It started with a locked door. Or rather, the door that should have been locked that was now standing wide open. Baffled, Haruhi adjusted the brown paper bag she held and extended a hand out towards the handle.

"What?" the brunette asked nothing, half confused and half contemplative. Why was her door open? Why was it unlocked? Could someone have picked the lock? Could it have been that she forgot to lock it on her way to the supermarket? But no! Haruhi was sure she had done so, because she remembered dropping the keys behind the flower pot on her front stoop on the way out the door.

She'd picked them up, too, so that left no reasonable explanation for her door to be open.

Either way, the twenty-four year old law students walked into her tiny mother in-law house and deposited the overlarge book bag she was carrying next to her desk, which was cramped so close to the door that it was amazing she even managed to open the door that far. It was a small place to live: the kind one only wanted to spend a year in, if even that, but to Haruhi, it was home. Well, home for the time being; while she was in law school, that was.

Stumbling over her fat white cat, the young woman made her way into the small kitchen, where she dropped her grocery bag onto the floor by the fridge and proceeded to put away the merchandise in the fridge and cupboards.

While doing so, a prickling sensation crept up Haruhi's spine, actually reaching the point where it felt so eerie that the woman paused in her chore to turn and look behind her. Had she forgotten something? Something important? Had she missed an appointment, or a class? Maybe a significant meeting or a Halloween party?

Glancing at her watch, she realized it was too late for anything dinner party related to be happening, and the dark quality of the sky ruled out any outside activities. It was even too late for trick or treaters. Could it have been a—

There was a crash in the adjoining living room, followed by a loud caterwaul from the fat white stray Haruhi had picked up three months ago and christened Aki. The brunette jumped, dropping the jar of peanut butter onto the floor, where it rolled until lodging between counter and floor. Her eyes quickly roved around the room before the large hazel eyes in question landed upon a broken vase and a small toy mouse in the middle of the room. The fat feline hissed and jumped onto the counter top before batting at Haruhi's hand.

"Hungry?" she noted dryly, smiling in spite of herself. The cat purred and rubbed against her hand when she scratched behind his ears, then nudged the brown bag. Sure enough, Haruhi extended her hand to pull out a small can of commoner tuna.

She inspected the can before noting that perhaps they should package ootoro in containers like this, and sell the fancy fish at the same price she could buy the cat's food at. It would make several meals a lot more enjoyable. Alone.

Aki purred as the open can of food was set at his paws and set to work on it without further thought. Haruhi watched him for a moment, thinking, before picking up a dust pan and broom and moving to clean up the broken vase.

Huh, funny, she observed, bending to pick up some of the bigger pieces. I don't remember ever owning a vase like this…perhaps it was a going away present from dad? But it can't have been: it looks much to expensive for dad to buy it for me to take to law school. Where did it come from?

Still pondering where the vase had come from, Haruhi jumped as the phone rang. Cursing her nerves and laughing humorously at herself, she stood and reached for the phone that lay on the table by the small couch.

"Hello?" Haruhi asked, still examining a piece of broken vase that she held.

"Hello," answered a deep and male voice, sounding unfamiliar and smoky. Confused, Haruhi put the broken piece onto the table by the phone jack and turned her full attention to the phone call.

"Do I know you?" she asked, sure the answer would be 'no' but feeling she should ask all the time.

"Why yes, Fujioka Haruhi," came the reply, sending another shiver down Haruhi's spine.

"How do you know my name," she asked, blessing her voice for remaining calm in spite of the situation.

"We met yesterday. Don't you remember?" A dark-made-light chuckle sounded on the other end of the line and Haruhi was sure that she was now experiencing one of those calls from the movies where the guy was wearing the scream mask. But this was much more real. "I'm calling to wish you a happy Halloween, and to confirm the appointment we set yesterday. We filled out the necessarily forms and set your…appointment is dated for the seventeenth of next month?"

"I-I'm sorry, but I never set such an appointment. Is it possible you have me mixed up with someone else? There are a lot of Haruhi's in Japan. About as many as there are Chins in a—"

"—Chinese phonebook. Yes, you told me that joke when you came into my office. You then gave me specific instructions to call you and remind you of the date. I am simply following your requests."

