Chapter One: A few setbacks
It was just another autumn morning here in Arizona. The sun had barely rose over the horizon. I heard the neighbor chicken's crow right across the road. Great another day of loading the U-Haul trailer fun. I grumbled angrily to myself. I slicked my long, brown hair back into a pony tail. I then slipped into my Red U of a T-shirt and blue basketball shorts. I grabbed my glass off of the table. In case you don't know, hi, my name is Shiva. I have been living on my own for a while but I recently got a job transfer over to Ruckersville. I don't know why my company wanted to send me to the middle of hick country. According to Google maps there isn't anything within miles of where I'm living at. Apart from this one house that sits at 14 Branchland Court. I find it creepy that such a house would sit there but, whatever. It wasn't something that I would concern myself with.
I only had the living room to pack up and then I was ready to get the hell out of "middle of buttfuck nowhere." I was happy to go live in a forest climate for once. Let me tell you living in the desert for long periods of time is enough to drive anyway coyote crazy. The huge hauler growled to live. The drive from Wilcox, Arizona to Ruckersville, Virginia took me about two weeks. Dealing with traffic in the large cities, taking breaks, sleeping, factored into the amount of time it took to get there. I was greeted by the lush, dark green landscape. The trees stood over the hauler waiting to fall down on it. I pulled into an empty house that was right across from where my newest neighbors were. I got out of the hauler once it was backed up to the garage. I felt the small hairs on my skin prick up slowly. I turned around to see the blinds in the house across the street slowly move. I shook my head and flipped off whoever the fucking freak was that was watching me. I didn't need a country hick staring at me while I was unloading.
The autumn air was enough to keep me from overheating. My house was soon packed to the roof with boxes. I slammed the garage door shut and locked it. It seemed strange to be in a huge house by myself. I managed to rent out a lovely one bed, one bath house that was about 415 square feet. In other words, enough for me to live in. I made mental note to call the utilities company once I got to the hotel. I had barely walked outside when I saw a shadow move across the front of the U-Haul trailer. "oh you have got to be fucking kidding me." I snapped under my breath. "ey! Fuck off!" I yelled. The shadow stopped. It looked over its fat shoulders to stare at me. "the hell do you think you're doing?" I asked. I'm from the middle of the desert, one thing you don't do is go on someone's property. The shadow straightened up. It seemed very slow with its movements. Whatever the hell this thing was, I've never seen a normal human being move like that. "well hello there pretty lady." It said in a high pitched voice. The skin on the back of my neck prickled. This thing smelled and when I say smelled, I meant of something close to a rotting corpse in the middle of the sun. "hi can I help you?" I questioned. "oh…uh…I was just wanting to say hello." He sighed. I raised an eyebrow. My hands sat on my hips. "oh really? Is there a reason why your trying to peek in through my window? Cause bro let me tell you something: One thing I was taught while living in the hood is that no man goes lookin through no window without first askin." The shadow seemed unfazed by the amount of malice that rolled off of my tongue. I noticed that he just stood there for a long period of time. I raised an eyebrow again. "did I just speak Spanish? Hello? It's short for get lost." I snapped. He just shrugged. "bye bye." Was all that he said as he slaughtered off.
I quickly drove away from the house. The people in this town must be fucking crazy. What kind of greeting was that? What man stands on a girl's property for long periods of time with no explanation? The town itself was just about fifteen minutes from where I lived. I pulled into a Holiday Inn parking lot. I noticed a black haired gentlemen wearing a long jacket standing outside. I quickly got out of the hauler. The air went across of my face in enough time for me to realize the foul stench that came off of my body. "mother fuck-" I shook my head. "fuckin' hell." I tried my best to sneak past the black haired man. He took one whiff of me. "seems like you've been near the Chan household." He remarked. "The…Chan?" I asked. The man just nodded. He wrote down a number on the back of a notecard. "here. I can tell your not from around here." He ran a finger under his nose. He had a look of disgust on his face. "take a shower before he finds you." I just nodded shyly. My legs took longer strides getting to the lobby. The receptionist looked up. "oh yes are you Ms. Shiva Carter?" she questioned in a rather polite tone. I gave a nod of my head. She cracked a smile. "Mr. Anderson has already paid for your room." She said as she handed me the key. "he's also told me that he's left you his number and to call him once you arrived." I cracked a small grin. I had heard Mr. Anderson was rather nice. I didn't know he would this sort of thing for his employees.
The room he had got me was the penthouse suite. My jaw hit the floor in disbelief. I don't know who's dick I sucked to deserve this but as sure as hell I was not going to question it. The phone sat on the table nearest to the front door. There was a tiny gold business card with Ian Brandon Anderson, written in black font. The number that Ian had given me was similar to the one the black haired man had given me. I quickly dialed the number and waited. After about three rings, the caller picked up. "oh hey Shiva I'm glad to see you've made it safely. How's Ruckersville treating you?" asked a male voice over the phone. "it's a little unsettling. I came across a weird ass neighbor." I heard Ian chuckle under his breathe. "I see you came across Chris. Oh dear I hope he wasn't too much trouble." I rolled my eyes. "unless standing creepily outside my door is his way of saying hello, then yes he gave me nothing but trouble." Ian just laughed some more. "I'll tell you more about him later but right now let's focus on your first big task. I'm running out of story material to use for my comic. I called you down here to see if you could potentially help with the issue." I smiled a bit. "I could work something out for you. When do you want the idea brought to you?"
Ian looked at his calendar. "no later then Wednesday of next week…."