Forever Hunted

Preface
I never imagined that this horror could happen to a small town girl like me. I had no enemies, how could this happen, what did I do to deserve this fate? I always thought that I would die an old lady in my home with a husband and a happy family, not seventeen and hunted by a monster. I had been tracked like an animal. I couldn’t hide forever and he knew that. I felt bad, my dad and friends knew nothing of this, what would the story be when I went missing? Would John tell my dad everything, or would they make up a story about my disappearance? I tried not to think of how bad I would be hurting the people I loved; Sam, my dad, John, Annabelle, Kyra, Aaron, everybody was going to miss me, and I couldn’t do anything about it.
         I looked around the tiny shack I was in; there was no one to help me and nothing I could use to defend myself; I could never beat his amazing strength or speed. I looked back at the doorway where my murderer was waiting, he stared into my eyes with a fierce look of accomplishment, he had found me, and now he was going to kill me.
 
Chapter 1:
The Last Day
         The warm yellow sun beat down on my face and neck warming my body. I could literally feel my pores soaking up the golden rays of sun as I lay in a grassy field, yellowed by the sun. There was not one cloud in the sky, it was a perfect blue. The faint song of a stream flowed nearby and Robins sang from the forest trees that enclosed this meadow, my meadow.
         Everything was the same as it always is, except for one thing, I was conscious that I was dreaming this place. The same place that held my dreams every night, my perfect escape from life. Soon I would hear a snap in the woods warning that something big was coming. My head snapped to the left right on cue as I heard a snap in the woods. I knew what was coming next too, the sky would suddenly get dark, clouds would roll in and my sun, the liquid gold I had been absorbing seconds before disappeared like it had fallen directly out of the sky. The same thing happened every night I didn’t think twice about me realizing that I was dreaming, until I heard a faint beep that was so unnatural I rolled around on the ground trying to find the source of the sound that was right near my head.
         I stopped rolling around when I realized that I was falling. My alarm clock was the annoying noise and in the midst of acting crazy in my dream I rolled too far off my bed and landed on my thinly carpeted floor. I stood up and slammed my fist against the torturous device dragging my sheets back onto my bed.
          “Ugh, what a great way to start my Friday morning, waking up on the floor with a bruise on my forehead!” I said out loud while fixing the sheets on my bed. It was the last day of school before spring break; the last day I would be able to see my best friend, Kyra Lacroix, until next month, she was going to France to visit her family. But I am staying here in Sheridan, Wyoming with my dad, Paul Evans.
         I got up and walked across the room to turn on the lights and to get dressed for school. I sluggishly walked to my closet, still half asleep, and picked out clothes for school; jeans and a light blue tee-shirt were the first thing that my fingers touched. So that’s what I put on.
         I went into the bathroom to get ready for my long day of school. I stared at myself in the mirror, my big brown eyes scanned everything, and I had a feeling that something was different but it wasn’t. I was brushing my long dark hair when my dad came in to brush his teeth before going to work at the fire station. I heard him thirty seconds before I saw him; he was not a graceful person. My father
         “Good morning,” my dad mumbled through a mouth full of tooth paste.
         “Morning dad,” I replied. He left the bathroom and went down stairs to leave for work. I finished getting ready by putting my hair in a ponytail and putting some concealer on the newly formed bruise.
         I left the bright yellow bathroom and walked down the mahogany staircase into our newly redone kitchen. It still smelled like fresh paint and sawdust, I’m never going to get this smell out of my nose, I thought. Opening one of the new cabinets made to match our staircase I pulled out a bowl for my cereal. I then had to go on a scavenger hunt for the cereal cursing my father and the construction workers the whole time. I finally sat down at our tiny kitchen table, since it was just the two of us who needed a fancy table anyways? I chewed each bite slowly since I had a lot of time before I needed to go to school.
After I was finished I walked down the hallway that connected the kitchen to the living room. This hallway had a time line of pictures of me from kindergarten to my junior year in high school; my senior pictures haven’t arrived yet.
