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Chapter One

Over the clamoring sound of the television, a distinct muffled thump could be heard as well; but Kayakura was home alone, or so she thought. What could have made that noise?

Her brother had not come yet. He had probably gone to Hanzo’s, a friend of his. She thought it was her brother coming through the door. Yet she didn’t hear him pull into the driveway at all. That can’t be him. She would have noticed. She would know.

Dread paced through her, crawling from her gut to the tips of her fingers, piercing adrenaline coursing through her veins. Her eyes widened, chills ran down her spine.

Immediately, she turned off the television standing still.

She listened.

The same sound again.

Kayakura tightened up with fear. She stood there for a while, too frightened to move. She realized that she had not locked the front door; a habit she had gotten into lately. She tried not to make a sound.

She looked around desperately, hoping she would perhaps figure out what to do next.

She thought to herself:

They probably know that I am here already. They must have heard the television.

Thump!!!

It came from the closet.

Kayakura turned the television back on. She walked over to the closet and took a deep breath, preparing herself for what ever it was that she might have to face once she was on the other side. She took a deep breath then placed her hand on the door knob. Getting a firm grip on it, she turned it clockwise. She opened the door.

“Nothing.”

Kayakura now thought that she had heard the sound come from the pantry down the hall. She stared down the hall for a moment, hesitant; she figured that it was nothing. Though her gut gave her the strangest sense, it felt as if she knew there was something there, but still something urged her to take the chance. She felt uneasiness eating her alive.

Well, here it goes, she thought to herself.

Very quietly and slyly, she moved about, tiptoeing through the hallway. She made her way down to the pantry door where she believed the noises coming from. Carefully, she put her head up against the door, listening.

She felt her heart stop as she heard subtle whispering coming from within.

It was so faint though that she couldn’t make out what was being said. She wanted to run; run into her bedroom and crawl out of her bedroom window.

“Oh why did I decide to come down here?” She thought to herself.

Kayakura weighed the outcomes of the choices that she had at this moment in time.

Choice A: just go. She did not know what was lurking behind that door.

Choice B: Call the police. They would know what to do.

Choice C: Knock on the door. What if what was behind the door was nothing at all.

This was one characteristic of Kayakura’s that had always troubled her. She had an extremely optimistic persona about her and she always thought of the best-case scenarios, as opposed to the more sensible, yet pessimistic worst-case scenario precaution method. “Time is ticking, Kayakura,” she thought to herself. “Better make up your mind fast.”

She hand up to the door, and then knocked on the door lightly, but still hard enough to be noticed by the other side. At that moment it seemed as if the existence of sound ceased. The gentle whispering from the other side was silenced. Kayakura had even stopped breathing, literally. She was so still she didn’t even blink.

She began to think that perhaps she had just been imagining all of the sounds in the first place, that it was all in her head. noise that she had heard could very well have been caused a mouse. It could have been the wind.

She told herself:

“There is someone inside. There is. I know it. So prove it.”

Her intuition and uneasiness forced her on.

At that moment, Kayakura turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. She took a deep breath. There it was.