Chapter 1
My husband had been working in Ucreland for two years.
I raised our seven-year-old son alone and endured more than seven hundred lonely nights.
One night, as I tucked our son in, he suddenly grabbed my hand, saying, "Mom, don't be scared. Dad stood outside our window every night and watched over us."
My smile froze.
We lived on the sixth floor. Outside the window, there was nothing but darkness.
I slowly turned my head. In the narrow gap between the curtains, a shadow stood completely still.
The next day, I pulled up the surveillance footage from the past two years.
What appeared on the screen made my legs give out on the spot.
*****
I tucked Jackie into bed.
He tossed and turned, his little brows furrowing.
It had been like this for two whole years.
Today marked the 730th day since my husband, Malcolm Boyer left for Ucreland.
I'd been raising Jackie all by myself, from when he was just five until now, at seven.
The clock in the living room hit midnight.
I turned off the bedside lamp, getting ready to go back to my own room.
Suddenly, Jackie grabbed my hand.
His hand was small and a little cold.
"Mom," Jackie murmured.
His voice was soft, still thick with sleep.
I bent down. "What's wrong, sweetie? Did you have a bad dream?" I asked.
He shook his head, his eyes wide and bright in the darkness.
Jackie said softly, "Don't be scared, Mom. Dad's always outside the window, keeping watch over us every night."
My heart skipped a beat and my smile froze.
"Jackie, what are you talking about?" I asked.
"Dad," Jackie replied. He pointed toward the window. "He's right there, watching us while we sleep every night."
My blood ran cold in an instant.
A chill shot up from my feet straight to the top of my head.
We lived on the sixth floor.
Outside the window, there was nothing but darkness and empty air.
Malcolm was in Ucreland, thousands of miles away, separated from us by an entire ocean.
There was no way he could be outside the window.
My throat went dry.
"Do you miss your dad? Did you dream about him?" I asked, trying to sound calm.
Jackie shook his head stubbornly.
"It wasn't a dream. I saw him," Jackie insisted. "Dad was right there, not moving at all."
It felt like my breath just stopped.
I couldn't bring myself to look at the window.
The curtains weren't fully drawn, leaving a sliver of space. It felt like something was hiding just behind that gap.
I stood there stiffly, not daring to move a muscle.
Jackie let go of my hand, rolled over, and drifted off to sleep again.
The only sound left in the room was the pounding of my own heart.
Each beat was hammering at my nerves.
I slowly turned my head, my eyes fixed on the window, creeping toward it bit by bit.
Right in that gap, in the pitch-black darkness, it looked like there was really an outline of a person standing there, motionless.
Every hair on my body stood on end.
I rushed over and yanked the curtains open.
However, there was nothing out there. Only the sound of the wind and the distant, faint city lights.
I leaned against the window and looked down.
It was completely deserted.
Was I just seeing things?
Jackie's words rang in my ears again. He'd said it was every night.
I went back to the living room and slumped onto the couch, my whole body trembling uncontrollably.
Something was definitely not right.
Suddenly, I remembered something.
Before Malcolm left, he installed security cameras in the house.
There was one in the living room, one on the balcony, and another in Jackie's room.
He said he couldn't rest easy unless he could check on us anytime.
For the past two years, I'd pretty much forgotten all about them.
I rushed into the study and booted up the old desktop I barely ever touched.
Spotting the security app icon, I double-clicked it.
The login screen popped up.
The username was Malcolm's cell number. My birthday was the password.
My hands were shaking as I typed it in and hit "Login."
The hard drive was stuffed with endless video files.
Every file was labeled with the date and the camera location.
It was footage from two whole years, 730 days.
My finger paused on the mouse, no idea which one to open first.
I took a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down.
I decide to start with last night's.
I found the folder for Jackie's room and pulled up the footage from around midnight.
With a click, the video started playing.
On the screen, I watched myself walk into the room and tuck Jackie in.
Then I crouched down by his bed and talked to him.
Everything seemed perfectly normal.
I scrubbed through the footage.
After I left the room, nothing happened for a while.
Then, the light in the gap between the curtains suddenly dimmed for a moment, like something was blocking the light from outside.
I cranked the brightness all the way up and watched the footage frame by frame.
There was a fuzzy shadow looming right up against the window.
It was clearly the shape of a person.
I couldn't tear my eyes away from that outline.
My heart was pounding so hard I thought it might burst out of my chest.
The security camera was set up in the corner of the room, and had a great angle.
It caught a bit of the sky outside and the wall of the building across from us.
I saw the shadowy figure raise its hand, like it was wiping the window.