Still rather confused by this conversation, Haruhi turned to look at the small couch before picking at one of the spots where fluff poked through the fabric. Who the hell was this guy and how did he know what she was going to say? It was unnerving, not to mention more than a little peeving. Could this be a bad joke set up by some immature brat on the night of chills and frights? Was this guy some stalker? Haruhi really had no recollection of ever making such an appointment…

"Do you mind me asking you your name?" she asked, hoping that question would lead to some answers.

"Dr. Ootori. Remember? We met the other day to discuss your surgery prep. Now, would you like your father to be present when we oper—"

"—Leave my father alone!" Haruhi said (rather louder than necessary) into the receiver. For some reason, mention of her dad by this man made her feel sick and in some form of danger. Either way, it made her want to end this conversation with Dr. What's-it. "I think you have the wrong number, sir, and this is not funny. Please don't call me again."

And with that, she slammed the receiver into the cradle with more forces than necessary. Aki meowed and padded at her foot absently before rubbing against her legs. Haruhi noticed that her hands were shaking slightly and that butterflies were rocketing around her insides like cannons. It felt like she was going to be sick.

Aki meowed again, this time louder, before licking his lips and purring. Haruhi got the message the second time around. "Still hungry?" she asked incredulously. "That's why you're so fat, isn't it. You keep getting me to fix you extra meals." His only response was purring. Smiling, the brunette stooped to pick the fat feline up and walked back towards the kitchen to fix him another helping of canned food.

She'd just straightened up from opening the can, when something bright, orange and festive jack-o-lantern caught her eye. It was a Post-it, stuck on the refrigerator with several phone numbers and the date 'September 17th' written across it in big, bold letters. Curious, the commoner plucked the note off of the magnetic surface and stared at it, puzzled. She couldn't remember tacking this note up, nor taking a message that had anything to do with the seventeenth of September.

Absentmindedly, she allowed herself to drift into the living room for a second time and picked up the telephone to dial the number directly under the date. The number was underlined several times, obviously making it important. While the phone rang, Haruhi thought.

Maybe it was the stress. It gets to everyone eventually. After all, she was a law student, and they had just moved on to cases about even more disturbing crimes; the kind that kept you up at night—

--Ring—

--because you couldn't figure out who was at fault in the trial. The nanny who had been drunk on the couch while the infant drowned or the father of the infant, who was attempting to touch her, having thus slipped her something in her drink. Maybe the pressure was finally—

--Ring—

--Starting to get to her…

"Hello, this is the Ootori Medical group. Dr. Ootori speaking. Who may I ask is calli—"

Haruhi slammed the phone back onto the hook with a type of petrified and somewhat comical expression of terror and fright on her face that it made Aki hiss and skitter away from her.

Was that…Could that have been? That same doctor? The one who had…the appointment…The seventeenth of next month? The seventeenth of September? It was August right now…

"I think…I need…"

Hands still shaking, Haruhi reached for the phone again, and this time dialed a number she'd had memorized since high school.

The phone rang four times before the groggy and sleepy voice of one of the Hitachiin brothers filled her ear. Her gut feeling told her it was Hikaru, but her gut couldn't be trusted right now: it was too full of funny, crawling things.

"'ello?" came the mumbled greeting. "Haruhi? We have caller ID, so we know it's you."

In the background, another voice asked, "Why are you calling so late? We're sleepy! Do you know how many costume parties we had to go to for the sake of business?"

Despite herself, the commoner cracked a grin. "I was studying for the exam I have tomorrow," she supplied, rubbing her eyes as the full weight of the extensive day crashed around her. "Hey, can I ask you two something: Did I ever mention a Dr. Ootori to you guys? Or anything special happening around the seventeenth of next month?"

She guessed that the twins must have shrugged, because she heard them hum noncommittal responses; the kind that only made sense with a shrug.

"Why should we know?" "Did you really wake us up in the middle of the night to ask that? Don't you have…little ghosts and witches to give candy to?"

"It's too late for trick or treaters, Kaoru. And alright, fine…I was just wondering," Haruhi said defensively. "I just can't seem to remember doing anything with any doctor in the past few months. I actually can't remember much from the last few months…"

"Yeah, like you forgot to come to our dinner party last night," Hikaru grouched. Kaoru supplied, "We missed you. Our mother wanted to 'catch up and gossip' as she put it."

"And we wanted to see your costume."

"We thought you were going to be Alice from Wonderland. We looked really stupid in out cat costumes without you."

"Why'd you skip the party, Haruhi?"

