Infinity Chapter 19 - Intruder

[itztigress3]

Chapter 19 – Intruder
POV:   Emily
Word count: 3305


July 8, 2013

We’d gotten home Saturday and Sunday we went and bought baby gates for the house and office. We got here early to put the gate up and make sure the door could still be closed without problems. I then pointed to Zac’s desk.

“If he can reach it, move it.”

We spent 30 minutes moving the paints and items off the floor, they were in temporary spots for now and he was going to put another shelf up for those items. Alexander ate about 8 and Taylor came in at 8:15. He noticed the gate but didn’t say anything; he was in a hurry because he was late. Ike hadn’t even seen it. I used the pack n play for a bit, that way I could get work done and not fret over where he was. I ordered pizza for lunch and Zac carried the boxes down and I took Alexander. We sat down and I nursed him while we ate, it was pretty common now but I did cover up most of what was exposed but if I covered his head, he’d just kick everything off.

“Is he ever going to eat actual food?” Casey asked.

Zac giggled. “Yes, Casey. He will eventually. We got this baby bullet over the weekend; it’s supposed to be so you can make fresh baby foods, literally turns carrots into puree. We also got the steamer for cooking the items. Tonight we’re gonna try bananas and see if he prefers actual food to the jars, really I tried the bananas last week, gross.”

I looked at him. “Why should he bother dude, he’s Zac’s kid and he has boob.”

Taylor gagged on his pizza and required a slap from Casey and everyone dissolved into fits of laughter except Zac who just glared at me.

“You know it’s true.”

“Would you be saying that had he been a girl?”

“Yep, because she’d be taking after you.”

“I can’t win for losing.”

Alexander finished nursing and after a good burp I sat him down between Zac and I, forgetting that he was now crawling. We were talking about the tour and I saw Zac turn around but didn’t think anything about it. Then there was what sounded like the bass drum being hit lightly, everyone turned to the drum set because Zac was sitting there with us.

Alexander was on his knees in front of the drum set, he hit the bass drum and the sound came again, it wasn’t near as loud as what Zac would have done. Yet, each time he made the sound he’d smile and after a few times he laughed.

“Didn’t you sit him beside you?” Isaac asked.

“Yeah.”

Zac crawled over to him and I watched him, it was Taylor that pinched my arm and I looked at him.

“What the hell?”

“Get those thoughts out of your head missy!”

Zac looked back and then giggled and sat down with Alexander, he reached behind and got him a drumstick, he didn’t quite seem to know
what to do as he hit Zac with it, right on the ankle.

“How did he get over there?” Casey asked.

“He crawled.” Zac said.

He then tossed me the drumstick and Alexander gave him his best puppy face. It was both adorable and heartbreaking but he then turned and crawled to me for the drumstick. I swore they acted worse than we did when we saw him actually crawl. Taylor got a video and it was sent to everyone, lord help us when he walked. They were acting like he was the first child born!

“He’ll be walking before long.” Isaac said.

“Which explains why we’re cleaning the office up and getting things out of reach, the gate is so he doesn’t slip into the hallway.”

“I wondered why there was a gate there.”

He sat with me for a moment until Zac hit the drum lightly and then he took off across the room and took up a space right in front of the drums.

“Did you guys have a good 4^th?” Casey asked.

“It was different, little less party atmosphere. George hosted and he did steaks and potatoes grilled vegetables and the kids played. We had to watch Alexander he kept going toward the pool.”

“He loved the pool though.” Zac said.

“Yep. Clung to whoever had him but loved being in the water. I guess he took that from me though.”

“Maddi and their family came up and Riley loved the pool too.”

“You invited them?”

“Yep. She missed having you here but understood why. We should share you and the other two sometimes.” Taylor said.

I smiled, they had wanted us home but we chose to stay in Georgia longer. We hardly spend the 4^th of July anywhere but here in Tulsa, but because we were there and it was so close I wanted a good Georgia event. After all, I was born and raised there even if Tulsa felt like home.

“Oh I have news and pictures!” I said.

“What’s the news?” Velma asked.

“George and Christina are pregnant again, they told us on the 4^th when she wasn’t drinking! She’s due this November.”

“That is awesome!” Velma said. Everyone agreed and then Taylor just stared until I got up.

I then quickly hooked my phone to the laptop and after a few moments pictures were being displayed on the white wall in full color. There was one I skipped though and came to it last, there were pictures of Zac and Alexander in the pool, me and him, all of us, pictures of my nephews and us. The last picture was just Alexander though, he’d was sitting in Zac’s lap and the little sparkler was close to him.

“Oh my god, I want that one.” Taylor said.

I smiled. “I figured you would so your eight by ten is on my desk, along with everyone else’s and I printed some of the others too.”

“Are you trying to wiggle me out of my picture taking?” Taylor asked.

“No. I think actually…didn’t Christina take that one?”

“Yep. He was in my lap and you handed him the sparkler. He wasn’t too fond of the big fireworks, clung pretty tight to us both.”