         Right at the beginning of the hall I always close my eyes as I walk past the picture of my mom and dad at their wedding on a boat called The Marisol, and the one of me in the hospital after my mother gave birth. I didn’t like to look at these pictures because they brought painful memories of when my mother left that September morning.
          I sat on my dad’s beat up old recliner and turned on the T.V in our light green living room, the news was on so I listened in,
         “And now for the weather with your weather man, Nicolas Taylor,” said the announcer.
         “Thank you Dave. The weather for today is going to be sunny and in the 60’s, perfect for going outside or taking hikes” The weather man said, “But there might a chance of clouds and rain later this afternoon at around three o’clock” he continued.
Of course it starts to rain after I’m let out of school. I thought to myself. I flipped off the television and grabbed my car keys that were hanging on the key rack right next to the front door. The weather man had already put me in a bad mood and now I was off to the next worse thing; school.
         I walked to the drive way where my truck was parked; it wasn’t much. I had bought it with my money from my 16th birthday. It was the nicest one that was in the lot that I could afford and it has lasted these two years with me, which was is surprising.
          While I was on the road I went over lessons and things I needed to know for the tests. For social studies I need to know all about the European Industrial Revolution and for Spanish I just need to know how to speak the language.  I went over all of it to myself. All of these tests should be easy, I thought.
         I was getting high grades in every class, so why was I freaking out about today? Something seemed weird, no birds were chirping and the usual joggers weren’t running. I drove in silence not even bothering to turn on the radio or to put a CD in. The sun was out and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the feeling that something bad was going to happen was getting stronger as I neared Sheridan High School.
         I pulled into a parking spot near the front doors of the school next to my best friend Aaron Harvey’s black Jeep. He saw me pull in and he got out of his car and came up to my window.
         “Hey, Brea! I can’t believe it’s the last day until spring break. I’m going to California to visit my uncle, you remember him right? You went with us to the lake.”
         “Yeah, I remember him; he was really funny and made the best jokes!” Memories of being almost drowned flooded my memory when Aaron mentioned his uncle’s name.
         Aaron and I were swimming in the ocean when we were 15. One of the biggest waves I had ever seen crashed right on top of me and the current started dragging me out to sea; his uncle saved me from a certain death. I shuddered as I remembered the look in Aaron’s eyes as the wave pulled me towards the deepest part of the ocean, and his uncle’s strong arms as he pulled me to shore and carried me to the life guards.
         “Yeah that’s him,” Aaron laughed trying to lighten the mood. He didn’t like to remember that either.
         Aaron’s chocolate brown eyes were warm and kind as he looked at me in my blue truck. I knew that he liked me but he never told me, he tried not to show it but it just wasn’t working for him. We had been friends since we were in diapers and I always thought of him as a friend and nothing more, and I wasn’t going to stop now. I had to admit Aaron was cute with his dark curly hair, soft facial features, and chocolate colored eyes. He had high cheek bones and his nose was perfectly rounded.
I stepped out of my truck and walked with him to the picnic benches where Kyra and my other best friend Annabelle Carter were sitting talking and giggling about something. I sat down next to Kyra on the rough wooden picnic tables that sat in the shade of a giant oak tree in the grassy area next to the school, and Aaron sat next to Aribella who was sitting across from Kyra.
         “Hey, guys whatcha talking about?” I asked smoothly.
         “Oh, we were just discussing the prom.” Answered Aribella her voice was high and melodious. “Hey do you remember the date I always forget.”
         “Um, I think its June 4th,” Answered Aaron.
          “So, Brea, has anyone asked you yet?” Asked Kyra, her voice was a quiet alto voice that rang like the lower range of a set of wind chimes. She had a mischievous look in her eyes and I knew that was going to be trouble for me.
         “No, and I don’t think I’ll go. No one will ask me.” I said looking down at the table. When I said this Aaron looked hopeful, his facial expression looked like he was concocting a plan.
         “Brea, no one has asked me yet either, we can get a group of friends and go together.”
         That would be nice, I thought, going with a group of friends instead of having the usual drama of a date
My friends kept talking as I spaced out and got the same eerie feeling that I had in my car earlier this morning. I looked up and saw that most people had started leaving the school ground and going into the school.
