night – a feeling I hadn’t known in decades.
Just as I was following Casey into the house, I heard something faint behind me and I stopped…it was the clipboard guy…only, he wasn’t humming anymore…but it was the same voice…singing softly instead…
“…He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake.”
I slammed the front door without looking back.
NOTE FROM V.L.F.
I will be posting more of my accounting of Ms. Z soon. I will leave you with this:
Rather than recreating the following portion in story format, I have decided to include a transcript of an audio interview between Ms. Z and myself. This transcript begins just after Ms. Z had finished relaying her account of the above event.
V.L.F. - So after you went inside, what happened?
Ms. Z - I was still really freaked out about the song that guy with the clipboard had been singing, and I called Johnny to get him to come over.
VLF - Did he?
MZ - He told me he'd be over as soon as he could. He got there about an hour later, and I told him about the whole thing. [Ms. Z puts her head into her hands.]
VLF - Everything okay? Do we need to take a break?
MZ - No...no, I'm fine. It's just, this is where things took a turn for the worst, and I haven't discussed any of this in a very long time.
VLF - Let's stop then. We can revisit this later.
MZ - No. I'm fine...this needs to get finished as soon as possible. [returns to story] So, after I told Johnny about what happened, he seemed nervous. I could see it in his eyes. But he told me that I shouldn't think anything of it, and that delivery guys are delivery guys for a reason. I wish I had pressed him more. He knew something was wrong. Then he just held me, and made me laugh and then Casey came into the kitchen where we were sitting. Johnny picked him up and spun him and asked him if he wanted to help us unload the boxes. We hadn't even discussed unloading them before then, and I didn't really feel up to it because I was still shaken from that creep and his singing. Then Johnny told Casey he'd probably find some boxes that had stuff for him in them, as a ploy to get him to help with the unpacking. I said we should just do it tomorrow, but he seemed adamant about getting it done right then. Johnny hated mess, so I figured that was why he wanted to do it, so I gathered my energy and we all unpacked the new deliveries. [Ms. Z stops and stares off into the middle distance, blankly.]
VLF - And then what happened?
MZ - [Shakes her head.] Oh, sorry. Well, I put the few things I wanted to keep in their places and set the others that I wanted to sell in various places around the house to store them until I got rid of them. We went to sleep a few hours later and Johnny stayed too at my request. And then, everything seemed exceptionally normal for a while. I forgot about any misgivings I had had about DEALview after the Lexus came a few days later. A week went by. Another. It wasn't until a month after the delivery guy incident that anything strange happened.
VLF - So, a month goes by, so this would put us at the beginning of December?
MZ - Late November actually, a few days past Thanksgiving.
VLF - Right. So, what was the strange occurrence?
MZ - It was two things actually. Both on the same day. I was off from work by lunch, and drove home, enjoying my Lexus, to relax. Relaxing had been great too, considering I had gotten all that great stuff. Anyway, I pulled into my neighborhood and onto my street. Like I told you earlier, my neighborhood was a bunch of townhomes. As townhomes usually are, they're connected to others without any gaps to separate the different units; my house was in a short row like this at the end of the street, only connected to three other houses. But across the parking lot on the other side, there was a longer row of houses - about 10 or so.
Anyway, when I turned onto my street, there was a U Haul parked outside of each of the 10 houses across from mine, and the houses themselves were partially wrapped in what looked like police tape.
VLF - Wow. Was there some kind of crime?
MZ - That was what I thought at first; but it didn't explain the moving trucks. It was all very bizarre. I parked in my usual spot and went over to talk to one of the neighbors who was sitting on the curb. I knew most of them, seeing as I used to manage the property and was their landlord of sorts for a while. The man I approached had lived there with his wife for over 15 years, so I couldn't imagine he'd just move out for no reason.
After a few minutes of talking with him, he explained to me that all the houses in that strip of 10 townhomes had been condemned by the city, and all the residents had to vacate immediately.
VLF - Were the houses very old?
MZ - Actually, they were only about 25 years old. And as far as I knew, were up to code and certainly not worthy to be condemned. The neighbor informed me that the city had sent some people down with notices that morning, and they also showed up with moving trucks and movers. I should have known something was up when the neighbor finished up by telling me the city was even paying for their relocation along with every other resident in that row of townhomes.
VLF - What did you do? Were you scared for any reason by this?
MZ - I wasn't scared really, I'd say I was more annoyed and confused than anything else. I tried to go up to the leasing office in order to talk to the new property manager that took over when I left. It should have been open at that time, but for some reason, no one was there. Further than that, I didn't know what I could do for the moment. Casey had to be picked up soon and I had to go get him.
VLF - You said there were two things that happened on that day. What was the other?
MZ - [hesitates] ...right. So I picked Casey up, and took him home. I noticed he was wearing his detective outfit again, something he hadn't done in about two weeks. He'd been Superman for Halloween, so he had been acting like a superhero for a while at that point. [laughs softly] I asked him about the outfit, and he just told me there were mysteries that needed to be solved, and I admired how cute he was.
VLF - He sounds like he was quite imaginative at that age.
MZ - He was...he was...
Anyway, we went home and he played detective and I watched TV until dinner time. Casey was out in the front yard and it was almost dark; it was a particularly warm night for November. I called to him and he came running inside, making a "whoosh!" sound and shouting he was now a "Super Detective". I laughed and looked across the street, half the houses already deserted.
Just before I closed the front door behind us, I noticed something shining out in our front yard. His detective kit had come with a little battery operated black light, and Casey had left it on. It was laying in the grass near the street, and I didn't want him to lose it or have it get ruined so I stepped outside to go grab it.
I bent down and grabbed it, waving it over the grass like I'd seen them do on police shows. The sun was totally down now, and its light was easy to see. I spun in a little circle, just being silly and "looking for clues".
I didn't really expect to see anything when I ran it over the street. [She stares down at the table, and picks at the sides of her thumbs. The skin is raw.]
[She speaks softly, and I see her begin to tremble.]It was plain as day under the blacklight. Glowing up from the pavement...like it was staring at me...was the owl. The fucking DEALview owl.
I'm sorry...I'm sorry. [She begins to cry.] I just wish I could forget what that glowing owl on the street brought into my life...what it represented. I...I...I had no idea what was coming...how much more terrible it was than what I imagined it to be.
[The tape ends.]
Submitted December 10, 2014 at 04:07AM by vlockheart http://ift.tt/1waGiTd nosleep
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