Chapter 1- New house owner.

Long, slim fingers touched the window so gently as if fear has taken over the person toward the mysterious glowing light on the roof of the sky. The warmth of the fingers left five fingermarks on the fogged glass with each mark ranging from big to small. Although the window was closed, the cool winter air somehow managed to slip their way into the warm little family house. The woman standing in front of the window wrapped her knee length light-pink robe around her body tighter. She slowly lower her gaze down to the closed window as a deep crease was formed in between her eyebrows. Although she wasn't saying anything, she wondered why the cold air was getting in. After a several minutes of trying to find a hole or whatnot, the middle-age brunette gave up and went back to what she was doing before; observing. Living at the end of a nice neighborhood with tall trees growing on every block, thirty-two year old Lina owns a two-floor house left to her by her dead parents. She had plenty of money with a nice house and nice car, so she was practically living in everyone's dreams! But...something was missing. Lina shifted her eyes to her side and turned her head slowly to reveal a dim light-toned living room. 

She was lonely.

The woman released a sigh and turned her attention back to the fogged up window. She closed her eyes and crossed her arms, hoping to find some kind of noise either inside or outside of her home in this early morning. And she does. Lina twitched one of her eyebrow toward the familiar sound, lightly tapping her foot on the wooden floor toward the outside beating music. Can't afford to wait anymore, Lina opened her eyes and looked down from the second floor fogged window to reveal two dark figures standing in front of a yellow cab. The first dark figure was a tall man who seemed to be handing money to the driver, who was the one that had the music turned on. Next to the tall man was a little boy, holding, or rather strangling, at something he was holding with one arm, and the other arm holding the pants of the man. Right after the driver received the money, the windows were rolled up just as quickly as the car was being driven away. Lina found that rather rude and strange, so her eyes were following the yellow can until it ran pass the red light to turn around the corner. The brunette frowned and slightly pouted at the driver's attitude before turning back to, what she's assuming to be, father and son. However... a wave of panic ran through the woman's body and she quickly retreated backward until she almost bump herself against the wall. Her hand stiffly ran over to the other side of her breast to where she could feel her steady heart beating against her chest so hard almost like she just ran three miles. "What was that..." she mumbled to herself, reaching up to her shaking lips. 

Lina closed her eyes once more and began to pace her breathing to calm down. She kept on shaking her head as if trying to shake off the headache, but everything she was doing was making it worst. Knowing that she has to know what was going on, she took small steps until she was in front of the window. Her heart was pumping against her chest, almost like it's going to jump out any second. In order to keep her mind mentally stable, she kept her hand in front of her breast and slowly looked outside to where the father and son were. To her surprise, they weren't there anymore. The woman turned from left to right trying to find the males and the luggage they were holding, but they seemed to have disappeared into thin air in just a few minutes. The woman let out a sigh of relief subconsciously and took a step back. She patted on her breast and continued to breathe in and out. "Probably from a lack of sleep." she murmured, leaving the balcony to her living room. A weak smile ran across her pale face as she walked down the dark hallway. Lina told herself not to worry about anything, but her hand wouldn't stop shaking. Finally, she came to a stop in front of the mirror where she can see that her whole body was trembling.

Normally, Lina's elegant appearance contains a soft blush on her cheeks with pink full lips. There's always some kind of pleasant look on her face, rather if it's a simple smile or grin, and one can never fail to get positive energy from her. Her long brown hair and skinny body always gave people a feeling that she's a friend and not a foe. Tonight, however, the brunette looked like a different person. She almost went into shocked by how fear have taken over her. Her face was no longer pink, but a sick greenish pale color under her eyes. Her lips were white, almost as if she wore nude lip gloss. Lina's long fingers ran through her silky brown hair roughly. She ignored the pain of getting her hair pulled, and the nasty habit of continuously biting the inside of her cheek was causing her to bleed inside. She didn't understand why she was feeling this way, but it definitely had something to do with the father and son she saw earlier. The woman paused and stopped what she was doing, and her arms naturally fell down to her side as she stared at the empty sink. Thinking back, why did she get so scared anyway? 

