Remember All the Good the Purge Does - A Polite Stranger Story

Chapter Four

After getting dressed, I sat on the edge of my bed, staring down at my phone screen. I bit my lip, bouncing my leg up and down anxiously, trying to figure out what to say to the anonymous text. It's Purge night, so I can't contact the police and file a report for harassment. If I keep ignoring it, he'll probably continue texting me. If I respond, who knows what he'll say. Absentmindedly I lifted my fingers up to my lips, letting my teeth bite down on my fingernails. Maybe it's just a prank my friends are pulling on me, using a fake number and fake photos to scare me. I sighed and finally decided to text back. "Haha. Very funny. Is this Sarah?" I asked, sending the text right away, waiting for a response. This time, there was no text bubble, notifying me that he was texting back. Maybe it's a prank, and they've been caught. Suddenly, the bubble popped up. I sat up straight on my bed, watching the bubble.

"Do I sound like Sarah to you? Besides, I thought your parents taught you not to talk to strangers." The text read. It's him. The guy from the store. It was to be him. Who else would he be? Maybe my friends know who this guy is. I decided to text the group chat. I thought about what I was going to say without telling straight off the bat that this guy who goes to our school is harassing me over text on Purge night.

"Hey, you guys. You know a guy with blond hair, about six feet tall, and looks like a rich asshole???" I asked the group chat, immediately getting responses from all of them.

"This guy?" Sarah asked while sending me a photo. That's him.

"Yeah, who is he exactly? I know he goes to school with us, but who is he?" I asked, waiting for a response back. He looks familiar, but I can't put my finger on it. I mean, with a school has a student enrollment of three thousand students, it's impossible to know everyone, but he sticks out.

"He's in some of our class. His dad funds like half the school. His name is Rhys Harrington." She responded. Now that I know his name, I can finally ask this person if it's him or not. I switched back to the text messages between most likely Rhys and me.

"Your name is Rhys, Isn't it?" I asked, waiting for a response. As I expected, I was distracted by the sound of gunshots going off. The shots sounded close to our home, maybe a couple of streets back. I put my phone down and headed down to my dad's office to see if he was there. I opened the door and see both my parents. They both turn to look at me. "Sorry, I thought I heard gunshots," I said.

"I thought I heard them too." My mom said as we looked at the live camera footage to see if we can see anyone outside our home. Nothing. "I swear I heard gunshots." She said again, trying to see if anything would appear in the live feed. We continued to look around at all the different angles.

"Gunshots are going to happen tonight, okay? It's nothing. It's probably somebody firing off a few rounds before going hunting," He said before kissing the back of mom's head. I wasn't convinced, however. Gunshots are never really audible near our neighborhood. Even if it was someone from our neighborhood Purging tonight, they wouldn't waste a few rounds to scare off people. Stuff like this doesn't happen in our neighborhood. "Come on. Let's go relax." He said as he walked out of the office, leaving my mom and me to stare at the screens, hoping something would pop up out of nowhere to explain why those gunshots are so close to us. I sighed and walked out, following my parents up the stairs.

I crashed onto my bed, plugging my headphones into the audio jack of my phone to listen to some music. That'll help calm my nerves. I scrolled through my music, before settling on Hobo Johnson. I put my phone down and closed my eyes to relax. I jumped slightly when my phone vibrated repeatedly. I sat up, annoyed that I couldn't even have one minute to myself to relax. I unlocked my phone. It's him. "Bingo." It is all it said following by pictures of his mask and possibly the group he was with during Purge night.