“What do you mean you’re leaving?” Alice whispered to me as I fixed my tie while silently tiptoeing past Grace’s, my daughter, room and towards the stairs at the same time.

“I already told you, Alice, Mr. Currier–” My one of a kind boss “–needs me to tag along with him to a meeting in the next town over,” I explained and stumbled like an idiot over one of the steps on the staircase as I straightened out the sleeves of my suit. I caught myself and was able to safely make it down without breaking any bones. “Shit!” I cursed to myself; you know how embarrassing that would’ve been? Then again if I would’ve fallen and hurt myself, it would have given me a valid excuse on why I wouldn’t have been able to attend this pointless meeting.

“Lee,” My wife pestered me as I slid open the closet to grab one of my jackets. Should I choose my red corduroy, or my Lions jacket? I thought as she continued to pressure me. “Can’t you just call off sick or something?”

I sighed as I chose my Lions jacket over the corduroy, I looked at my wife. “Look Alice, I know you don’t want me to go, and believe me I'd rather stay home with you and Grace. But you’re going to have to face it. If I don’t go, none of us has any idea what Mr. Currier is going to do.” I slipped my arms through each of the sleeves of the jacket.

Mr. Currier was the CEO of a very large real estate company known as… should I even say it? Might as well kick myself while I do, Currie’s Realtors. Doesn’t it just put a horrible taste in your mouth every time you say that? Damn, every time it’s like I have to down a half a bottle of dish soap just to get that horrible feeling out of my mouth. But I digress, Mr. Currier is my boss and I just happen to be his assistant.

Now before you go thinking, “Oh he must hate his job because his boss is a cliché dick.” Oh no, no, no. Mr. Currier is actually a very, very nice man. Some of my coworkers even consider him a saint! Well, that’s probably because he looks a lot like Saint Nick, but once again I digress. My job is mostly a time waster, I go into my office and fill out papers, research, answer phone calls, and in my spare time play Tetris. Which is actually a rarity, but when I do it’s like God is handing me a new born child and telling me to treat it carefully.

But the main question is do I like my–

“Are you even listening to me?” Alice asked, I turned my head away from our family portrait and I looked her right in the eyes, those light ocean blue eyes of hers.

“I’m sorry what?” I asked while rubbing my right eye. I always had the problem of drifting off into space. Like now for instance: I’m looking at Alice while she speaks, nodding my head and agreeing with her. Even though in reality I don’t even know a damn thing she’s saying. I was supposed to be out the door behind me two minutes ago. Yet she continues to ramble on about, “It’s like every day you go on a trip.” Or the common, “You never have time to spend with your own daughter anymore.”

Which is true, I won’t argue that. But it’s my job, Mr. Currier may be a nice man, but he isn’t afraid to drop anyone. Literally, and I wished that I could get that fact through Alice’s head! Seriously, just a few weeks ago Mr. Currier dropped Don Seltzer, who is a good friend of Alice’s and I because he was fifteen minutes late. The reason why: was because the side street he always took was held up by a train.

Alice leaned forward and snapped her fingers in front of my face, I shook my head and turned towards the door. “I get your point, Alice,” I said as I opened the door, “but I’m already running late.”

“But–”

I stepped out into the snow, and looked through the crack in the door I waved to her and smiled. “Bye, love you,” I went to pull the door closed but was stopped by her taking hold of it.

“When will you be back?” She asked looking rather worried.

I raised an eyebrow and gazed down at my arm. I pulled back both my sleeves on my jacket and suit to check my watch. “Some time tomorrow afternoon if traffic isn’t too bad, but I got to go now. Love you.” Alice closed the door and I turned around, I felt the cold breeze of the late night December air roll across my face. I shivered and jammed my hands into my pocket and continued to trudge through the snow towards my car. Taking out my keys, I quickly shoved them into the keyhole and went to unlock it.

As I did so, the cold air nearly left my hands frostbitten as I jiggled the lock and continued to utter curse words to myself while my nice dress shoes began to quickly fill up with melting snow. You know, maybe it wasn’t a smart idea to come out here in my dress shoes. Matter of fact why did I come out here in them? After a few twists of the key I managed to finally open the old car door. As if my life depended on it, I dove onto the cold cushioned seat and hurriedly started the engine and flipped on the heater. I then grabbed ahold of the stick and shifted the car in reverse and turned to see if anything was behind me.

However, in mid turn I was stopped when something caught my eye, something rather peculiar. Out of the corner of my eye by my neighbors yard I noticed a strange white object. I couldn’t make out the details because as I stopped to see what it was, it was gone. I shook my head and chuckled lightly. “Come one, Lee get your shit together.” I backed out of my driveway and began to head down the street. As I drove I couldn’t help myself but to think back to the strange object I had seen in my neighbors yard. It wasn’t the first time I had noticed it; however, I also didn’t see it frequently. The couple times I ever remember seeing the object was at Grace’s first day of kindergarten.

I remember getting out of the car with her. At the time Grace was a shy little girl, so I had to walk her up to the school. As we made our way up the front steps we eventually reached the door. I then bent down looked her in the eyes and smiled, I told her I loved her and that I hope she has a nice day. But as I said that, just over her shoulder, I could see it. Standing there by the playground looking over at us. Like in my neighbors yard, when I blinked, it was gone.

The next occurrence was on my wedding day. Possibly one of the happiest days of my life (besides Grace being born of course) I was standing up by the altar waiting for Grace to come down the aisle. I remember just before she did, my best man, Kurt Keys, poked me in the arm to grab my attention. When I looked over at him, I noticed just over his shoulder next to the nearby tree. I could see the white figure standing there glaring at me. Those weren’t the only two times I had seen it, I know that for a fact. However, everything else was nothing but a vague memory to me: the monster in the closet when I was a kid, to the spooky thing in the woods.
Matter of fact, whenever I think back about it, the thing was always a blurred image. Like in a photograph, or even in those vampire mov–

All of sudden, I was blinded by the headlights of a large pickup truck that was speeding down the snowy road. “Jesus H. Christ!” Horrified I gripped my steering wheel for dear life and I veered the car out of the way just in time. I sighed with relief and turned my head back to see if the pickup was alright.

Like the dumbass I am, I should’ve kept my eyes on the road. Last thing I remembered seeing, was a tall blurred being watching me as I flew into a nearby ditch…

Author's Notes:

This is the re-edited prologue, hope any new readers. Or returning readers enjoyed it!