Suburban Doldrums

Living out in the suburbs has its pros and cons.

In the pro column, you managed to find an incredible five bedroom house for dirt cheap. Something about a triple ****. The real estate agent went to great distances to gloss over "the incident." The price was low enough that it was pretty obvious that the agency was **** find a seller. Add in the fact that the cleaning crew did a very good job, and it was a really good neighborhood, you went for it.

For the cons, it was a good neighborhood, but it was a really quiet one. A lot of families and retirees, not a lot of singles your age. Your neighbors on one side were a young family that were clearly pulled from central casting for "generic nuclear family." The father did something in finance. He seemed to be gone all the the time. The mother was a youngish brunette, but the toll of running the household for her family had was evident. Her kids seemed...fine? You had meet them, but you didn't really get to know them too well. There was a college age son, but rumor is that he was expelled for something no one seemed willing to say. Out loud, at least. Then there were the twins. As exciting as the term "twins" may be, these two were nothing amazing. Nice enough girls, but both were dedicated bookworms. They were tall, but beanpole thin.

On the other side, well that was a bit of a mystery. There were two women living there, from the glimpses he got of them, Marked had them pegged as being in their late forties, maybe early fifties. They were very standoffish, Mark's interaction with them was limited to a few waves from their respective driveways. As their mailbox had the name "Scotts" painted on it, Mark felt comfortable making the assumption they were either lesbians, or possibly sisters.

After dropping his bag by the door, Mark found a lump in his coat pocket when he went to hang it up. Finding the toy gun, he couldn't help but remark about how much of high quality prop it seemed to be. Someone was probably missing it. Trying to figure out the best thing to do about returning it, he ambled into the kitchen to grab himself a beer, and get his weekend off right. Mark grabbed some leftover pizza and was chowing down over the sink. Looking out his window, he saw the neighbor's kid...Jack...maybe, cleaning their pool. "Hmm...guess his mom finally made him do some chores." The kid seemed like the sort who peaked in high school. Tall, and looked like he once was pretty fit. Maybe a wide receiver or corner back. But things had clearly gone downhill since commencement. "Guess it's a good thing they got him doing some work, but he's not exactly eye candy."

Finishing off his slice, was inspecting gun as he reached to grab his beer. "Kind of looks like a toy I had growing up. I wonder if it makes the same sci-fi noises?" The instant he pulled the trigger there was a loud ZAP and a flash of light that caught Mark by surprise, causing him to drop his beer into the sink. Once he finished swearing and picking the broken glass out of the sink, Mark looked and was stunned at what he saw.