64 Hours

The Second Epiphany

~the 54th hour~

"We stopped searching under our beds for monsters when we realized that they were inside us." -Charles Darwin.

"There is no way that that's possible, Adam," My best friend from high school, Lucas, told me with wide eyes after I had told him the long account about Unknown and his/her messages. We were in Costa, sipping on coffee's, both sleep deprived.

We were both dead tired for different reasons; Lucas worked through the night from 11 PM to 7 AM, while I spent my nights tossing and turning, worrying about my family's safety. I would rise up from my sleep almost every few hours to check on Bella and Aria in a paranoid manner.

"Well, it is now," I said deftly, gripping the black coffee between my palms fiercely. Lucas was staring at my pale knuckles.

"So apparently this freak managed to hack into your phone and block you from the police, send threats, and also hack into some TV network thing just to scare you?" Lucas confirmed with disbelief in his voice, while I clenched my fists at my sides at the truth. It sounded worse when he said it out loud.

"Mhm." I took a long sip, even though the coffee was flaming hot as I ignored the scorching liquid that poured down my throat absently. Lucas had my phone in his hands, scrolling down the texts that Unknown sent me as evidence.

"This is serious, bro."

I frowned. "Don't call me that. Especially not now."

"Did you tell Aria?"

"No!" I said a bit too loudly, receiving stares from everyone around me. "No," I repeated more quietly, dropping my eyes to the table. "She can't know. It'll only worry her."

"Better be safe than sorry, Adam. Life would be better if she was alert." Lucas stated, pouring two whole packets of sugar into his coffee. I watched as the shiny crystals soared into the steaming cup.

"Listen to me." I snarled each word individually. "You are the first person that I've told in a day. This sociopath threatened to aggressively kill my niece if I called the police. So, okay, if Aria knows the danger she's in as well as her daughter then her number one choice would be to call the police. Right?"

"Dude — bro, whatever, who said that the same rules applied to your sister? Look, what if I called the police? Then it wouldn't technically be your fault, and Unknown can't blame you for it." Lucas then sat back triumphantly and crossed his arms with a smirk.

He can be really...unethical sometimes. As he reached for his phone and held it up to the edge of the table, I did what I could to stop him in time. I absently shoved the mug onto the table, so all the liquid flooded out, spilling onto his only good Armani jeans.

"Dude! That was the best jeans I ever had!" He wailed, grabbing wads of tissue's and swiping them against his spoiled pants.

"Sorry," I mumbled grumpily, helping him clean up. "I'm not risking anything. I can handle this myself." I tried to sound firm, but failed.

"Listen to me," Lucas said harshly, suddenly looking up to and meeting my eyes. "You cannot handle this. It's not something you can handle, it's something you either commit to or change. And trust me, handling this is pretty much killing your boss and setting a house on fire."

I sighed out loud. As much as I hated to admit it, Lucas was right, and that bothered me.

"Okay, how do I 'change' this?" I resumed cleaning up the table with the extra tissues that came with my mug of coffee.