What is she doing? Why is she leaving with the cripple? Candace, you dumb bitch! What are you doing with this guy? He is nothing. Look at his stupid muscles as if they could make up for him not being able to stand on his own two feet. He’d thought he’d lose his mind when he saw her get into his car. It was all this cripple’s fault. He was pushing her to do these things. He was the reason she walked out giggling like some stupid girl. He’d wanted to scream when the guy kissed her hand. How dare that jerk!

He’d waited for them to come back from dinner, getting angrier and angrier as he sat in the cold crunching the dry ramen noodles he’d stolen from the market.

Stealing things was easy when you were invisible. That was why he didn’t like getting angry. Anger let people see him. He didn’t know why the cripple could see Candace but he had to find a way to make her invisible again.

The cripple thought he was so smart with his alarm system, but he didn’t know about being invisible.

He was sorry to destroy Candace’s house, he knew how much she liked it but she had to pay. She was supposed to wait and she was supposed to stay invisible.

When they hadn’t come back fast enough, he snuck back to one of the abandoned houses, one far from where anyone still lived. That way no one would hear when he broke things. He needed to break things. Needed a way to get rid of this anger so he could be invisible again.

Unfortunately, he needed to make Candace invisible too. He liked her better when she was invisible, like she had been at that place. Smashing things at one of the abandoned houses cleared his head and then he’d come back here to Candace’s. Breaking the little garage windows had dimmed the light coming from her some but not enough. He needed to do more.

He’d brought the shovel from the other house. He was thinking about using it to kill one of the cats that hung around Candace’s. Tonight they all seemed to be somewhere else.

He was in the darkness looking at her big picture windows when he realized what he could do. Double checking to make sure he wouldn’t be seen he swung the shovel like an axe. Over and over until there was nothing but two gaping holes.

The windows shattering took his breath away. It was so beautiful, all that brokenness. Candace would see, this was best for both of them. They were the broken, invisible people. She had to see that. She would know it was him, he was sure of it.

He watched everything from the bushes. First the cops arrived then people started coming out of their houses. When Candace showed up with the cripple he’d seen it. For a few minutes she’d gone back to being invisible. Then the cripple had called to her and her light had come back. He could see the light leaking from her around the edges. He needed to turn that light off so nobody could see her!

He almost lost his invisibility when he’d watched her come out of her house with a bag. She’d tried to say she could just stay there. The breath left his lungs. She would be open to him. He’d climb through the broken glass to get to her. What were a few cuts and scratches to someone who could be invisible?

Then the meathead had told her he was taking her home. She was home! She had dimmed from earlier this evening when he’d seen her at work. No bright lights, not even a soft glow. He’d been right, he could make her invisible again if he pushed hard enough. Then the jerk had held her hand, rubbing it between both of his and her light had started to shine again. No! She needed to stay invisible, stay his!