Free White Space Season 2 by Platt + Wright

jumped out of bed, racing from her bedroom, into the hall, and through Aubrey’s door.
    Roger stood beside their daughter’s crib, or rather a ghostly image of him flickering in and out of her still gummy sight.
    He looked up at her, eyes wide as he shouted, but his voice was crackling as if coming through some distant transmission. There were many sounds that were sort of like words coming out of his mouth, but not a single sound made any sense.
    “What?” she asked.
    Roger tried speaking again, but his voice was still lost in the static.
    No, this can’t be real.
    She inched closer, remembering the horrible nightmare she had of him shooting Aubrey.
    This is a dream. This is a dream. I have to wake up.
    Liz stepped closer. Roger grew brighter as the air around her grew frigid.
    She reached out and touched Roger’s chest. His image rippled as if she were dipping her fingers into a still lake. He faded for a moment, then rippled back into view.
    What the hell?
    Roger looked her up and down. His eyes were wide and terrified. His mouth continued to scream something with no voice behind it, eyes still glazed with panic.
    Then it suddenly came through, as if on delay, “Liz! Get the kids and get out! NOW!”
    “What?” she cried, confused. Aubrey cried out in the crib, eyes on her Daddy, as if she wanted to be held.
    “Get OUT!” he shouted again.
    An explosion of noise erupted downstairs and thundered through the house.
    “No!” Roger cried out, raising his hands as if pleading with God — or something — to stop whatever was about to happen.
    “What’s going on?” Liz cried back, running to the window and seeing the back of a pickup truck sticking like a hitching thumb from the front of her house.
    Her heart beat like a hammer on brick as Roger began to flicker and fade.
    “Don’t leave,” Liz yelled.
    Two loud pops pounded through the house — gunshots from down the hall.
    “Alex!” Liz screamed, her body headed out the door before her mind thought to grab Aubrey and run.
    As she stepped into the hall she saw a shape approaching from Alex’s room — a man standing with his back to her.
    The shape turned slowly in the darkened hallway until it was facing her, and Liz could clearly see Bruce Henderson, holding a gun.
    He shot Alex!
    Liz cried out, “No!”
    Their eyes met. Something inside his eyes wasn’t right, not just angry, but mad . She didn’t have time to figure out what that meant, since they were also burning with a fury that had likely murdered her son. Liz ducked into Aubrey’s bedroom, throwing the door shut and locking it as fast as she could.
    Outside the door, she heard Bruce running toward her.
    Oh, God! Oh, God!
    Aubrey screamed as Liz scooped her up, terrified, confused. Liz weighed her options as the monster pounded on the wood. It was only a matter of time before he would shoot his way in. The light went on in the hall, as Bruce jiggled the doorknob hard.
    “Oh, Mrs. Heller … I’ve got a package for you,” Bruce nearly sang, sounding both drunk and crazy.
    She had to save Aubrey. Had to save them both, get out the window, jump down to the ground, and run next door, call the cops, something. Anything.
    Liz hoped to God her boy wasn’t dead like his father, that he was still clinging to life in his bedroom, and that she, or the police, could somehow save him.
    Bruce has come for payback. To take Roger’s son, just as Roger took his. But he’s not done. He wants to kill us all.
    “Open up!” Bruce shouted, banging again.
    Liz went to the window and unfastened the latch. She tried pulling it open, but it was stuck, and hard to manage with one hand still holding her baby.
    She had to set Aubrey down.
    Shit!
    Liz leaned over, laying Aubrey on the floor beneath the window. Her daughter’s shrill scream grew louder.
    “I know, I know, Baby. Just a minute,” Liz said as she yanked on the window, but it was still stuck. She pulled again, tugging harder until her fingers were