         “Brea, are you coming to school today?” asked Aaron in a joking manner.
          “Huh? Oh yeah, school. Right, I’m coming.” I said.  I got up and followed Kyra and Aribella to the school building towards my first class.
          I walked with Aaron to science, and physically and mentally prepared myself for the test we had today. I sat down in the first row next to Bailey and, as usual, she looked over what I was wearing and how I looked. I had gotten past the creepy part of this every day thing; it was hard enough to wake up in the morning and actually get out of bed and remember to get dressed every morning.
         Mr. Hernandez passed out the test and the room got silent, even before the bell rang, which was very unusual. It usually took Mr. Hernandez ten minutes after the bell rang to get everyone quiet. I wrote my name on top of the paper along with the date and began the hour long test.
         Half an hour into the test it felt like someone was watching me. At first I thought it was Mr. Hernandez; but it wasn’t. I looked up and he was at his desk reading the book Night Crawlers: Night’s Worm. A stupid book, who would want to read about worms, especially long, slimy, night time worms? I smiled to myself as Mr. Hernandez flinched as he turned the page.
         I still had the feeling that someone was watching me so I took a quick look around the room, there was nothing. Everyone was furiously scribbling down answers, or furiously erasing answers with frustrated looks. I looked back down to my test and continued.
         After I had finished ten questions I randomly looked out the window. It was sunny just as the weather man said, but nothing was moving, just like this morning while I was driving to school. I turned my focus back on my test; I still finished five minutes before everyone even though I hadn’t been working for at least ten minutes during it.          After I reviewed my answers I picked up my test and tip toed to the front of the room to hand it in. Mr. Hernandez was almost asleep reading his book, but when I walked to his desk he pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose, and took my test. His slicked back black hair was shiny and it reminded me of a crow’s wing. He was wearing a blue striped button down shirt, khaki pants, and a tie that said “Science” all over it in different fonts and languages.
         I sat back down just as Bailey was getting up to hand in her test. I sat at my desk with ten minutes until the bell rang so I pulled out a piece of lined paper and a pen and started to doodle on it.  The bell rang and I gathered my things to go to my next class, I walked down the crowded hallways saying hello to my friends and people I knew. I walked into the next off-white class room, all of them were the same; nothing was different in this school.          
         Mrs. O’Neal was sitting behind her desk reading an e-mail from her outdated computer. I walked to my seat next to Kyra in the third row; she was already sitting there waiting for me, bouncing up and down out of excitement. I was sure to get a story filled with drama, “Hi Kyra.” Her eyes glistened, “Okay, what happened, I want to know everything.” Her hyper state made me curious she usually wasn’t this bouncy.
         “Guess who asked me to the dance!” She squeaked
         “I don’t know Kyra. Who asked you to the dance?”
         “Gabriel Lewis!” She yelled. Mrs. O’Neal didn’t even look up from her computer as Kyra, not able to contain her excitement any more, screamed.
         “Kyra keep it down,” I hissed at her. “You don’t want people to think you’re crazy.”
         “I’m sorry, I’m just so excited! You know that I have had a crush on him for a while.” It was true, she had liked him for a while, but she was too shy to tell him.
         “Ha, ha, ha! It’s okay Kyra.” I chuckled. The bell rang just then and Mrs. O’Neal looked up from her desk and stood in front of the classroom.
“Surprise class, we aren’t having a test today!” She yelled in a nasally voice over the noise. Everyone cheered except me, ugh! Does she know how many hours I spent studying for this test! I was furious and mentally put Mrs. O’Neal on the evil teacher list in the back of my brain. “Now instead of a test I thought we would do something a little more fun so take out your notebooks and start taking notes.” She said with a smile on her face. Everyone groaned and looked like they were all mentally cursing out the teacher or imagining ways to escape her class. She ignored this and started the long boring lecture about poetry.
