2.

Late afternoon on the eighteenth day of July 2001, Jerry Grady's life changed unceremoniously forever, in truth there had been quite a bit of change to his and in his life over the previous two years and what came on this July day had been coming for at least the previous twenty-two months and with that truth, he could never have foreseen what would come to him and his family.

A young man had met a young lady as so happens so often in the history of the world and right from the get-go. with this particular meeting he knew he met the lady he was going to marry. Eve Gretski knew this too though she had let on that it wasn't so. She made Jerry Grady work to win her hand, even with the fact that she was the instigator, and work he did to win her hand he did just as a gentleman should.

When a pregnancy came along, it brought change and disaster. Unlike with other families or soon to be families running head on into their own oncoming train wrecks, unusual physical and mental effects of an arriving child hit the male half of the relationship more so than the female half. Though in that, it would even out ... kinda. Little could he know, as with all others being affected by Darkness, that there was an external influence in effect and at that it could be something affecting for so much longer than the past number of months.

Over the nine months of the pregnancy, even during the time a certain thing occurred, neither Jerry nor Eve knew there was an external influence at work, and over the thirteen months after little Maxene was born Jerry became lethargic, he felt every movement he was to make, he felt each step he took as if something were pulling at him, and he felt all this except for times when he didn't ... At first, he thought he may be ill in some way or another but the drag upon him refused to leave him be.

With illness ruled out, doctors gave him the usual runaround stating stress as being the catalyst for how he feels. They even ruled out issues from his past. Fatherhood, work and whatever else there is in his life, Jerry Grady is told to slow down and relax himself as much as possible, this he could not do nor could he take the way he feels out on his wife. Their relationship remained as strong as it ever had been and both husband and wife believed that to be true.

Half past two in the morning on July eighteenth the cries of a thirteen-month-old child wakes both parents. Eve suggests that Jerry goes into the other room to try get whatever sleep he can. They are not a wealthy family, and they are not poor either however and with what he has been told, Jerry hasn't slowed his working hours or activities in general and with how he has been for close to two years now Eve suggests he rests as well as he can. Eve will take care of Maxene.

Before he leaves the shared bedroom to head to the guest bedroom Maxene's cries subside momentarily. Jerry turns to view his wife and daughter and sees Maxene's stuffed teddy rabbit levitating up and out of her cot. It soon falls and the cries return.

In work and close to the end of the working day on the day that was, is and forever will be ... before afternoon can become evening, Jerry receives a phone call and he is sure that it is his wife calling, and to him she sounds as if she were in distress. Perhaps there is an intruder in their home. He rushes home as quickly as he could through a heavy downpour of rain, crashing his car oh so close to home. In his panic he is more concerned with his family's welfare than anything else.

With how Maxene had been during the previous weeks Eve herself is tired too, she is in bed when Jerry arrives home and there is where he finds her and believes her to be safe and sound with Maxene in her cot right next to the bed. All through the home there are no signs or a break in or any signs of a disturbance and when Jerry makes his inquiry, he is told that Eve had not called him at all.

This is not right, not right at all. Along with his panic to get home Jerry had called the police in case they could get to his home before he does. If there had been an attack, then they may possibly be able to thwart it before any harm could come.

As it was, indeed, Jerry got there first and as he talks with his wife, the police arrive. He had left the front door open so when they called out to announce their arrival Jerry called out a reply, prompting officers to enter the home.

'Up here officer' Jerry calls out. 'Sorry to have called you, it was a misunderstanding' he says as two officers come into the bedroom.

'Sir, what happened here?' one of the officers asks.

Jerry had turned his head away from his wife as the officers had come up the stairs and into the bedroom. 'Nothing happened ... everything is ...'

His eyes revert back towards his wife. Eve is dead in bed, covered in her own blood and Maxene is not in her cot.

Jerry's injuries from crashing his car are minimal. He himself is not bleeding and he is not concussed. He is cleaned up to some degree after having been arrested and he spends the night alone in a jail cell. In the jail cell there is a stuffed toy teddy rabbit just like the one his daughter owns, if anything he feels he can be sure it is the exact rabbit that belongs to Maxene.

In the back of a vehicle some five years or so later, Maxene sits in the back of a car she had never seen prior to this day, she also does not know the two men sitting in the front two seats. As the vehicle races off to an as yet unknown destination Maxene tightens her grip on that stuffed rabbit of hers.