"Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious. They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, they lurk unrecognized. Then, later, they spring."

Margaret Atwood

He drove silently through the night; the only sounds, the faint humming of his engine and the music that he had quietly playing on the radio. He tapped the steering wheel along with the song that he recognized to be Poison's "Every Rose Has It's Thorn". He smiled, thinking that it was the perfect song to set the mood as he cruised through a small, pleasant neighborhood in the dark. Everything good also, in turn, had something bad to balance it…and that was what people needed to learn and what he wanted to teach them.

House after house he peered at the numbers, trying to find the one that he was supposed to be stopping at…until finally he saw it.

Number 2234.

It was a two-story off-white house with dark blue shudders and a dark blue door. There was an American Flag hanging on a thin, silver pole that was sticking off of their porch. And in the yard, there was a small pink bike lying in the uncut grass that had been carelessly left out after the kids had been called in for dinner.

He turned his headlights off as he approached and then parked his car in the driveway of the house across the street, which he knew that no one lived in. Luckily he had done his research beforehand, anyone wanting to get away with what they were doing, would.

Slowly, casually, he exited his car and made his way over to their house. Crouching down in the bushes of their front yard and lifting his hood over his head, he peered through the bottom of one of their large windows, unseen.

"Hey John, can you take the macaroni out of the oven really quick? I have to go get Kyle and Lila ready for dinner." A woman said as she rushed through the kitchen, setting down plates and silverware on the dining table.

When her husband, John, heard her and he heaved himself off of the couch with a dramatic groan. He picked up the TV remote and switched off the football game that he had been watching, "USC lost to LSU, 14 to 6. Can you believe it?" He muttered, sourly.

The woman paused, "USC…Southern Cal or South Carolina?"

"South Carolina."

She looked up with a surprised look on her face, "Really? I was so sure that they had that game! In my opinion, Connor Shaw is a much better-rounded quarterback then Rob Bolden." She exclaimed before letting out an exasperated sigh.

John walked up behind his wife and wrapped his arms around her. He rested his head on her shoulder, "I love it when you talk football to me." He whispered in her ear.

"Oven, John." She whispered back, patting his hands and then pulling herself out of her arms to walk towards the stairs to go get their two kids.

John chuckled and leisurely made his way towards the oven, "Anything for you, honey!" He called playfully up the stairs after her. After doing that, he pulled the macaroni and cheese out of the oven and placed it on top of the stove. There, he left it to cool.

A few minutes later, Caroline walked down the stairs, being followed by two small children: Kyle and Lila. They looked like their parents, both of them. They were both blonde and each had similar physical features to both of their parents. Kyle had his dad's nose and his mom's eyes, while Lila had her dad's eyes and her mom's eyebrows. They were both good combinations.

"Dad! Did you watch the game?" The 6 year old Kyle asked his father, sitting down at the dining table next to him.

John smiled, proud to have a son that wanted to discuss football. "Yea, I did."

Kyle grinned, "Did you see that touchdown that LSU had, where the quarterback ran it all the way from the 30 to the end zone?! It was awesome, I want to do that." He stared up towards the ceiling, as if imagining himself doing it.

"Well, quarterbacks are important, but in my opinion they aren't as important as wide receivers." He elbowed his son because on his recreation team, Kyle was a wide receiver. "Maybe this season you'll be able to beat your record of touchdowns from last year."

Kyle's eyes lit up, "Really? You think so?"

"Of course, buddy. You can do it, but you have to practice really hard and lay off the junk food." John patted his boy's stomach, "If you do that and keep your grades up, you'll be in the NFL in no time." He beamed.

Kyle's eyes sparkled, "The NFL?"

John nodded, enthusiastically. "If there was any NFL team that you could pick to be on, which would it be? Just remember there are no wrong answers." He stared at his son expectantly.

"Except for the Lions, Packers, Ravens, and the Panthers." Caroline interjected, rubbing her son's back and giving her husband a playful glare. "Don't pressure him."

