Page 118 of Show Me

She doesn’t hesitate or argue.

It only takes a moment for us to get inside the house, and then I’m at the table, flipping the laptop open, pulling up the camera feeds. “You didn’t check these yet?”

“No. When I got up, I went straight outside.”

I don’t look at her as the screens load. A different kind of tension settling heavy around us. When she noticed I was gone, she’d avoided the kitchen the same as I did.

Focus on the cameras. Front yard. Driveway. Back door. Side fence. Everything looks the same. “Let’s see who in the fuck messed with Samson and the piglets.”

Chapter Sixty-One

Ruby

The footage loads slower than it should. Or it may just feel that way because my entire body feels like it’s charged.

I stand behind Xavier’s shoulder, arms wrapped tight around myself, watching the screen flicker through angles that feel too small, too fixed, too easy to miss something in.

Front yard. Driveway. Back door. Side fence. Nothing. Nothing moves. Nothing lingers. Nothing looks wrong.

“That’s when we came in.” I point at the timestamp. My voice doesn’t sound like mine, too thin. “And that’s when the storm picked up.”

He doesn’t answer. Just leans closer, one hand braced on the table, the other moving the trackpad, scrubbing back a few minutes.

The footage jumps. Freezes. Then— Black.

My stomach drops. “What…. What is that?”

“Hold on.” His voice is steady. Too steady. He scrolls forward. Still black. Back. Black again.

“What time is it?”

“Eleven,” he says. “Right around eleven.”

My pulse kicks. “That’s after the storm picked up.”

“Shit.” His attention shifts behind me. “The microwave. I noticed this morning it was blinking but didn’t think anything about it.”

My shoulders slump. The power went off.

He keeps scanning. “All of them.” The words are barely decipherable as if he’s speaking more to himself than me.

Every camera. Every angle. Gone.

My fingers dig into my sleeves. “They knew.” The words coming faster now. “They knew the power would go out. Or they were watching and saw it happen and–”

“Ruby.”

I don’t stop. “They used that. That’s when they, when they went out there, when they…. They brought their own feed….” My voice breaks. “They were outside while we were inside. While we were….”

“Ruby.” His chair scrapes back.

I pace to the right until I hit the counter and turn again, breath coming too fast, too sharp.

“They were in the yard,” I say. “They opened the gate. They led Samson out with their own feed. They took the piglets. What if they hadn’t come back? What if–”

“Hey.” His hands are on me before I can turn again. Firm. Grounding.

He pulls me in without asking, one arm wrapping around my back, the other settling at the back of my head, pressing me in against his chest.