Frank Deep says goodbye to his girlfriend, Natalie Parker, with a kiss on the mouth. Tender, prologue, strawberry-flavored, girl lipstick. It was around 10:00 pm, under the front door of the Samberg house. A typical suburban home belonging to a wage earner and a housewife, who at the time of the event were staying at a hotel to celebrate a second honeymoon. The child of the family, an 8-year-old boy named Bob and nicknamed Bobby, is mesmerized by the TV in his bedroom, where he shoots polygonal ships with the controller of his game console.

Natalie, famous in La Crosse for the exotic violet eye color, lays on the living room couch with the bowl of popcorn. A Nightmare on Elm Street plays on the TV.

Frank walks away from the house, pulls up to the curb and unlocks his car: a light blue 2001 Chevy. Before he gets in, he feels a chill on the back of his neck and a heaviness in his stomach. He peers over the car. Two silhouettes wait under a lighted streetlight on the opposite sidewalk... Men, one taller than the other, both dressed in dark clothes. Frank can make out the movement of their mouths. The strangers speak to each other in a low, indistinguishable voice. They both look back at him, one says something that makes the other laugh. Frank suspects they are making fun of him, and the discomfort born of an unknown fear is replaced by an irritation he feels more comfortable with. He skirts around the car and walks over to glare at them.

"What do you want?!"

"We negotiated a blowjob, interested?" says the older one. The shorter one laughs.

Frank's eyes narrow and he clenches his fists, wanting to beat their mouths shut. But he decides that staging a scene in the middle of the suburbs in the middle of the night would only lead to trouble, so he gets in the car and starts it up. There's a game tomorrow, he needs to rest. Frank doesn't suspect that prudence and luck saved his life.

An hour passes. Natalie turns off the TV, goes to the kitchen, washes the bowl and puts it away in the cupboard. She goes upstairs to check that Bobby is asleep. She opens the bedroom door, the strip of light from the hallway illuminates part of the bed. The sheet rises and falls to the rhythm of the boy's peaceful breathing.

Natalie returns to the living room, begins to turn off the lights and makes sure everything is properly closed. On her way back upstairs to rest in the guest room, she hears a knock. She freezes halfway up the stairs, at the same time two more knocks sound... The knocks coming from the front door.

Natalie thinks maybe Frank changed his mind about staying. She retraces her steps and walks to the door. She peers through the peephole, but the only thing that returns her gaze is the night and the loneliness. Natalie peeks through the window curtains to make sure the possible pranksters are gone. Next to the curb, someone has parked a gray van, lit up. It has no license plate.

A loud creak breaks the stillness. Natalie instantly catches where it's coming from and runs to the kitchen. The door leading to the patio lies open, the bolt broken and shaken by the cold wind that blows in. Natalie pales, and the shadows around her feel crowded. She hears footsteps. A breath on the back of her neck. She hurries to press the switch on the nearest wall and the light returns. Table; stove; refrigerator; cupboard; dripping sink; countertop with the bowl on top. Nothing changed, but the worry remains. Alert, Natalie walks to the door to check it... That's when she sees it.

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Lights from neighboring houses reveal in the yard a figure in dark clothes, his identity covered by a cheap plastic blue bunny mask. Between gloved hands he carries an iron sledgehammer. Natalie freezes again. The stranger steps forward. The girl awakens from the paralysis of fear and slams the door.

Natalie picks up the wall phone and runs into the living room. Her trembling hand makes it difficult to dial 911. She looks into the kitchen, from where the rabbit pokes its head out. Natalie opens her mouth to scream, but a hand covers her lips and whips her head against a picture of the Samberg family. The glass explodes and snaps into her forehead. The world turns red.

Upstairs Bobby is awakened by the commotion. He looks at the bedroom door, where light from the hallway filters underneath. He hears strange noises. A kicking. Something breaking. Banging against the walls...

The boy sits up, figuring maybe Natalie left the TV on. The commotion stops. A couple of minutes pass where he expects to hear his nanny's voice, but nothing.

He picks up slow, cautious footsteps, neither hurrying nor stopping. Bobby distinguishes the sound of the doors opening slowly, as if that presence was looking for something in the rooms. The footsteps sound closer and closer, until the shadow of two feet interrupts the light in the corridor. Bobby feels a shiver, throws the blanket over his head and turns to the wall. He closes his eyes and hides his face in his hands. The doorknob turns and after a click, the door gives way with a creak. The presence moves to the side of her bed, Bobby hears her breathing.

"Natalie?" Bobby asks in a very low voice. He immediately regrets opening his mouth, and wishes the bogeyman was tone-deaf.

But the man listens.

"Quiet" the tone is soft, boyish, that of any boy you meet on the street. "You'll wake the neighbors. That wouldn't be polite"

Bobby obeys. He has a hunch that if he angers the stranger, something bad will happen. The mattress tilts under the new weight. The fingers of a gloved hand caress the boy's head through the blanket.

"W-Where's Natalie?" Bobby tries to sound calm, but the words come out shaky.

"Downstairs. We're her friends"

"Friends...?"

The boy lowers the blanket, sits with his back to him. Blue bunny ears sticking out of his face. The cheap carnival mask slowly turns to face the little boy's glassy eyes.

"Is she all right?" Bobby asks.

"She feels bad"

The youngster shudders, and notices the iron mallet resting on the rabbit's legs. He tries to slide off the bed, but the visitor's hand pushes him back onto the mattress.

"Don't get up. It's late"

"I want to see her"

"She's busy with my partner. You don't want to disturb him. He hates noisy childrens" he warns and covers Bobby with the blanket up to his neck. He brings his face close to the boy. The cold, liquor-scented breath numbs the child's nose and makes him nauseous. "I'm the sympathetic one"

The rabbit rises from the bed, the mallet resting on his shoulder.

"Go to sleep" Josh adds without looking at the child and leaves the room.

The lights in the house are turned off. A van purrs down the street. Bobby stares at the ceiling of the room until he falls asleep.

The police find Natalie Parker's body the next night.