Kyle chuckled, "No I'll pick..umm…" He paused and thought about it for a few more seconds before smiling as an answer came to his mind, "The New England Patriots. I'll be the next Tom Brady!"

"That's my boy!" John lifted his son out of the chair and threw him over his shoulder, running around the living room, chanting, "Patriots! Patriots! Patriots!" With his son chanting along.

"Mommy…?" The 4 year old Lila asked with big eyes, "What's going on?"

Caroline rolled her eyes and sat down in front of her daughter, "If there's anything to remember in life, Lila, it's that during football season, men are insane." She patted her lap with a big smile.

"Yes mommy." The young girl giggled and turned towards the table.

And then Caroline rounded up the boys and they all sat down for a family meal. They talked about football, school and Caroline and John even discussed their work a little bit before getting interrupted by their kids again. They seemed like a happy family.

Too happy, he thought.

As he watched them finish and start to do the dishes, he knew that it had to be then. He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and walked over to the porch. He was careful to walk lightly up the stairs so that his boots wouldn't make a noise on the wood. He pushed the envelope into the crack between the double front doors so that it stuck. Turning around, he rang the doorbell over his shoulder and quickly, quietly made his way off the porch and safely back into his spot in the bushes.

He watched as John went to answer the door, but Caroline touched his chest, "I got it." She told him, her voice wispy and maybe even a little bit seductive.

Even better, the man in the bushes thought smugly. Her reaction would be much more interesting to watch.

Caroline gave her husband a quick wink and then walked to the front door. As she pulled it open, the envelope fell to the ground in front of her.

When she bent down to pick it up, she peered through the darkness to see if the person who had dropped it off was nearby. She had no idea how close he really was.

She peeled it open slowly while shutting and locking the front door behind her. Slowly, she started making her way back towards the kitchen where she could hear her husband whistling and washing the dishes.

"Who was it?" John asked over his shoulder while scrubbing on a particularly dirty pan.

Caroline shook her head with a small shrug, "Just a letter. Someone left it and then rang the doorbell." She pulled the letter out and started scanning over it. The moment she finished it, tears started streaming down her cheeks. Her whole body was shaking and she glanced over her shoulder at the windows of her house, but the man watching was crouched too low to be seen.

John heard her crying and turned around, confused. He was glad their kids had already gone upstairs to play.

The man in the bushes waited, smiling. He wanted her to say it, out loud, but unlucky for him, all she did was try to pretend like she didn't know. She gave her husband a smile and through gritted teeth she said, "Go check the kids. Quickly." She ordered.

John stared at her questioningly, "Why? They just went upstairs…?"

Caroline glanced at the window again, "Shhh." She gave him a quick, hot glare. "Go. Check. The Kids. Please, John, can you just go check on them….for me?"

John gave her another weird look before walking past her, up the stairs and into their kids' room. And there they were, playing with each other and yelling "hi" to their dad when he walked in. He smiled, trying to figure out why his wife was acting the way that she was. He wondered if she was too stressed.

"Hey guys, are you having fun?" He grinned down at them.

"Yep! Kyle is actually letting me play leggos with him!" Lila exclaimed happily like it was a huge accomplishment for her.

John gave his son a proud nod before grinning down approvingly at his daughter, "Alright well stay in here, okay? Mommy's cleaning the house so you guys have to stay in here until we say you can come out, got it?" He raised his eyebrow.

"Got it!" They said in unison.

John gave them both a quick hug, "You two are so smart!" He grinned, "We'll be cleaning. Stay in here." He closed the door and walked back down the stairs where his wife was re-reading the letter, her eyes wide.

"What's wrong, Caroline?"

Caroline snapped her head towards him, "How are the kids?"

"Kyle is letting Lila play leggos with him. I told them we were cleaning and to stay in their room, so what's going on? You can tell me." He wrapped an arm around her as she sobbed.

