Her soft footsteps made barely a sound as she tiptoed down the wooden stairs that lead up to the second floor where her and Adam's rooms were. The night had fallen heavy on the Windsley house, smothering emotion and suffocating truth. Everything felt wrong. There was an unnerving chill about all of this, and no matter how Jessica had tossed and turned, she had been unable to fall asleep, the quasi-death she so yearned for constantly kept just outside her grasp, and, unable to bear it, she now found herself leaving the faux comfort of her room to seek refuge downstairs.

Outside, the moon shone brilliantly, the thousands of seeing stars peeking through even the heavy fog that laid strewn about the town like an embodiment of the anxiety and fear that littered the psyches of all the poor suffering souls down there. How could the moon shine so brilliantly, considering what had happened earlier that day, what had ripped open it’s way into this dimension from someplace else, someplace wherein monsters thrived, like a butcher chopping up the ribcage of a still-living swine and letting the innards spill out.

Jessica sighed at seeing such a jovial, brilliant sight, and finally came downstairs. She couldn’t hear anything in particular, but the second she took a step into the downstairs area, she knew she wasn’t alone. But it didn’t surprise her. The whole house felt restless, uncertain. And, just around the corner, sitting in the darkness and the emptiness, John was seated on the couch, his eyes staring straight ahead at the nothingness as if it would unravel itself, revealing the truths of the matter. There were no truths.

He turned around after Jessica had been staring at him from the corridor for a minute or so. He didn’t say anything to her, but he nodded. Jessica understood, and slowly, almost cautiously, made sure not to make a sound as she moved through the room like a spectre.

Sitting down, she faced him, and he faced her. The question haunted them both, but neither dared ask it. Jessica was assured that it was Adam, John was certain he was not. And yet, somehow, they related to each other. They understood the position the other had taken, and could not debate it. Their disagreeing lay not in fact, after all, but in feeling. John would be the first to speak.

“...I couldn’t sleep,” John mumbled, deciding not to deal with the heart of the matter quite yet, and although he said it quite softly, in the serene, unnatural calm on the night, it was loud enough.

“I doubt many can tonight,” Jessica replied matter-of-factly, sounding more mature than she had any right to be. John groaned, unable to stand the tension.

“I don’t think he is Adam, and I stand by that…” a pause, “but, since I respect your opinion, and… well, he hasn’t done anything strange yet, I… I’ll let him stick around. But if he ever does something too odd…”

Jessica understood the underlying threat. John was usually a meek man, to be sure, but he was no fool.

“I hope you’ll grow to understand my opinion more closely,” Jessica said courtly. The air was tense, and somehow, neither of them felt very themselves, but with everything going on, that was no wonder. They felt like strangers in their own home.

“Other than that, I… I don’t know. Will he still go to school? How about soccer and boxing practice? What’s different about him, what isn’t? I just don’t know enough, I can’t piece it together,” John lamented, his gentle face twisting into a rare form of frustration. Jessica hadn’t seen him as emotional as he’d been today since… since her mom passed away. Ever since, John had been a calm, unassuming man, only every bursting into anger due to something that actually warranted that anger. Today, with how he’d acted with Adam… she wasn’t sure if it was so warranted anymore.

“We’ll have to see. I… I don’t know either,” Jessica admitted, resting her head in her hands. Was there anything they could do? The way he’d looked at her before dinnertime… it still sent shivers down her spine. Those barely human eyes of his. But he WAS Adam! That much she was assured of. The way his hands had held her, the way their tears had mingled… he may not act like Adam much, but his emotions betrayed his identity better than any DNA-test could.

Regardless, their family would overcome. It had to. If it didn’t… Jessica couldn’t even bear the thought. They would make do. They would make this man remember who he was, reform him into who he claims to be, and if he didn’t want to, then… they would have to change their perception of who Adam was. She hoped they could go through with the former, but if Adam proved to be more stubborn than he used to be…

She sighed, leaning back in the couch as if she hoped it would swallow her and never spit her back out again, but it didn’t. Instead, she earned a sympathetic glance from John. He looked tired. The bags under his eyes had grown heavy, and his blue eyes were lined with dark rings. His slightly greying blonde hair was a mess, and overall, he seemed just about ready to pass out from overworking. But, sadly, the sweet release of sleep would not meet him, not this night. Neither would it meet Jessica, or Adam, or most of the town, for that matter.

The town, although it was silent, it was more of an eerie silence than a calm one. The more religious townsfolk were busy writing articles, praying, and worshipping their deity of choice in any way possible, believing the giant monster in the sky to either have been a demon escaping the confines of Hell, God’s wrath incarnate, or some combination of the both. Even non-religious people were suddenly finding themselves praying to some ill-defined, agnostic god, their prayers voiced in uncertain, hoarse voices filled with doubt. Children questioned their parents, and parents questioned their existence. The only ones who seemed even a smidge happy were those who believed in the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but even they doubted that the creature in the sky had been their lord and saviour. After all, it had not possessed any noodly qualities. Very suspicious.

Jessica sighed once more and stood back up, her voluptuous hips swaying slightly in her drowsy yet wakeful state. John glanced up at her, unable to bring himself to say anything. She looked back at him before walking back to her room. “Whatever happens, we’ll still be a family, right?” she asked, a little smile surfacing on her lips. John gave her a fatherly smile. “Of course,” he answered. Jessica went back to her room but was still unable to sleep. John was in the same situation, but he remained downstairs. And after a few hours, the sun rose on the sleepless town, waking the sleeping and causing the sleepless to groan unhappily and consider taking the day off. But most didn’t.