Melvin kissed Karen goodnight before getting in his car to return to his own home. Karen heaved an apprehensive sigh and gently shut the door behind her before starting off into the kitchen. She gasped in shock when she found a man standing in the center of her kitchen. Not wanting to attract attention to herself, she grabbed a nearby frying pan and held it up to strike him. She swung aimlessly and missed him when he ducked to the floor.

"I'm sorry to startle you." Michael said straightening up his back with a gentle smile on his face. "I didn't realize you would take brutal violence against me." He chuckled lightly.

"What are you doing here? Who are you? Why are you here?" Karen interrogated.

"I'm only here to speak with you. I mean no harm." He assured her softly but though her muscles had eased, she still felt suspicious towards him.

"How did you get in here? Through the window? Through the pipes? The vents?" Michael chuckled at her questions.

"Like most people, I came through the front door." He told her veraciously and her eyes narrowed at him.

"I didn't see you come in." Michael laughed.

"Well, you were at work so I wouldn't think you would have seen me come in." Karen felt like an idiot for not thinking of that but she felt more idiotic for asking questions like an immature child, like her daughter. Karen shuddered at the thought.

"Well, why do you want to talk to me?" She asked wanting to get this visit over with.

"Karen, is it? Or shall I call you Ms. Harris?" He asked her and Karen was stunned at how polite he was. She almost regretted almost hitting him with a frying pan.

"Karen is fine." She replied solely.

"Karen, your daughter has been speaking to me for quite sometime now. She tells me about the things that have been happening to her ever since you both moved here. You changed."

"How would you know? You don't even know me!" She shouted and Michael heaved an exasperated sigh.

This is going to be harder than I thought... Michael thought as he winced slightly at the booming volume of her voice.

"I would appreciate it if you would kept your voice down. I believe your daughter and the rest of the town is trying to rest." Karen crossed her slender arms over her chest as she sighed.

"Fine." Michael's expression became solemn as he continued to speak.

"I know how she feels. I have a few experiences that is similar to hers. The townspeople... You should have seen how happy they were when the mayor left. They acted like their true selves. They smiled... I've never seen such authentic smiles in one place but once the mayor returned, they went back to what ever he considered normal. They changed on me. They acted like they didn't even know me after I spent the week with them all because I'm a little unique."

"Unique how?" Karen asked narrowing her eyes once more.

"Karen, your unique, I'm unique, everyone is unique. You can't ask how someone is unique from the other because everyone knows that everyone is different from everyone else. Yes, your daughter takes after her father but are they identical? No. Even twins are unique from each other. No one is the same. The mayor makes everyone replicas, makes everyone normal. It's like everything is in black and white. Colors are like people. They're different from each other because they are different shades. The sunset is different from the sunrise and dusk is different from twilight. You shouldn't be afraid to be a little different."

"Being unique will cause chaos." Karen stated coldly. "Killers and murderers are unique and they run around taking people's lives everyday."

"I'm not saying that, Karen. All I am saying is-?!" She harshly cut him off.

"Don't come at me like you know me. You don't know me."

"I know I don't but I know you well enough to know that this isn't the real you. That man changed you."

"I like change." She said forcing a tiny smile.

"Yes, change is good but what you change into matters. What you are now isn't what you were then. Karen, look back to when you first met the mayor, the things he said about the man living up in that mansion. What did he say?" Karen squeezed her eyes shut and when she opened them, a glint of fury was ablaze in her eyes.

"That freak..." she murmured to herself and Michael felt as if a knife sliced right through his heart, "luring children into his house like some pervert. How could he scare people with all of those tricks? He's a freak to society, a person who belongs in a circus-?!"

"'You don't know that!" Michael shouted suddenly, startling himself and Karen, "You can't judge a person unless you have walked a day in their shoes. Isn't that what people are taught? All that glitters is not gold? Don't judge a book by it's cover? Don't believe everything you hear? How do you know he does that? How do you know that he's a pervert or he's making children come into his home for that matter? What proof do you have? Have any of the children reported that? Have you seen it yourself?"