         I slouched down into my seat and stared out the window and started day dreaming about what I would do when I was free from this town. After I graduated from college I would move away from this tiny town into a more populated part of America, maybe the east coast with all of the Historic towns. I would hopefully get a job and have a family, my dreams aren’t that big of what I want to happen later in life, it seems useless to want something big and not be able to achieve it.
         I looked back toward the board to see that we were supposed to be taking notes; I ripped out a sheet of paper from my notebook, grabbed a pen, and furiously scribbled down a page and a half worth of notes in the last five minutes of class.
         The bell rang and it was time to go to my study hall with Aaron and Aribella, I walked to the cafeteria where the study hall was held and found Aribella and Aaron already at a table waiting for me.
         “Hey guys,” I said as I reached them.
         “Hi,” They said in unison.   

*          *          *          *
            
         When the last bell rang, releasing us from school, I saw Kyra by her 1990 rusty orange Ford; she had her back to the school so I called out to her.
         “Hey, Kyra!” I yelled and ran the rest of the way to her car from the stairs leading up to the school. When I got there I found her white as a bone and not moving,          “Kyra? Kyra what’s wrong!” I shook her shoulders but she was limp as rag doll and fell into my arms. I looked around the parking lot for help and spotted Aaron by his Jeep. “Aaron! Come help me quick!” I called Aaron over as I stumbled over the weight of her limp body. He saw Kyra and sprinted over dropping his bag in the middle of the parking lot. It was a good thing he got there so fast, Kyra sure was heavy and I was about to drop her.
         “Brea, what happened?” He practically shouted into my face, as he helped me with Kyra.
         “I don’t know! I ran over and found her staring into the woods, I touched her and she fell over. What do you think is wrong?” I was almost in hysterics and couldn’t calm myself enough to explain properly but I knew I had to be strong.
         This must have been the thing I was anticipating this morning. I knew something bad was going to happen I just didn’t know it was going to happen to my best friend.
         Aaron took a second to answer, then he said, “I don’t know Breanne but call 911 and help me lay her on the ground, gently now don’t drop her.” When anyone used my full names I knew they were deadly serious.
         I helped him put Kyra on the ground and got my phone out of my bag, Aribella ran over seeing Kyra on the ground and me on the phone. As soon as she ran over a group of students followed her, they surrounded us and Mr. Belford, our principle, pushed his way through and demanded to know what was going on and why Kyra was on the ground unconscious.
         The operator for 911 answered my call saying “911 what is your emergency?” in a calm voice that only made it worse, didn’t she know that my friend could be dead?
         “It’s… it’s… my friend she unconscious and we’re at school and she… she…” I broke into hysterics at that point and had to hand the phone to Aaron to speak for me. He finished my conversation while I walked to Aribella and she embraced me in a warm hug letting me ruin her beautiful blue blouse with my river of salty tears.
         Aribella never asked why, she just listened and if you wanted to tell her something, she let it come on its own, she never pried and I was thankful for that. Aribella had to drive me home that day since I couldn’t calm down enough to see five feet in front of me. Aaron drove behind us in Aribella’s father’s tan SUV. When she dropped me off at my house she made sure I made it to the door safely and Aaron drove her back to the school so that he could get his car and drive home.
         I stumbled through the entry way and tripped over my father’s firemen boots, I saw my father’s head pop around the corner from the kitchen with a smile. As soon as he saw me his had a look of concern on it and he ran over to me.
         “Brea! What happened?” He was obviously concerned since I usually never cried.
         “It’s… it’s Kyra,” I mumbled. I don’t even think he could comprehend what I was saying. “She fainted in the parking lot at school and something is very wrong I just know it.” My dad promised me that he would find out what was wrong with her. My dad just has those types of connections.
          I stumbled up the stairs after I had calmed down enough and had a meager amount of confidence in myself not to kill myself by tripping up the stairs on the way to my room. Not even bothering to do my homework or call my best friend Sam like I did every day, I flung myself down on my blue comforter covered in yellow and green flowers and cried myself into a restless sleep.
         I had horrible dreams that night, some seemed real and some were so unrealistic they were like a bad horror movie from the ‘70’s. In my dreams I dreamt that Kyra and I were trapped in the forest by the school where Kyra fainted.
