The Stranger

16. Escaped

Inside of the box is one single photo of a woman. The other half of the photo appears to be torn off and is not in the box. Amelia narrows her eyebrows, "Elliot, this woman, she looks like you. You have the same facial features." Elliot's heart beats a little faster as he grabs the photo and lifts it up. "This is...., my mother. This is exactly how he's described her to me my whole life. I know it's her." 

Amelia points at the woman's belly in the photo. "Look, she's pregnant in this picture." Elliot flips the picture over slowly and the date on the back adds up to a perfect fit to his age now. His heart drops as he stares deeply at it. 

Amelia looks inside the box to see nothing else. "I can't believe this. He's always so many steps ahead of us... no matter what we do." Her breathing gets a little heavier and she begins to panic slightly. "There's nothing we can do. He knows we need physical proof so he's covering all of his tracks. That's why the creep told us where it was, because he knew there was nothing to find."

Elliot chimes in with a sigh. "And all of the villagers love him because he's protecting them so without proof...." Amelia rubs her hands through the sides of her hair with aggravation and disbelief. 

A couple of tears roll down her cheeks and Elliot wraps one arm around her. "It'll be okay Amelia. We can figure something else out. He can't keep this up forever. Like you said, whatever he did will come to light. The truth always does." 

She shakes her head slowly. "No, he's crazy. You saw him back there. That's why it took him so long to get back this morning. The stranger's attack was a cover up so he could take everything out of the box. And that means."

Her eyes widen and the color drains from her face for a moment. Elliot finishes the sentence, "He was in the house when we got there and that's why my dad rushed back because us being there wasn't apart of the plan. The stranger was watching us the whole time from the shadows." Amelia swallows hard, "Oh my gosh, I didn't even feel his eyes watching us. And on top of it all he got my hair out of it just to be creep for no reason."

After a little while in the quiet, trying to process all of the information, Amelia sighs. "It'll be night soon, let's check on Adam one more time tonight before we lock ourselves up somewhere." Elliot nods in agreement and they head to the sheriff's office.

When they get close, Adam walks outside the front door to greet them. "Hey, we will talk about everything that happened today later. You two need to stay with Trevor tonight or at my house." 

His voice goes to a whisper for a moment. "We can't be too obvious with you two staying with me all night." Amelia nods, "Okay, we were  going to stay at your place tonight. I don't even have the energy to fight you right now."

Elliot chimes in quietly, "I agree, today has been....interesting. I think we will really rest tonight." Amelia adds a statement, "Especially with both of them kind of locked up."

They both leave and go back to Adam's house and lock the door behind them. Elliot lights the fireplace in the living room and has a little lantern on the living room table that's dimmed. They both sit down on the couch that's next to the table and take a deep breath. 

Amelia leans her head on his chest. "One good thing came out of today, they are both at the station with Adam and one is locked up so we can finally have one real night of rest." Elliot strokes her hair back behind her ear. "Yeah, I'll still be on guard though. At least a little, it feels too easy."

It's quiet for them for most of the night. Back at the station, the clock chimes and Kevin smiles at Adam. "It's your turn to patrol Adam." Adam stands up and pushes his hair back. "Yeah, I'm on it." He walks out of the station and starts to make his rounds.