"There is nothing new except what has been forgotten."

Marie Antoinette


To say that Emily hated airports would be an understatement. The maze of security precautions, while completely necessary for safety, were extremely inconvenient. When she walked through the scanner with her arms over her head, they stopped her because of a small piece of metal attached to her shirt. By protocol, they had to pat her down. And after that, the bag before hers got stopped on the conveyor belt so she was stuck. It was a while before they finally finished searching it and pushed the rest of the bags through. She was thankful that it was finally over.

Before her flight, she went and got coffee which she took with her as she boarded the plane: 451 to Seattle. From there, she was told that there would be a rental car already paid for in her name that she would drive to Culver, specifically to the address she was given.

Once in that new city, she would be known as Emily Parks. They were supposed to use different last names so that they could not be tracked, everything else could stay the same. She would also be taking a part time job of a secretary in the nearby police station. That role would include filing case reports and also helping to organize the police reports coming in. It didn't sound challenging, especially after the line of work she had been in before.

The plane ride was long, 5 hours and 15 minutes. She tried to sleep, but the coach seat she was sitting in wasn't like the nice leather seats of the private jet she was too used to flying on.

It landed at 6:00 west coast time which was 3:00 east coast time. She got off the plane and walked through the crowded Seattle airport. It was a long walk to the rental car location, but when she finally got there the car was waiting for her. It was one of the new Ford Focuses, a white one, which she appreciated. It might have been small, but she didn't have that much luggage anyway and she thought it was cute.

After finishing the registration, presenting her newly printed license, she drove the car out of the garage and into the pouring rain. They did say that it always rained in Seattle, she wondered if that was the same for Culver.

In a few days she would find out the answer.

It was.

It was so rainy in that little town, every single day since she had arrived it had rained, some days it was just light sprinkles in the morning and then towards the afternoon she almost thought the sun would come out, but it never did. Other days, it was a full on downpour, leaving Emily cooped up in the small house she was staying in.

It was a one story Ranch-style house with a garage for her car and large windows in the living room, giving people full access to watch whatever she was doing or watching on TV. She silently made a mental note to buy some curtains.

If she walked through the living room, there was hallway that led to four doorways. Two on her left and one on her right: the master bedroom.

That bedroom that she resided in was large, with a comfortable king bed in the center. A large bathroom was attached to it. While taking a bath one night, she found out that the tub was a Jacuzzi. That was a pleasant surprise.

The first door on the left in the hallway was a laundry room where she already started to wash some of her dirty clothes. The second door on the left was a small office with a large window just next to the desk. She would need more curtains.

The final door was at the end of the hallway, it lead to a second bedroom with a twin bed against the wall and a beautiful chandelier-lamp thing hanging from the ceiling.

The kitchen was attached to the living room, it was small, but cozy and there was door on the other end of the kitchen that lead to the fenced in backyard. She thought about getting a dog just for some company, but then she wondered what would happen to it when she returned to Virginia. Would it come too? Or would she give it away?

What the hell. Emily thought. I don't have any say in what happens in my new life so I should be able to buy a dog.

That night, she left her house and went to the pet store. They had a small selection of dogs and just as she was about to give up, one puppy jumped on her leg. It was a black lab, an all American dog. It's big brown eyes met hers and it barked, saying hi.

Emily smiled and picked the small dog up in her arms. He was the one, she was going to take him home. Petting the puppy lightly, she walked over to the man standing inside the puppy pen.

This man, he had perfectly messy brown hair that was cut just above his ears. His eyes, as they traveled up from the puppies and met Emily's, they stunned her. They were a deep, soulful green that she couldn't look away from.

"I'll be with you in a moment." He gave her a smile and continued working on the puppy in front of him, trying to give it some flea medicine. It growled at him, but he rolled his eyes and smiled. "It doesn't even hurt. He's just a little grumpy."

Emily smiled.

The man stood up all the way and looked at her, "You want to take this little guy home?" He asked, petting the dog in her arms gently with the tips of his fingers.

Emily nodded.

"Alright, well you might want to put him down for a little bit, while I set you up with some food, maybe a collar, a manual, and maybe a cage?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.

Emily nodded with a small shrug, "Yea I'll get a cage." She said.

"Good, I was hoping you would. Dogs need cages, especially puppies because they're still getting potty trained." The man grinned and led her around the store, picking up the large bag of dog food and throwing it over his shoulder. And then he grabbed her a small collar, two dog bowls, and flea medicine. After he put all of that at the register, he got a cage from the back and a manual.

"Alright," he smiled and held out the manual, "this will answer every question that you have about dog care, hopefully. And for the transaction, we need a name for the dog. If you can't think of anything, we can mail it to you and you can mail it back later if you'd like."

Emily leaned forward over the counter, "What's your name?"

"Jackson Bridges."

Emily nodded, "Perfect."

"Jackson or Bridges?"

"Jackson."