“He didn’t scream though.”

“Hey Tay, speaking of pictures, Maddi can’t do his 9 months ones, its peak season for her and I refused to let her cancel a paying appointment to come here. So, if you’re up for it we were thinking just the park, let him play some get some pictures.”

His smile truly was his best one, the truly happy Taylor smile is how I referred to it sometimes.

“You know I will.”

“We didn’t think you’d mind, but you know it’s polite to ask you given you have to at least let Natalie know.”

“True.”

“We’re not going to like do a ton, but some good ones of him mostly. I think we’re planning to just sit stay there a few hours and kind of have a family day after that.”

“Yeah, Nikki and I are planning a weekend before we have to get super busy, just the weekend to get away.”

“Same for us.” Taylor said.

“Zac and I have had plenty of weekends; we’ll just take a day or something when you guys run away.”

“Hey, I’ll be finishing the tree house.”

“Really Zac?” Ike asked.

“What? It’s not very huge right now and it’s just basically going to have a swing and a slide.”

“He’s planning still.”

Velma looked up from her phone. “Guys, we have a storm headed our way and it looks bad.”

“Long as we avoid tornadoes!” Casey said.

“We should get busy then.” Ike said.

We cleaned up a bit and I took Alexander back up-stairs with me, I laid him down for his nap and he fell asleep pretty quickly. I checked outside myself and found it was getting bad; I then went back to making sure orders were good, plans were on track, and that confirmations for the tour dates are on point. I didn’t realize the storm had gotten so bad until the building shook! I got up and walked to the door and glanced outside the front and found it was pouring down rain. Alexander was still asleep so I walked to the door and watched as the lighting streaked across the sky. I then headed back and started shutting things off. I called Zac and told them to save and shut things down because it was getting bad. I put the baby monitor in his crib and ran down to the floor to get those computers shut off as well. It was a rush but everything was shut down just moments before the next clap of thunder took out the power.

“Where is Alexander?”

“His crib asleep, I’m going back…”

“No you’re not, go get him and come back down here.”

“Zac...He’s asleep.”

“Yes, and you’d both be surrounded by glass. The studio is the safest place Emily.”

I ran up-stairs and carefully picked him up, he whined a few moments and then settled down and I went down to the studio, it was nearing his usual wake up time so I just held him, sat on the couch. Everyone was brought into the studio; there were no windows or breakable items here.
We talked mostly and they were having a conversation about lighting, sound, and what they wanted for the backdrop of the show. I heard something and realized it was sounds coming from his baby monitor, I got the monitor from my side and held it to my ear. I heard talking, sounded like a man’s voice. Kept saying he knew it was there, but the problem was everyone was sitting right here with me and no one else should be here.

“Guys, were any of you expecting someone to show up today?”

After brief moments it was evident that no one was expecting anyone, as everyone said no.

“Why?” Zac asked.

“Someone’s in our office, I can hear them talking over his monitor.”

Isaac and Taylor got up, followed by Zac. Casey started to get up as well but Zac looked at him.

“Stay here with her and Alexander.” It wasn’t a question or even a request, it was a demand.

I was confused because he only said me and Alexander, not everyone and Henry wasn’t going anyway, he could have stayed with us ladies. Casey seemed confused as well but he came and sat down beside me. They left and I could hear them over the monitor as well, no one was there and the door was shut.

“Are you sure it was someone?” Casey asked.

“Yes! It sounded like a man and he had to be close to Alexander’s crib because I could hear him!”

He called Zac and asked him to check the crib and nothing was missing or messed with, so they came back down to the studio.

“Nothing was out of place or moved and his crib was in the same spot. The paperwork was the same and nothing was gone.”

“Was the floor wet?”

“Why would it be?” Taylor asked.

“It’s pouring outside, if someone came into the building they would be soaked, the floor would be wet.”

“The floor at the door was dry, the door was even dry.”

“No one was there Emily.” Ike said.

I started to argue because I know I heard someone but three of them had gone up-stairs and none found anything to be out of order, could I have simply just heard something maybe an echo or something?  The storm kept getting worse and we all heard the sirens go off; Alexander was playing in the floor and seemed oblivious to anything. Sirens meant a tornado was either on the ground already or the conditions were perfect.

The studio had fallen silent, just the sounds Alexander made and whoever was in the floor with him, presently Velma was. I was stuck in wondering if I was hearing things when I heard something in the warehouse. It sounded like a door shut or something fell over. No one else mentioned it so I got up, grabbed a flashlight from the piano and walked out of the studio. Zac was hot on my trail as well.

“What are you doing?”

“I heard something.”

“Emily, it’s a storm! It could have knocked out the windows; it’s not safe out here.”

I kept walking, shining the light around. I knew I heard something and it wasn’t from the storm because the warehouse was quite now. I didn’t see anything that was out of place, nothing had been knocked over, and no indication that anyone had been out here.

“No one is here Emily.”

