It was deathly quiet whatever was coming up the stairs was right down the hall from my room. I started backing up towards the corner that I was sitting in earlier, every time that I backed up the footsteps got closer. I was pressed against the corner when I saw the shadow of feet under my door. I was paralyzed in fear. My doorknob turned, slowly the door opened and it was my mom.

“Why are you still awake?” She asked in a confused tone.

“Mom, there is someone in the front yard, I think they came in the house.” I blurted out to her.

She rushed in their room to get my dad, he left the room and looked in the house; no one was there. He looked outside; no one was there.

“Arthur, no one is out there,” He said, still trying to wake up.

“Dad I know that I saw someone,” I said back to him.

“Honey, you’re probably tired from the long trip, just get some rest,” my mom said, trying to comfort me.

She was probably right, so I went back up to my room, closed the blinds, left the light on, and I went to bed. My alarm went off and I sprung out of bed still trying to shake off what happened last night. I turned the shower on and I got in, the whole time I felt like someone was watching me but I brushed it off reassuring myself that no one was there.  When I got out the bathroom mirror was fogged up so I wiped it down. My hair brush fell on the floor, when I picked it up I looked back at the mirror to find hand print on it. The same sense of terror that I had last night returned. I brushed my teeth and left my room as quickly as possible.  I went downstairs to see my family getting ready to leave for school and work.

“Hey sweetie, how are you feeling?” Mom asked.

I was tempted to tell her what happened this morning, but Leila was downstairs and I didn’t want to scare her.

“I feel great. Dad when is my car coming in?” I asked.

“It should be here today when you get home from school,” Dad said.

We all got in Dad’s car and he dropped me off at school. I was nervous. I was in the same school system for 11  years when I was in L.A., now I am in a entirely new school district halfway across the country.

“Your mom will pick you up right in front after school,” Dad said unlocking the door.

I got out of the car and walked in the front gate. Very similar to what happened when we first pulled into town, people where staring. I was kinda over it at this point so I just put my headphones on and went to my first period class. I walked in to the class. I was pumped my first period was history and I have always been a really big fan of history.  I walked in the door and the teacher greeted me with a smile.

“Hi my name is Mrs. Farley, you must be Arthur Smith?” She said.

“Yes, It’s very nice to meet you Mrs. Farley,” I said back.

She told me I could sit anywhere that I wanted so I just sat in the back of the classroom. As people started to make their way into the classroom, there was staring and whispering, I don’t think they knew that I can hear them because I had my headphones in. Then, this one girl walked in and to be honest, I totally forgot about that girl in L.A.

“Are you new?” She asked.

“Yeah,” I responded.

“My name is Alex, nice to meet you,” she said while getting her stuff out of her backpack.

“I’m Arthur,” I said back, taking my headphones out.

The tardy bell rang and class started. Mrs. Farley got out of her chair to start teaching.

“Everyone, I would like you to give a warm welcome to our new student, Arthur Smith,” she said in a booming voice.

Everyone looked at me, it kind of made me feel uncomfortable, so I cracked a half-smile and took out my notebook. To be honest I really wasn’t paying to much attention, Alex was super attractive and she kept looking at me so it was a little hard to focus. It wasn’t just her looks, the same smell that I smelled last night came back right when she sat down.

Class ended and she said, “Arthur it was really nice to meet you.”

“You too.” I said, not even looking at her. She smiled at me and walked away.

I never had this issue when it came to talking to girls, there was just something enchanting about her. I still couldn’t put my finger on why she smelled like that. I stopped thinking about it and most of my classes where easy. I just had physics left and then school was over.

“Hey your name is Arthur right?” This one guy said to me while coming over with what it seemed like his group of friends.

“Yeah,” I said in a confused tone.

“Darius, nice to meet you, these are my friends, Jay, Rick, and Harry,” He said.

They all gave me a nod and as they sat next to me.

“We are gonna hang out at Big Jim’s after school, you wanna come with?” Jay asked me.

Big Jim’s was the diner we went to when we first came into town. “Sure,” I said, texting my mom to see if I can go.

She gave the okay and after school we met in front of the school and Darius drove us over to the diner. We walk in and we sit down at a table. They just asked me where I was from, what I’m into, small talk essentially. They were on the football team, I told them I was interested in trying out and they said I would for sure make the team and be the starting quarterback .  We exchanged phone numbers and then my mom picked me up.

“That was fast,” my mom said with joy.

“What was fast?” I asked.

“How fast you made friends,” She said.

“Oh yeah, they’re super nice,” I said while texting Isiah and Josh.

We made it back home, my car was parked in the driveway, the fridge, the couch, the TV’s, and game consoles came. I bought some football posters online and they also arrived today. It took me a solid three hours to set up my room so after that I got in the shower.  I hear a big thud coming from my room, I jump out of the shower grab a towel and came back in my room to find my posters taken off the wall and my TV stand on the floor. My posters just didn’t fall of the wall they were ripped off the wall.  I put my clothes on and picked my TV stand back up and right when I did that the light in my room went out.

I was stunned when I heard the same crying that I heard last night, I didn’t even look out the window. I ran to my bed and put the blanket over my face. The crying stopped and turned into a bone chilling scream.  I heard the front door open, the stairs where creaking the crying resumed as the footsteps where getting closer. The footsteps stopped at my room I heard the door creak open, through my blanket I saw a shadow figure standing in front of the closet inching it’s way closer until it was mere inches from my bed.

A blood curdling voice said, “Where is my son?”

I said nothing.

“WHERE IS MY SON?!” The apparition screamed.

The windows flew open and the blankets were thrown off of me. I stumbled off of my bed to go get my parents and when my foot stepped off my bed a hand reached out and dragged me under the bed.