         I have explored that part of the forest so many times with my dad and friends that I know every rock and tree in it, but in my dream we were trapped in an unfamiliar forest and we were being chased by something big. I was too afraid to look behind me to see what it was but I knew it was big. Just then Kyra disappeared and was replaced by the next worse thing; my best friend Sam. I would never dream of getting Sam hurt because of something I did, he was like a brother to me, the very best of best friends. Sam was holding my hand dragging me through the forest trying to pull me away from the “thing” but as stubborn as I am, I wanted to go back and look for Kyra. Sam finally let go and ran away just before I heard a growl right at the back of my head and felt a warm breath on my neck, I turned around wanting to see what was behind me and woke up.
         The dream startled me so much that I jumped about two feet in the air and almost started screaming. I laid back down trying to calm my breathing and my heart rate. I was too scared to sleep and since it was it was only 6:30 I decided to get up anyway. I went into the bathroom and took a shower; my dad had already left for work so I was free to do whatever I wanted today. I ran into my room leaving wet foot prints on the wooden floor in the hallway, I put my pajamas back on since I wasn’t going anywhere right at this very second.
         I walked to the kitchen to make myself breakfast; I threw an egg in to a pan and made a fried egg sandwich. When that was done I cleaned my plate and the pan I cooked the egg in, then I took my glass of milk upstairs into my room so that I could listen to some music.
         I plugged in my iPod into its dock and turned on my U2 playlist and went onto the computer to check my e-mail. I had some forwards from my friends, I just deleted them without reading it, forwards are a waste of time. I continued my conversation with Aribella about prom, and I e-mailed Aaron to tell him to have a good vacation. I clicked the refresh button one more time to make sure that no one had replied to any e-mails, there was none.
         I got dressed in random articles of clothing, it was the weekend and I wasn’t going anywhere. I ran downstairs and grabbed the telephone off the kitchen wall and called a number that was so familiar to me, I could dial it with my eyes closed; it was Sam’s number. The phone rang and rang and rang and finally the answering machine picked up,
         “Hi this is the Vega family we aren’t home right now so please leave a message and we’ll get back to you soon, bye!” said Sam’s dad John.
         “Hey Sam, it’s me Brea, call me when you get this message, kay? Bye.” I hung up the phone and started cleaning the house since I had nothing else to do. I cleaned the kitchen, started the dish washer, and did the laundry. When I was done it was only 10:30, so I got in my truck and drove around town. I stopped at the General Store to buy some eggs, milk, and bread, since I had used up the last of everything. I chatted with Craig, the lane 3 checkout boy, about the finals we had taken in school and then left.
         Craig was one of Aaron’s best friends; with sandy colored hair and sea green eyes, Aaron and Craig looked nothing alike but they loved the exact same things. I swear if they looked similar they could be twins.
         As I was driving home I passed the fire station and there were many different cars in the parking lot. I pulled over and counted the total and came up with two ambulances, four fire trucks, and three police cars .I saw my father running around talking to different people, he finally stopped at one of the ambulances and a look of defeat came to his eyes. His face turned ashy, and his eyes lost some of the sparkle that he usually has.
         I pulled into the parking lot and jumped out of my truck leaving the engine running. I ran to my dad and embraced him; he welcomed the hug without questioning my presence. He was dirty and smelled like ashes I always got nervous during the winter season when most of the fires in this town happen. You would think people would learn not to put candles on real Christmas trees, but some people never learn. It was very rare to have a really bad fire in town, no one wanted to catch the forest on fire.
Being a firefighter was one of the toughest jobs in town, besides some of the loggers that supplied our town, our state, and other states with wood, no wonder why my dad sat around after he came home from work.
         The one time that I saw my father this distraught after a fire, was when some stupid teenager threw a lighted cigarette on the side of the road during the dry season, an entire corn field went up in flames took a farm house with it and an apartment building. Luckily no one was in the farm house or corn field, and twelve escaped the apartment with minor burns and bruises. But the five other people, they weren’t so lucky. My dad moped around all day, he just sat in his chair in the living room with the television on, but he didn’t watch it. Every time I tried to talk to him he replied with one word answers, I finally got so fed up I called John to snap him out of it, which seemed to work to get him back in synch with his normal life.