He raised an eyebrow, "Jackson? For a dog? Seems kinda long."

Emily nodded, thinking. With a shrug she added, "Jack?"

He smiled and nodded, writing it down on the paper. After that, he struggled to load all of the stuff in her Ford Focus, but with persistence, got it to fit. And then, he walked her back to her car with the puppy.

"So you just moved here?" He asked.

She looked over at him, "What gave me away?"

Jackson shook his head and gave her a small smile, "The clothes definitely." He chuckled, "You look like you're on your way to business meeting or something."

She detected the sarcasm in his voice and joined in, "Sorry I left my overalls at home."

He laughed, "Hey!" He said, feigning insultment. "I'm kidding. I thought you were new because I've lived in this town my whole life and if I had seen you before now, I would have remembered." He told her, "But why you moved here is beyond me. I'm going to guess you didn't move here for the view. Did you get a job or something?"

Emily nodded, "Secretary at the police department, part time."

Jackson whipped his head towards her, "Really? I work there too during the week and then I weekend I help my dad out with this store, my family owns it. You may not believe it, but I'm pretty close to becoming a police officer."

"What took you so long?" She smirked. He was about her age and she had managed to already get into the FBI.

Jackson shrugged. "I'm indecisive. Thought I wanted to be lawyer, started law school and dropped out after my second year and then I got a degree in Philosophy, which was fun, but had absolutely no purpose. And then…I decided I wanted to be police officer."

"Why?" She asked.

Jackson looked at the ground and then over at her, not looking like he wanted to share.

Emily immediately felt bad, "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize…"

"No it's alright. My sister went to Seattle for a job, it's a big city, but she said she would like it there. A year went by and I didn't hear from her, no calls, texts, not even a letter. So I went to Seattle looking for her, but…she wasn't there. Her apartment was full of her stuff and there was an eviction notice on the door. I called the police, but they…couldn't find her either." He sighed, "They still haven't."

Emily looked over at him, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." He opened the door for her as she put the puppy in the backseat, "Listen…you seem really nice and I'd love to show you around town sometime, maybe get to know you a little better. Would you like to go out to dinner with me? Maybe sometime next week."

Emily turned around and smiled at him, pulled a piece of paper out of her purse and scribbled her phone number on it.

He took the piece of paper and smiled, "I'll call you then."

She smiled, "I'll see you at work." And she got into the car and drove home.

The puppy settled into her house easily, it was loving and cleaning up after him and taking care of him definitely passed the time. Her first day at work was uneventful. They taught her how to do everything, none of which she found challenging and after a few hours of work she went home. Life went on like that for two and half weeks before Jackson called.

They went out on a date that weekend, he took her "sight-seeing", using quotation marks as sarcasm because everything that he showed her really wasn't extravagant. That night, they went back to her house and before she went inside, he gave her a gentle kiss goodnight.

This place was definitely a lot more traditional, this man was a gentleman, unlike a lot of the guys she dated in the city. Those men were arrogant, took her for granted, but Jackson…he didn't.

A month went by before Jackson finally spent the night. And boy did he.

Emily was finally starting to settle into this town and her dog, Jack was getting big now. He would be a great guard dog soon.

Another month went by and she barely noticed, when the third one went by she didn't even care. It was almost like she didn't want to leave now. Things with Jackson were getting serious, she was starting to get a running routine going with Jack and her job was still extremely easy. Life was good.

Until she got the letter.

It waited by her front porch for two days before she brought it in.

When she saw that it had no return address it made her suspicious, but as her profiling skills were getting rusty, she opened the letter anyway, thinking that it was a mistake from the post office.

But it was not a mistake.

He took precautions.

As she read the letter, horror spread across her face.

That night, when Jackson came by her house to pick her up, he noticed that all the lights inside her house were off. As he approached the door, flowers in his hands, he peered through the large window and saw that the living room was empty. Figuring she was in one of the other rooms, he rang the doorbell.

Inside, he heard Jack barking, but no footsteps coming to answer the door.

Minutes passed and Jackson became worried, he reached into the plant by the door and pulled out a spare key, unlocking the front door. "Emily!" He called with a smile, hoping that she was sleeping.

As he searched the rooms, he became nervous. She wasn't in any of them. Her dog followed Jackson around, just as nervously, searching for Emily as well. Jackson's last stop was the garage. When he opened the door, he saw that there was no car inside.

He shook his head and walked back into her bedroom, looking through the closet, there no clothes. She had packed up her things before leaving.

And now, after all this time she was gone?

Why?

Where did she go?

Knowingly, across the street, a man watched the actions unfold. He stared through the living room window as this man questioned why the woman would leave him. The man in the car smiled, he knew.

His plan had finally started.

The domino effect. That's what it would be. Emily was the first domino and slowly, the others would be knocked down until it finally ended.

And there as the last domino fell, he would be waiting.


"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet."

Aristotle