Tara and her husband George lived in a pretty big house along a country lane where there is not a lot of traffic and no other houses close by. So it was quite peaceful, but also could be quite eerie at times to Tara. Tara is 25 and works as a writer and has had a few books published. Enough to earn for a living. George is 28 and a hot shot lawyer. Their house had all the latest gadgets, motion sensors front and back. AI controlled garage door, bath/shower, kitchen. Multiple bedrooms, walk in wardrobe, basement, loft, bathrooms on both floors, huge garden with swimming pool. They lived like a king and queen. So they should be happy, right?
6:50PM
Tara was at home, writing her next story. Being home alone working can be a little boring though. As you could imagine. George would be finishing work at 7PM and it takes him about 30minutes to get home on a good day. Tara knew this so she could get dinner and what not ready, and of course, if she was to another man round. She met Isak at a local coffee shop (well as local as you can get to living in the middle of no where) around a month ago. Isak was younger than George and Tara, at the age of 21. He was a little shorter than George who was 6’5, Isak would probably barely come up to his shoulder. Tara needed to start dinner at 7PM and for Isak to be out of the house by 7:15PM if she did not want a chance of George finding out. She has done this for a month without failure. But little did Tara know this would be the longest night of her life.
7:15PM
Dinner is cooking, Isak is leaving. Everything is going well so far. Isak’s car was parked on the driveway, a Jeep Renegade. Nice car for someone of 21, not cheap. As Isak left the house, Tara heard the AI system. *Motion detected on driveway*. Tara, now relieved. Turned the T.V on and continued with dinner. 15 minutes, not long and George would be home. But this would be the longest night of Tara’s life. Tara once again heard the AI. *Motion detected driveway*. Weird, George wouldn’t be home yet. Tara checked the driveway camera on her phone, to see what was happening. That’s when she Isak, face down on the floor of the driveway by his car. Could clearly see blood surrounding his body, then it appeared right in front of the camera. A mysterious figure, wearing a plain white blank mask and rugged clothes. As quick as Tara saw the mysterious person, they was gone.
7:20PM
*Motion detected in the garden*. Tara quickly went to check her phone but was not quick enough. The power was now out, which meant no cameras, no AI, no fancy gadgets. She could call the police but as she went to do so, no signal. Of course no signal, she never hated living down a country lane as much as she does now. Her only other option would be to go out to the garden and turn the power back on but that’d be suicidal surely or go down to basement and turn the back up generator on. Tara thought that’d be a horror movie cliche going down there in a time like this. The other option would be to wait as George would be home in 10 minutes. Not long and she’ll be safe she thought. But now Tara was thinking this is going to be the longest night of her life.
7:25PM
Tara decided to go for the basement cliche. She grabbed a flashlight from the kitchen drawer. She knew whoever this intruder is, they won’t have gotten into the house yet as she would’ve heard them. She made her way down to the basement. Tara never liked the basement, I mean who would? It was dark and cold and damp. As she got to the bottom there was a noise, something moving around. Must be a mouse. Tara continued, progressed towards the generator. As she got to the generator, there was something moving again and boxes came tumbling down. Tara quickly turned the generator on, as the lights came back on, there it was... a mouse. *Systems back online*. A huge sigh of relief came over Tara in that moment. She headed back up the stairs. *Motion detected front door* the door was banged on with such force it sounded like it would come off the hinges. As Tara got to the top, the door banging stopped. Tara heard a thud upstairs, then someone sprinted across the floor upstairs. Tara had no idea what to do now, she ran to the kitchen with intent of grabbing a kitchen knife or something, anything to defend herself. As she ran to the kitchen, behind her the intruder sprinted down the stairs. Heavy thuds with every step they took. As Tara grabbed the kitchen knife she turned quickly, wielding the knife with both hands. But no one was there. *Motion detected in garden* *Motion detected on drivewa..* *Motion detected upstairs landing* *Motion detected in basement door*. How is this happening , where is George she thought. She ran to the phone, quickly dialed 999. *999 what’s your emergency?* a hand grabbed her hand a slowly took the phone from her, and put the phone down. She looked up at the clock, 7:40PM. She turned round slowly, there it was. George standing over her, same rugged clothes as the intruder, holding the mask it was wearing. How could it have been him, and why? As Tara came to the realisation of what has happened, she felt a sharp pain in her side and before she knew it she was falling to the floor. She saw the time on her wrist, 7:50PM. This was the longest night in Taras life and it only lasted an hour.
Month Before
George was on lunch break and never leaves the office building until it’s time to go home. George has his lunch inside and goes straight back to work. A new guy had started working there and George had been tasked with showing him the ropes of the lawyer world. Isak or something his name was. Isak always went for lunch, made sure he got away from it all for 30 minutes. Isak one day met this girl at the coffee shop, the girl he described sounded a lot like George’s wife. George asked if Isak got the name of the girl, Tara he said. George didn’t tell Isak who it was. Isak left his phone unattended and George checked his messages and couldn’t believe what he was reading. George was not happy with this and wanted to see how far it would go. He found out Isak was going there after work. Isak always left on time 5pm. George liked staying late, so told Tara his hours were until 6pm. George over time became increasingly more angry and devised a plan. He would leave work early, pack some old clothes and grab a couple of masks from the Costume shop. The night came when he would leave to do what he would probably later regret. But judgement clouded with hate and all he could think was ‘It’s going to be a long night.