Baffled for what seemed like the infinite time that evening, Haruhi could do nothing but openly gape at the phone. She couldn't remember ever receiving such an invitation, let alone skipping it. Nor anything to do with Alice in Wonderland and the Cheshire Cat. She certainly wouldn't have done so if she'd known the twin's mother was going to be there: the woman was like a second mother to her on occasion, and the dinners with her and her sons were always memorable.

"I—I didn't remember getting the invitation. I'm sorry," she offered. Shrugging in spite of the fact the twins couldn't see her.

"How could you not remember? We asked you to come yesterday, Haruhi. And you said you would."

"It doesn't matter," she heard Kaoru add in the background. "We can always have another one, but a Halloween part after Halloween is kind of stupid. Haruhi can come next time. Right, Haruhi?"

"What? Yeah, sure. Of course." She felt as if her tongue weighed more than a ton, the sensation making it rather hard to speak and even harder to swallow. Haruhi's eyes roamed over the picture frames on the opposing wall and she felt her heart stop. "Hikaru…Kaoru…Do either of you remember the time the three of us went to the amusement park?"

"Last year?"

"In America?"

"Wild Waves?"

"Yeah, why?"

Haruhi felt her breathing become ragged and rather forced as she stepped closer to the frame holding a specific image: she and the two red headed Hitachiin boys. Haruhi was holding a huge commoner newspaper in front of her face while the twins proceeded to tease and poke at her while the friendly passer by took the picture they had asked him to. Behind them, the usual hustle and bustle of parks was also captured on film forever, and this was where Haruhi's puzzlement found the ideal piece to latch onto.

"Do you two remember that guy who kept following us around…the blond guy, with violet eyes? He…he's in the back of the picture of the three of us." Her voice was no more than a whisper at the end of her statement, but she guessed by the hurried shuffling and the 'oh my god, she's right' on the other end of the phone line that Hikaru and Kaoru had understood her exactly.

Haruhi felt her eyelids grow heavy and the next thing she knew, hot water was cascading down her body and suds were swirling around the drain of her stand in shower.

When…when did I decided to take a shower? Haruhi wondered. She reached to turn off the water and pulled back the curtain. She stepped onto the bathmat that she could not remember setting down and hurriedly dressed in the cloths she could not remember setting out.

Quickly tying her short hair in a quick bun, Haruhi allowed her gaze to sweep across the mirror, where her eyes locked and froze.

There, written in a font that could only be called finger-painting, were the words 'don't forget to call the doctor' scrawled into the fogged up mirror, just at her height.

Panic engulfed the short woman, and she hurriedly made to get out of the bathroom, tripping on the tangled towel and sliding into the door handle with her head. Now cursing the pounding head ache that made it no easier to think in the current state, the brunette yanked open the door of the small bathroom only to be confronted by what appeared to be a man standing opposite of her.

Haruhi screamed, high pitched and shocked. Surprised, so did the man. It must have been a trick of the light, but the woman did not pause to take the time to investigate the source of the mirrored actions. She grabbed the first thing she could (which happened to be a metal rimmed picture frame) and hurled it at the man before taking the opportunity to run down the thin hallway that lead into the kitchen and living room.

Haruhi grappled with the phone hook before her slippery fingers were able to grasp the phone. With shaky fingers, the only button she could dial was 'redial' before sprinting towards the door.

"Hello? Haruhi, what the hell? You hung up on us without even an explanation—"

The phone flew from her hand as Haruhi's bare feet collided with something furry and warm. Aki let out an indignant squawk before hissing at her and scrambling towards the door that Haruhi just noticed was wide open.

Someone is in my house.

The phone beeped electronically, successfully attracting the brunette's attention, only to give the signal that it's great flight across the room had resulted in a sudden lose of battery. The phone was dead, and there was some strange man in her apartment.

Haruhi made to get off the floor, only to fall back down when her ankle rolled and she found her face eating carpet. Pain, fear and all over panic took control and, like a wounded animal void of all hope and sense, the woman somehow made it to her hands and knees and crawled after Aki.

Something sounded behind her and, sure that it was the mystery man, Haruhi opened her mouth the let out a wordless scream before she made one great bounding leap that somehow managed to propel her half way out into the hallway of the building. The footsteps from behind her stopped, but the pounding pain in her head was too much for her senses and the threatening abyss of darkness loomed in front of her eyes. It offered peace, tranquility and a temporary escape from the pain and responsibility. Haruhi took the offer and the last thing she remembered was Aki mewling and the shout of someone for help.