The Invisible Man

People love gore, as long as it's happening to someone else.

For the first time, Sandy resented her followers. Daily, more of them were siding with Karl on this issue, while she, Sandy, was still furious at him. She thought her husband was sick, and needed psychiatric help. They thought he was funny. And clever. Quirky. They'd nicknamed him "Tim". The Invisible Man, see? The man they never saw. It added to his mystique.

He'd never wanted to have an online presence, didn't even have a Facebook account, and loathed the idea of his kids being "splashed all over the internet". She'd fought about it with him. He stayed out of the picture, literally and figuratively.

He would be furious if he found out what she'd done.

How much worse could it get, though?

Each morning, Sandy got up at 5am, and went to see what "Jingles" the elf had done this time. He'd written threatening messages on the fridge, on the mirror and on cookies, in red icing. One morning, he was in a circle of candles with odd sympbols daubed around it. Another, she'd found him grinning with a scalpel and surrounded by dismembered toys. Just yesterday, he'd been sat on Summer's bed with a lock of her hair.

She recorded the whole thing, often barely holding back tears, or wide-eyed and fearful. Then she redid the scene, and recorded that, with the reaction of Summer and Wyatt when they got up.

Her fans loved both versions of elf naughtiness... but the kicker was, they seemed to love the gruesome stuff more. Karl would hate it that his content was getting more engagement than hers, and seemed to be more popular.

Her plan had been to record everything, see how far he would go, and use it all for more content. Now she regretted this choice. She was burning to confront him about it. Now she looked back, the knife by Mateo's bed? That was a credible threat to her baby's safety! So stupid! So irresponsible! What if Matty woke early?

But she hadn't put a stop to it, had she? She'd even documented her own failure. How to confront him, now?