(4 years earlier)
In its celestial majesty, the moon held dominion over the suburban neighborhood. It hung suspended, casting a spectral pallor over the landscape below. Its ethereal light filtered down, washing over the residential street, where white picket fences stood like sentinels, neatly trimmed lawns glistening with dew under its glow. Like slumbering giants, the houses were steeped in silence, their windows dark as the world slept. They basked under the soft incandescence of porch