Gerald sat on the edge of the bed he used to share with his wife and wondered if he could ever reconcile what happened to his family. All that he could see when he closed his eyes was the moment he discovered the boy and the small bloody shirt.

“I am to blame for this…”

“I should have called the police…”

“They will find me if I leave this house…”

Gerald repeated these epithets to himself, day after day, as he watched life pass by from his bedroom window. He was depressed before it happened, but now, he was totally immobilized.

The fear paralyzed him. Things would continue to get worse unless he made the seemingly inevitable choice. A choice he vowed he would never make.

Gerald sealed his fate with his promise.

The days and nights passed by without significance. Gerald would wake, see his children off to their various daily destinations, interact as briefly as possible with Tara, and then return to sit in front of his bedroom window and regret the day that haunts him, regret his self-imprisonment, regret ever starting this family.

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On cue, Gerald’s phone would ring at 9 am, but he stopped answering it days ago, except for the spurts of courage he would muster after a relatively positive morning.

“Hello, is it… you?” Gerald’s voice shook with paranoia.

The voice was unrecognizable to him, and it was never the same. “Where’ve you been, Gerald? You need to keep answering my phone calls.”

Gerald felt the lump in his throat as he thought of what to say. “I’ve been here, where I am, always… wh-where I will always be.”

“Good, Gerald. You know I only check up on you to protect you, don’t you?” The voice was especially terrifying today in its monotone, robotic vocal disguise.

“Well, you’re my only contact with the outside world. Are you ready to say what you want from me?” Gerald was desperate to find out why this stranger was tormenting him.

The voice was silent much longer than usual, but responded after several moments, “Gerald... I know.”

“I figured,” he responded.

“If you leave, they will find you…”

“If you tell anyone, they will think it was you.”

END CALL

Tara trembled as she placed the phone down on the desk in front of her.