         “Dad what happened?” I anxiously whispered. He said nothing; he just stared at me with deep, dark, sad eyes. I felt like I could see forever into his eyes and still not know about all of the horrors he had witnessed in this one day.
         My dad loosened my arms from around his neck and stepped back.
         “I have to get back to work,” He said with a hint of hysteria on his deep voice, “I’ll see you at home.” He looked at his dust covered boots and strode back to the group of men surrounding Engine 8.
         I recognized some of the men who were my dad’s friends, like Tony Berkley, he was the youngest one at the station that I knew of. He was pretty handsome, with brown hair. He was happily married to a lovely woman named Cathy. I had met her twice, and both times I had never wanted her to leave, her stories of travel and adventures were very entertaining when you had nothing to do but listen to a bunch of firefighters argue over what was better football or baseball.
         I pulled Tony aside and asked him what had happened. He quickly looked around and looked at me with sad eyes.
         “There was a major crash on the highway, seventeen cars were involved. Only three people made it, and we aren’t sure if one of the girls is going to make it; she’s pretty banged up.” Tony said in quickly, he was anxious for something but I wasn’t sure what.
         “Who were the people?” I asked, hoping that I didn’t know any of them.
         “I don’t know, you should ask the EMT’s”
         “Thanks Tony” I appreciated his willing to inform me on the crash when my father couldn’t.
         “No problem, kid. I’m just doing my job.” He ruffled my hair and smiled at me before he walked away to join the group of firefighters.
         As I walked over to the ambulance I had an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was hoping that the crash was just people that I didn’t know or tourists who were unfamiliar with the curvy roads covered in water from the rain, but bad luck seemed to follow me everywhere. I closed my eyes and shook my head to clear it before I got to the parked ambulance.
         “Hi, can I help you?” A cheery tenor voice asked me. I looked up stunned, how had I not noticed this boy before? And why was he here in this dreary town? His eyes were the most beautiful blue I had ever seen. They were brighter than a cloudless day in the middle of summer and they sparkled. He had this aura of happiness that surrounded him and touched whoever was close, I felt happy even though I shouldn’t have been since fifteen people had died today.
         “Um…” Just looking at him made me lose my train of thought, so I looked just passed his ear. “Yes actually you can, can I have a list of the people’s names who were involved in the accident today?” I turned my gaze back to him and was stunned yet again.
         “Why?” He asked. I had to think of something quick, should I lie or tell the truth?
         “My father is one of the firemen who was on the job, and he needs a list of all the people involved.” What was I saying! My father wasn’t even the head of the department. He seemed to buy it because he took a piece of paper out of his clipboard and gave it to me.
         “Here you go,” he said “All fifteen unlucky victims, right here on this list.” His eyes were serious and his perfect face was hard. “It’s such a tragedy to see so many innocent people die because of someone’s careless mistake.” I nodded in agreement, not sure what to say, and looked down at the list. Luckily I knew no one on it. The list this mysterious boy gave me had gender and age on it along with the name, everyone was over twenty, and therefore unable to go to my school.
         I looked up and the boy was staring and me, “What is your name?” He asked.
         “Brea Evans, what is yours?” Why would this gorgeous boy want to know what my name was?
         “Seth Martin” His smile was casual as he shook my hand; it was smooth and firm, and perfect just like the rest of him. “My shift is over in a little while, would you like to hang out sometime?” He looked in to my eyes, almost hypnotizing me, I couldn’t say no to him.
         “Sure, yes of course, I’d love to.” I said. Is this seriously happening? I thought. Seth smiled and said “Meet me here at six o’ clock; I want to bring you to my favorite restaurant.”  Seth turned and walked towards the ambulance and got into the front, it pulled away and drove down the street. This one obviously didn’t have any people in it or I never would have been able to talk to Seth.
         I got back into my truck realizing that I had left the engine on and was wasting gas. I backed out of the fire station parkinglot, waved to my dad, and drove down the street back to my house.