“So, I’m just hearing things now?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“No but you certainly are implying that.”

“Ems…”

I turned the light off and headed back to the studio, but with the power off the warehouse was pitch black, we both knew the layout well enough to avoid everything. Yet when the slight light shown through I stopped, found the source which was the door leading to the store, which was empty right now anyway.  But, the door was supposed to be closed.

Zac bumped into me and then followed me to the door. We found the cause of the noises, inside the store had been trashed. The shelves were turned over, the glass front cabinet was broken, and there were painted number 8’s on the walls and the windows.

“Sure, no one was inside.”

He called Taylor and Isaac and they came to the store, yet with the storm in full swing there was nothing we could do. Isaac called the police anyway but we agreed to wait on the officers until the storm wasn’t quite as bad. We exited the store and stood there.

“I told you someone was inside.”

“No one was up-stairs, we checked every room.”

“He could have come down before you went up, or while you were in the office. The store is trashed, so he had to be inside there more than a few minutes.”

“Any thoughts on who?” Taylor asked.

“I don’t. I haven’t gotten any weird messages, calls, or anything strange. Have any of you?”

“No.” Zac said.

“Not me.” Ike said.

“Only threatening message I got was from Natalie.”

“Maybe they left prints or something then.”

We returned to the studio and once the storm let up we met the police out front, it was after 4:30 now. Casey kept Alexander in the studio while we dealt with the officers. They were there an hour before Zac and I left, Casey stayed with the officers to let them finish up dusting and checking for evidence. It was about 6 when Zac and I got home and found that our power was out and the alarm was completely off. He parked in the garage and looked at me.

“Sit here with Alexander; do not get out of the car Emily. Lock the doors.”

“Zac, you’re over reacting.”

“Just humor me Emily. I’m not going to argue on this.”

I was about to argue too when he got his hand gun out from under the truck seat, when had he felt the need to carry it? We both had permits so that wasn’t a problem but he’d never kept it in the truck. I sat quietly as he got out, locking the doors and he went inside. Alexander was cooing lightly in the back seat. I waited until Zac came back out and declared it was clear, we then got him out and went inside. I nursed him while we waited for the power to come back up. It came up at 7:15 and the first thing Zac did was turn the alarm on and then he started dinner for us, something quick incase the power failed again. When Alexander was done I sat him in his high chair in the kitchen and got a banana and the Baby magic bullet. It was super quick in making it too, but it looked like mush.

“That looks strange.”

“No kidding.”

When we sat down I moved him closer, he seemed uninterested but I got some of the bananas and offered them to him. He turned away at first, but I waited a few moments and then tried again. That time he accepted the bite and we both carefully watched him. He did push some out but not much and the rest he swallowed. Then he wanted more, which was great.

“Apparently, little man is smart. He doesn’t want the fake bananas or mass produced ones, he wants real ones.”

He didn’t eat much though before he started turning away, which was fine because he hadn’t been long nursed either. We finished and he sat there and jabbered to us. We both got showers and in between Zac showered Alexander too; he liked taking a bath with Daddy. While he washed him off and washed his hair I got dried off and dressed. I then got him so Zac could finish his own shower. I laid him on our bed to dry him off, lotion him down, and get him dressed for the night. I had a green onesie laid out for him.

His crib was still in our room, just close to the door now; he wouldn’t go to his own room until he was a year old. I carried him over and laid him down, laid the blanket up over him. I was about to turn the mobile on when the alarm pad light up and gave a series of beeps, indicating the alarm had been cut off. Yet, that couldn’t be right because Zac and I both were here in the room. I paused and a few minutes later the alarm gave another series of beeps, the alarm had been turned back on.

“Baby?” Zac asked.

“Um…in the morning you or I need to call the alarm company. It just cut off and back on by itself.”

“Could have shorted or something, I’ll call them first thing in the morning and have them come out. Ike’s going to be late anyway; he had a
branch come through a window. So, he’s going to fix that first thing in the morning. Tay and I can’t be mad at that, so when he’s done he will call.”

Yet, standing here beside the crib I just felt something was wrong. Were Maddi’s talks about seeing ghosts and feeling things making me paranoid now as well? Alexander was cooing and looking around, probably waiting on his mobile to come on.

“Ems?”

His crib was not a mere two foot from the door to our bedroom, but our bed was halfway across the room, if something should happen then he’s
right here.

“I don’t…” I wasn’t exactly sure how to describe this feeling.

“You want me to move his crib to that side until we can verify the alarm?”

“I want him in the bed with us; one or two nights won’t hurt him.”

“Emily, isn’t that a little over reacting to the alarm? Come on the studio was bad and you were right someone was inside, but this is home. You
know no one can get in here.”

He was right, no one had ever gotten past the security system and despite it being down nothing had been out of place. I picked Alexander up and he moved the crib across the room, putting him rather close to his side of the bed, which didn’t escape my notice. I laid him back down and turned the mobile on and then Zac turned out the lights and he and I went to bed.