Karen remained silent as her eyes snapped down to her fuzzy white slippers.

"How do you know he's not a pervert?" she asked keeping her eyes down.

"How do you know he is?" He snapped and Karen sighed. She didn't know how to answer the question. She was angry with him but she knew he was right and she hated him for that. But she wasn't going down without a fight.

"How do you know my daughter?" She asked intentionally changing the subject.

"That is not the matter that should be concerned at this moment but I'll answer your question since your her mother." He sighed and smiled when he saw Brittany eavesdropping from the stairwell. He didn't want to get her in trouble so he didn't make her presence known. "She found me, actually. I call it fate."

"Who are you?" She asked. She remembered how happy Brittany had been that day, how she glowed as if she was the sun with legs. Michael leaned against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest.

"I'm the man who made love to your daughter." He replied boldly and Karen recoiled in horror as she gasped in shock. Brittany snuck up the stairs to go laugh in her bedroom.

"You little-?!" He unintentionally cut her sentence short.

"You know who else I am? I'm the man the mayor hates. I'm the man  that 'lures children into his home'." He said using his fingers as quotation marks. "I'm also the man that cares about your daughter. Why aren't you there for her? Why do you always ignore her?" Karen was too shocked by his known identity to even respond to his questions.

"And while I'm at it, why the hell are you marrying that man? Can't you see that he isn't good for you? You deserve so much better." Silence swept over the room once John entered the kitchen and he instantly took notice to Michael and Karen. They both fixated their eyes on him and he blushed lightly.

"Oh, I, uh, um... Sorry to interrupt..." Another wave of silence swept between them. He felt so awkward just standing there and staring at them like there was something wrong with his eyes.

"Okay. I'll go." He said and retreated in an anxious haste up the stairs. Karen still stared at the spot where he previously stood as if he were still there. Her face was slightly flushed and she smiled but it fell once she looked up at Michael.

Michael finally knew the whole reason why she chose to marry Melvin, why John came here in the first place.

"Your still in love with him, aren't you?" Michael asked and Karen's eyes widened, stunned. As she spoke, she stumbled over her words as if it were her first time speaking.

"I-I am over him! I divorced him! I-?!" He gently cut her off.

"But you regretted it, didn't you?" He asked taking a step towards her. She paused before quickly shaking her head.

She had to think about it.

"How about you just remarry him? I mean, he's here. He still loves you, you know?" Karen's eyes lit up like floating lanterns.

"He does?" She questioned with a glint of hope in her eyes.

"Yes, but you would like to hear it from him, wouldn't you?" He asked with a cunning smile that made her blush. A smile twitched it's way onto her lips but it melted away and she squeezed her eyes shut as the image of the mayor flashed in her mind.

"No! I'm in love with Melvin!" She shouted and Michael's heart sank.

"Fine. Marry him. I tried to help you but I guess your too much of an ass to realize the truth." Karen glared at him at the insult he threw at her, "At least John cares for your opinion instead of cutting you off like your lower than him." Michael turned to leave and froze when he saw the mayor entering the kitchen.

"Karen, have you seen my jacket? I can't find it..." His voice trailed off as he scowled at Michael. As Melvin glared into Michael's eyes, he memorized the mystifying depth, how endearingly dark they were yet still shone brightly as if a light was being held to his face.

He was never going to forget those eyes.

Without saying a word, Michael brushed pass the mayor and embarked on his brief journey home.

"Who was that?" Not wanting to get Brittany into any trouble, Karen shook her head quickly.

"No one." She replied. Melvin shrugged his shoulders and extracted his jacket from the couch before returning to his car. Brittany entered the kitchen and smiled at Karen.

"Thanks." She said and bolted up the stairs to avoid her punishment but they both knew that she was going to get it tomorrow.