         I turned onto the gravel driveway and turned off the wheezing engine. Something about today was welded into my brain, was it the good looking kid I was talking to? Or was it the fact that something didn’t feel right to me and I kept looking over my shoulder? I stared at the window which was covered with our dark green curtains; I could see the faint glow of a lamp through them.
         I could have sworn that I turned off all of the lights before I left the house, but I guess not. I said to myself then the curtain twitched and a shadow fell in front of the lamp for only a fraction of a second. If I had blinked I would have missed it. We had no pets in the house, and no neighbors had our house key. My initial thought was an intruder and that thought was finalized when the light went out.
         I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I wait for my dad to get home? Should I call the police? Or should I face the intruder by myself? I decided to go inside. The intruder should have left by now, and I wanted to know what the damage was. I slowly opened the car door and hopped out landing on the balls of my feet trying not to make any noises. I slowly pushed the car door shut, listening for the click of the door but instead, someone pushed me from behind making me shove the door shut, I spun around with my arms covering my face.
         But instead of a malicious laugh I expected to hear, I felt the warm comforting touch of strong callused hands. I knew these hands, and I should have expected this coming. “Ugh. Sam, why are you here? This is my house.” I said playfully, punching him in the gut.
         “What, you don’t want me here? Fine, I’ll just go, I guess you don’t like me anymore.” He said with no amount of sincerity in him and a fake pout on his face. I put my index fingers on the corners of his mouth and pulled them up forcing him into a smile. He laughed at that and pulled his head out of reach of my long fingers, this time with a real smile on his face. “So did you hear about the accident?” Sam asked walking up to the front door of my house, he tried the handle. “Hey you got a key with you?” he asked.
         “Yes but weren’t you just in here? Why didn’t you leave the door open?” I asked handing him my key. He looked back at me with a confused expression on his face.
         “Um… Brea, I never went into your house, I was sitting on the back porch when I heard you pull up.”
         “What? Then who did I see in there?” I was frantic now I could feel my heart beating so hard it felt like it was going to jump right out of my chest. Sam took me by the shoulders and put me back in my car locking the door.
         “I’ll be right back and if you hear any yelling call the police and get out of here.” He ran to the door, opened it with my key, and let himself into my house.
         The silence was irritating and was becoming even more unbearable every minute. I didn’t hear any yelling so I knew that Sam was okay. Why is he taking so long? I said to myself. I had my eyes fixed on the front door so that when it opened I would bolt out of the car not even caring if it was Sam or not.
         The door finally opened, my heroine attitude suddenly vanished and I shrunk back into my seat. A figure strode out of my house; it was hard to tell who it was since the clouds cast a dark shadow, as the figure got closer I could tell it was Sam. He came up to my car door, opened it and yanked me out.
“Brea there was no one in your house, I looked everywhere, and unless they are hiding in your underwear drawer I don’t think anyone is there.” He said with a smirk. “Are you sure weren’t imagining it?”
“No Sam, I am absolutely positive I saw something. The light was on, I saw the curtain move and a shadow passed in front of the lamp and now it’s off.” I said pouting; Sam kept looking at me like I was crazy. Sam just let it go but I could tell in his eyes that he was worried.
We got inside and I threw the list of dead people on the table when I realized that I still had groceries in my truck. After they were lugged into the house and properly put away, we sat down with a snack and watched a movie.
I could not get what I had seen earlier out of my head, and it wasn’t the whole mysterious curtain movement, it was everything that had happened that week. Kyra’s mysterious illness, the huge fire, the hot EMT, and now this, my life seemed like it was falling apart right from under me. I only had the person in my life who acted as my rock; and that’s Sam. 
“Hey Brea which one do you want to watch? Preferably one that we haven’t seen fifty times, or one or your girly movies I don’t think I could stand to watch another one of those, just saying.” He said crouching in front of our movie cabinet.
“Alright Sam, pick out your favorite movie.” I said. I wasn’t in the mood to argue over movies today, all I wanted to do was think.  *to be continued*