American Devil

Chapter 21: The Haunting Past

A storm is brewing outside. The night air is chilly, the clouds rolling in. There's an echoing sound of thunder in the distance, a sign of imminent danger approaching. Nicholas does not notice any of this, however, and falls asleep in his warm bed next to his wife.

The silence inside their house is broken by the sound of a phone ringing throughout the house. Nicholas is so deeply asleep that he doesn't even hear it. On the other hand, when his wife does, it wakes her up, agitated. "Who's calling in the middle of the night?" She grumbles as she lifts herself onto her elbows and looks at the bedside table where her husband's phone is incessantly ringing. She could not make out the caller ID from so far away.

She turns her gaze to her husband, dead to the world, off in dreamland. She's jealous that he isn't here right now, all because of his phone. She hits him, not too gently, and he startles awake, instantly sitting up.

"What?" he asked. He mumbles, still half asleep, looking at her questioningly. She points to his glowing phone. He wakes up more at that, grabbing for it to see who it could be. The ID identifies the caller as Angela. What could she possibly want now?

"How are you?"Nicholas answers the phone call, curious.

What about Nicholas? It's Angela. " She says, a little out of breath.

"Hello, Angela, What's up? Why are you-" She interrupts him before he can ask any more questions.

Listen, Nicholas. Something happened, there's something strange going on, and I don't know how to explain it. It's been such a mess, I don't even know where to start. I'm shaking so badly right now. " It's Nicholas's turn to interrupt her.

Angela, take it easy. You're making absolutely no sense. Take a breath. " He tries to calm her down, and he hears her loud inhale. His wife nudged him, probably wondering what was going on. He's wondering too, so he just shrugs at her. She turns around to the other side at this and shoves her head back into her pillow, deciding that sleep is far more important than whatever conversation Nicholas is having. Nicholas tunes back into the conversation as Angela starts speaking again.

"He is aware."

"Who is he?"Who's he? And you know what? What are you talking about? " Nicholas is painfully confused. He would love to hang up on Angela and go back to sleep, but he knows that whatever had scared her must have been something pretty important. They'd worked together for long enough that he knew she would never overreact to something.

Everything is fine. He knew everything. From my personal information to where I live and which cafes I frequent, absolutely everything. He's been stalking me. "

Are you being followed? Angela, did you report this to the police? " He asks as he gets up out of bed and moves towards the window, his voice now worried for her safety. Rain has finally started to fall. Lightning flashes outside.

"Of course not!" says one. She responds, sounding even more frantic now. You don't get it, Nicholas. He knew everything. About everything we did too. "

"Can you tell me exactly what we did?"He asks for clarification. "Our charity work "Or not?"

"He knew about Miles, that he was alive, Nicholas." How could he have possibly known about that? Every single witness died in that fire, so how did this guy figure it out? Do you think Miles — " Nicholas cuts her off before she can start spewing nonsense.

Not. Miles would never sell us out. Besides, he's got far more to lose than we do. He's done a hell of a lot more than we have. But Angela, who is this guy? Did you recognize him? "

"No, I have no clue who he is. He just showed up. He threatened to kill me and my family if I didn't give him what he wanted, and I had to. Nicholas, I'm sorry, I didn't want to die. I didn't want my family to die." She starts sobbing into the phone now, and Nicholas feels a cold sweat wash over him, panic rising.