He followed my body movement his eyes darting all around my body like I was prey and he was the predator.

Cold, sinister, devilish, demonic, depressing, hypnotizing, stomach churning, unnerving was how his glare felt like. Like some creepy sharp hands crawling all over my skin piercing me in each step they took. Tearing my skin to rags.

I felt rooted on the spot like glued in a way that I could barely move a muscle.

Feeling something on my shoulder, I quickly jumped with a whimper and flicked it away.

My mind was picturing it as a cold, black, venomous spider that was yet to crawl itself to my head. Swiftly swiveling my head to take a look at what it was, I realized that it was Noodles hands.

I didn't bother.

I returned my eyes back to the stranger and he was gone, once the light flickered he disappeared. One second he was there and the other he wasn't. He had vanished into thin air.

"Hey T! What is wrong with you?!" She didn't mean it in a bad way but the glare I gave her made her reconstruct her sentence in a much less annoying way. "I mean you have been acting strangely today. Are you okey? I mean I'm your friend right? You can share it with me I'll keep my mouth shut if its critical. Sit down and at least tell me something?"

She gave herself a seat opposite mine and started digging into a hotdog she had come with. She had brought two but since she knew I wasn't in the mood to eat, I guessed she had brought the two for herself.

I still couldn't believe that that person or thing was gone I took one last surreptitious glance and sure enough he was gone.

I considered it a hallucination that assumedly came as a side effect of a terrible day full of panic and depression. I took a seat.

"You have to talk T if you need help," Noodles uttered in concern her chubby cheeks dancing to chewing the half-bitten hot dog.

I sighed and decided to spill the beans to her.

Noodles knew about our breakup with Wade so the whole love thing was not a surprise to her. She knew that I was trying by all means to get over him and by hearing that he was now the new school president she was surprised. She knew what that meant.

Her advice remained the same 'find a new guy.' It sounded like a walk in a park but truly it was nothing less than toddling to hell and back.

MM's car honk caught us both in a deep argument about how I couldn't find the right person. A person that could make me feel like I owned the world. Where it could be me him and maybe a back of chips in case we got hungry.

The honk was cue for me to leave. The argument wasn't over so we postponed it and called round one a stalemate.

I toddled for the door and psyched myself with a sigh to get rained on for the short distance through the patio towards the drive way where MM had packed.

"Take this you Idiot." Noodles appeared handing me a small umbrella. "Or tomorrow you will be like. Ooh I have a cold," she mimicked comically when I caught a cold two years before.

"Thanks. Pumpkin head," I mocked her back by calling her the name of a character in our favourite horror movie.

The umbrella was small but at least it covered me from the rain. I hadn't noticed how heavy it was until the drops hit the umbrella. They almost shook it.

The rain was accompanied by strong winds that curried some splits with it so no matter how hard I tried to cover myself I still got soaked.

MM had parked his vintage, red SUV a few steps from the main door. I scuttled for it. As soon as I got to it, I flung its door open, jumped in, closed the umbrella, shook off the remaining water droplets in it and placed it on the seat next to mine.

"Your girlfriend is looking at you," MM muttered comically looking at me through the rare view mirror. "You should wave her good bye or else she will ask for a divorce."

MM was messing with me. One of his hobbies was irritating me.

I chuckled at the scintillating remark.

"So how was school?" He then started a father daughter talk as he drove off the drive way cruising steadily towards the direction of home.

We took seconds to get home. I could barely recall anything I saw during the short journey. I had literally memorized the entire town, every corner and every turn. I could manoeuvre around it eyes closed and not bump into a single thing unless it was new. So, there was no point in trying to recap whatever my eyes had caught.

The heavy rains were getting heavier wetting the window I had laid my head against even more.

°*°

MM placed a well presented meal on the round dining table. It was so colourful that I felt my insides drooling and belly rumbling like it hadn't eaten for ages.

Crusty yellow and orange, a little purple and a tint of green. It was accompanied by a sweet aroma that struck my nose making my moods elevate drastically.

"Hey Sam!" MM shouted, as he walked out of the kitchen currying the last bowl of chicken soup, to Sam who was seriously digging into a chicken bone.

"What?!" He asked innocently widening his eyes although he clearly knew his mistake.

"We agreed that we should start eating when everybody is around the table."

"Sorry."

"Nut head."

Sam must have been hungry but why not? Being a part time therapist he didn't have a specific working place, so he did lots of travelling. He was popular and had lots of connections so he hardly rested with a vast timetable eating up all his time.

To me it didn't seem buzzard for him to start the devouring process early. I understood that he was utterly weary and hungry too.

Golden chicken salad, outstanding reddish grapes on the side, chops of pecans and onions on a plate were all begging me to assassinate them. Teleporting me to another dimension.

MM was so good at it. No wonder he owned a hotel that did very well.

I hadn't noticed how starving I was until I finished all the food in seconds and furtively scanned if I had over wolfed. At least I wasn't the only one. Sam was also done with his too.

MM was left agape.

"When did you two last eat?" His eyes widened in unison with his mouth.

I gave him a lopsided smile.

After the meal I cleaned up the table and dashed all the dirty plates, spoons and bowls in the sink.

I climbed upstairs for my room.

All the serving customers, arguing with Noodles and having a family dinner together had eased up the depression I was feeling earlier.

I was now even able to look at myself in the mirror unlike sometimes when I had potful regrets and suicidal thoughts loitering in my mind.

I undressed and opened the bath tub tap waiting for warm water to chock out. Dipping the tip of my index finger to make sure that it was just the right temperature, not too hot nor cold, I realised that it was a little warmer than I expected. It wasn't the sweltering type so if was safe to shower with. I dipped my first foot in the semi filled tub then the second and then my entire body.

I felt relieved showering all my stress away.

After a very long shower I noticed that it was still early. The rain seemed to have made me think that time was flying since it got dark early.

A sketch wouldn't hurt. I needed to keep my mind completely engaged in something. I was still afraid of the dark feeling.

I walked down the creaking stairs, took my bag, swung it around my shoulder and curried it with me.

I had spare pens in my room but the challenge was what exactly to sketch.

Most of my sketches were inspired by real life stuff more so the little things I saw during the day.

I didn't want to start recalling things I saw during the day. Most probably they would bring that feeling back. Albeit my head had already begun bringing back fragments of the terrific day.

No sooner had I gotten an idea of what to sketch than thunder struck abruptly in a loud cracking sound that made me whimper in fear.

Placing my right hand clasping the pen it started driving itself. It relentlessly started moving being driven by an unknown entity.

I tried to control it but it all went South. I couldn't feel my hand. It pulled me back and forth sculpting whatever it was sketching on my book.

A part of me was curious about the message it was about to display but the other was worried that I didn't have the hang of my hand.

It sketched every curve, slope, shading, and edge of something I couldn't recognize. Until I finally could.