"Someone's watching us, John. They said we were chosen that we needed to understand…we're going to be taught a lesson." Caroline paraphrased from the letter, which she then handed to him.

While rubbing her back with one hand, John read the letter with the other.

Dear Jensen Family,

Caroline, John, first I want to start off by telling you that Kyle and Lila have got to be the cutest kids I've ever seen and for the record, Kyle is a pretty good wide-receiver too, for an 8 year old, that is. Moving on, this letter is not only a warning, but a promise. Unfortunately for you, your family has been chosen…by me, to gain a new perspective. All I want is for you to see the world as I do: filled with evil and darkness, but the only way for that to happen is from experience…first-hand experience. I think you know what that means. I am sincerely sorry, but you should know…you aren't the first ones so don't feel too bad. I have been watching you for weeks now, just waiting for the perfect time to drop off this letter. In fact, I will be watching you when you open it. Also, you might want to make sure that you locked your back door.

John looked up from the letter at Caroline, "Did you check the door?"

"It was locked."

"He's playing with us…" He muttered angrily, wishing that somehow he could get his hands on this guy and try and give him a new perspective.

Anyway, there is one more thing I need to cover: there is no escaping me or your fate. Wherever you go and whoever you tell about this, I will know and there is nothing you or anyone else can do to stop it. Just embrace it…embrace what you have that others don't, embrace the fact that you now know just how much evil is in the world. Embrace your new perspective, because if you do, this will be much easier for the both of us. I wish you all well and I hope that you get your lives in order before we meet face to face, for the second time at least. We've met before, I've even met your kids as well, but none of you would remember because…believe it or not, I'm normal. I am a normal person and even until we meet again, I will still be normal because evil doesn't show on a face or by a person's clothing. Evil is something that comes from within and it's within everyone, even you. But, contrary to your beliefs and what you think you know about evil, you'll never quite understand…until I show you and the moment that you finally gain understanding, this paradox will finally make sense:

Evil Can Be Beautiful.

"Good and Evil are very hard to explain or understand. I'm sure that evil exists, but it is hard to isolate. Good and evil are intertwined and impossible to separate. They are not completely opposites and in fact are often one and the same." - Keith Haring

Two weeks, two filed police reports, three insane stalker letters and countless sleepless nights later…the Jensen family of Raleigh, North Carolina was found slaughtered in their home with one chilling letter left on their kitchen table.

Hello,

I'm sorry to whoever had to see this, but it had to be done. This family didn't understand. They didn't understand the difference between good and evil, they only understood the good. So that's where I came in, I gave them a new perspective, an evil perspective. Many of you may think that I'm a monster and that I will be going to Hell, etc, but I think the more pressing issue of my existence is that…you don't know about it. You could walk down the street and say hello to me without ever knowing what I'm capable of. Half of you probably already have. And do you know what that says? That says that there's more people out there like me. More monsters and people that are going to Hell, more than you can count. And they live among you…as I do. Most of them sustain their inner evils, but others…like me, choose to embrace it. We choose to use the darkness inside of us as a tool to help people learn what their friends, neighbors, co-workers and family members could be capable of someday. I bet my parents never thought that I would turn out this way, but what are you gonna do? Whatever happens, happens. Don't try to hide your past because, like god, the Devil is omnipotent. He tells all and sees all. I think you all need to get some perspective and if I had enough time, money and energy to show you…I would. So I'll just leave you with this, with the one thing that I'm certain of in my life and someday, you all will be certain of too:

Evil Can Be Beautiful.

"The Devil is real. And he's not a little red man with horns and a tail. He can be beautiful. Because he's a fallen angel, and he used to be God's favorite." – Shelby Young

"Time takes it all whether you want it to or not, time takes it all. Time bares it away, and in the end there is only darkness. Sometimes we find others in that darkness, and sometimes we lose them there again."

Stephen King