Stopped biting the inside of her cheek, she began to bite and play with her painted fingernails. Back in the balcony earlier, she looked down and...saw the tall black figure look back at her. It was hard to see his eyes from the second floor, but Lina could of swore that the man was definitely staring at her. Not only was he staring, she also saw something red that reminded her of jewelry except...it was two glowing jewelry in his eyeballs?? The woman shook her head and cleared her throat. "Impossible." she told herself. Could she have seen a ghost? Suddenly feeling a gust of cool air behind her, Lina almost bend down and cover herself up for whatever danger was behind her, but instead she just turned rapidly around. There was nothing behind her at all. The same weary smile ran across her pale face again, but since she was not even sure of herself anymore. She ran out of the bathroom without turning off the lights and into her bedroom to hide under the covers.

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Although Lina has always had the habit of going to sleep early and waking up before anyone else is awake, the poor lady has been laying in bed until the afternoon when the sun is burning the most. Ever since her parents passed away last year due to a car accident, she hasn't been looking for a job or anything. Luckily, her parents saved her quite a lot of money that enabled her to support herself using the cash up until now. Today, however, would be the day when Lina would have to look for a job. It was already the afternoon and the brunette felt that half her day has already passed by. If only she didn't see the strange 'things' outside her house the other day, and if only she would stop shivering whenever she thought of it! No matter how hard a person tries to forget something, they end up remembering it even more, especially if it's something that would leave a scar on them forever.

Lina got out of her pink robe and into a simple navy sweater with leggings matched with sneakers. She didn't have to wear anything fancy, since she was only going out to grab a newspaper to seriously search for a job. The woman grabbed her keys and cellphone before heading out the door, and the minute she was outside, she could tell something was different. Lina turned to her left toward the old broken-down house that was for sell for a couple of months and realized that the for-sell sign was gone. Although nothing else really changed about the appearance of the house, Lina couldn't keep her eyes away from it. The atmosphere has grew gloomier compared to the usual lively and happy neighborhood. With a shrug, Lina tried to let it go and walked down the opposite side where she quickly saw some familiar faces talking to one another. Right down the block are some of Lina''s friends that she met when she first moved in. For some reason, the women didn't seen to notice her. They kept on mumbling to each other, and occasionally, pointed at a tall bulky man that has just turned the corner. 

Lina has never seen him before, and before she was able to say or do anything, the man bumped and shoved her shoulder. She tripped over her feet and end up getting pushed against the tree trunk. The brunette moan in pain and went down on her knees, managing to only open one eye toward the strange man walking down the road.

"Poor girl! And he didn't even turn or say sorry or anything huh!" one woman said, coming and helping Lina to get her back to her feet.

"I knew he was weird from the start. Was Mr. Bolinkey really that desperate to sell the house?" another woman with blonde hair complained, crossing her arms while looking from Lina to the strange man. "If he fixed his house up, he might be able to sell it for good money. But he HAS to sell it to some weirdo."

Lina bit her lips and stood up with her back leaning on the tree truck for support. She tried to stretch her neck to see the stranger, but he was either out of sight or being blocked by the crowd of women. "So you mean...Mr. Bolinkey finally sold the house, and he sold it to him?" Lina asked.

The two women nodded and Michelle, the lady who came to help her out, took Lina's arm and shook her head. "You live the closest to his house too. You didn't know anything about them moving in?" she questioned. Sometimes Lina couldn't tell if Michelle is really just asking questions out of goodwill, or she is just simply nosy. 

Not wanting to talk about the incident she encounter the other day, she just shrugged it off and looked at Sandy, the older woman with obviously dyed blonde hair. She was still saying something underneath her breathe, and during the whole time, she kept on looking down the road to where the man left. 

"Ah! Do any of you know when that guy moved in?" Lina asked and accidentally applied force on herself, which almost caused her eyes to tear.

The two women looked at each other and frowned. "I think it was like, 3 days ago. But no one really knows..." Sandy said.

Trying to recall back to the day of the incident, it was about 3 days ago. But either way, that man has to be the guy that she saw outside her window. There's no other possible explanation... All of a sudden, her body began to tremble. 

"Oh dear, you must really be in pain. You're shaking!" Michelle said, rubbing on Lina's back as if to give her comfort. Lina shook her head and put her hand in the air to stop her. She clearly knows why she was trembling, and the wound on her shoulders had little to do with it too.

For some reason, Lina felt an urge to move and live somewhere else.