The Terror Next Door (Based on a True Story)

12)Surveillance

"Everybody wants to rule the world" by Lorde
********************

Sophia was lost at how to handle the reveal that Blake had been trifling through her locker. This was the undeniable proof that he was responsible for the spray-painting incident. The problem now was trying to find someone to believe her. She did not go to her mother or father. If neither believed Blake had somehow gotten into their attic in a stalkerish way, she highly doubted they would believe Blake was going through her locker. Sure, she had Dylan's word as proof, but she knew Alex's experience with bringing boys home all too well. Mr. Summers would probably say something silly along the lines that Dylan was only telling Sophia these things to impress her.

Although, by the time Sophia finally told someone the next day was Dylan told her, she was regretting for sharing this news with Alex of all people. Before she knew what her sister was doing, Alex had stormed her way to her bedroom closet to brandish a metal baseball bat that Sophia suspected was brand new. "What are you doing!?"

"I'm gonna go kick a punk ass!" Alex declared, starting to remove her dangly hoop earrings in dramatic fashion before rolling up her sleeves. Sophia rolled her eyes in annoyance that the young woman seemed to be missing her point.
"Aren't you wondering why I haven't told mom and dad??"

"You have poor judgement skills?" Alex countered in a guess, annoyed Sophia had launched herself in front of the door to stop her from leaving.
"Guess again."
"No, I like my first guess."
Sophia scowled at her older sister. "Think, Alex, think. We can't tell mom and dad and you can't threaten Blake with a bat!"

"I wasn't going to threaten him!" A blank stare from Sophia caused Alex to shrug sheepishly. "I was only going to confront him while holding the bat, nothing more."

"We need to be smart about this," Sophia muttered, motioning for her to follow. She pulled out a nice wad of cash that consisted of babysitting and background acting money. It was a total sum of three-hundred dollars. Sophia then made sure her blinds were closed and nobody else was around to witness this exchange before handing her sister the cash.

"You're going to pay me not to verbally whip Blake's creepy ass?" she guessed halfheartedly.
"No. You're going to buy a really nice night-vision camera system that we can set up on the side of our house. If Blake tries coming across his yard to our house again, we're going to catch him on camera."
Alex started to chuckle before she noticed her sister was not laughing. After that, she paled considerably. "You're serious."
"Yep."
"And you want to...what? Hope you catch the freak on camera while he tried to break into our house?"
Sophia nodded."If I'm right, which I feel without a doubt I am, Blake WILL try to sneak into the house again because he's stalking me. I can't catch him at school, but, I can catch him here," Sophia said.

Alex blinked a few times. "Think about what you're saying...night vision cameras, stalking, catching him? What exactly are you going to do if you catch him on camera??"
Sophia rubbed her forehead wearily. "Call the police."

Surprisingly for Sophia, her elder sister did not argue her plan was ridiculous. Instead, Alex nodded dutifully and promised to come back with a decent camera without spending all of Sophia's money. Although, the tricky part would be learning how to set it up when both girls weren't exactly savvy in the technology department. There was also the problem of setting up the camera system at a time when Blake wasn't as home to see what was going on. The first time he realized they set up a camera to catch him, the plan was dead.
***

The next day, Alex volunteered to deliver Sophia and Annie to school for their parents. Being overworked along with having other kids to chauffeur around town for school and appointments, the Summers were fine with this arrangement. Although, Sophia had made plans with her younger sister the night before. While Annie would attend and make sure Blake was in homeroom, Sophia would ride home with Alex and help set up the security camera before Blake and his family arrived home later that night. By the time they arrived back home after making sure no member of their family was still around, Alex looked nervous. "You sure you don't want to tell dad what that Dylan guy saw? He might believe you..." Sophia's skeptical look silenced her. "Well, okay, he'd challenge it every step of the way...But c'mon, secret cameras? This is crazy!"

The next two hours were spent with Sophia mainly ignoring Alex's grumbled mumble while the two read the instructions regarding how to set the battery-operated camera up and how it would report back to the small monitor that was recommended it be installed within the house. The weather was warmer than usual for early October. A seventy-eight degree weather was hitting, causing Sophia and Alex to become hot and sticky while setting up the camera. As enough time was passed and directions were very carefully followed for installation, it seemed the girls had finally succeeded in setting up the surveillance system pointed at -yet hidden from- Blake's house.
"Well, that didn't take long," Alex snorted. She started to mumble about what room to set up the inside monitor so there parents would not see it. Sophia was not paying her any attention after a few long moments. Her gaze had transferred to Blake's house. From how she and Alex arranged the camera, it was attached to a nice part of the tree trunk that could point at Blake's house and yet blend in given it was a rich brown color that blended in with the tree. From where she stood, there seemed to be an object pinned to the back of the Bradshaw's basketball hoop.

Sophia stopped looking immediately as she figured out what exactly the object was. "Mom and dad won't notice if the camera is in your room or my room. I guess we could keep it with Colin and Joe, they probably would notice anything happening given they stay up til' three in the morning..." Alex trailed off once she spotted her sister's spooked expression. "What's wrong?" she started overlooking the instructions. "I'm pretty sure we stuck it on right..."

"We didn't need to worry about Blake being home to see the camera being installed," Sophia explained, shivering once. "He'll know without having to see for himself."

"Did you see that dorky brother of his with the glasses? I thought he left cause' his car is gone."
Sophia shook her head. "Blake will know what we did today not because he or anyone in his family saw us, he'll know because he'll see us through the video camera pointed directly at our house."

As her older sister's eyes narrowed in confusion, Sophia gently turned her towards the direction of the Bradshaws' basketball hoop. Given she had never paid too much attention to the hoop, Sophia never really knew what was attached to the back of it. But now, she could. The back of basketball hoop had a small and yet defined security camera pointing directly at the Summers house and directly at Sophia and Annie's bedroom across the lawn.
**********************
Hey....You. Yeah, YOU. The one reading this part even though it's not conclusive to this story!
You should go check out this awesome murder/fantasy story located on my page.
"The Dream Stalker". It has a murder mystery with an awesome fantasy twist to it that makes it an interesting read. My two brothers and I came together to co-write our first book together!
Shameless advertising? Yeah, but the book is worth it! Check out the awesome trailer below if you want an idea of what you'll be reading!