It was finally time for me to be off on my own, free to live a completely new life now that I have just graduated from high school. Even though I just turned eighteen, my parents were permitting me to find a place for me to move into all by myself and enroll myself into any college I wanted to go to. I love art and I've always wanted to be an artist ever since I could remember. I knew at once that that was going to be my major in college. My parents didn't care what kind of college I went to, as long as I went to one so I wasn't being pressured to get into a university.

I decided to look for a small house in the country, knowing that nature was going to be the muse for my paintings. I had finally found a place one morning, while I was searching the internet. It was a small cottage but it was beautiful telling from the picture of it. It was pale pinkish color with a dark reddish roof. There were beautiful flowers surrounding the house and it even had the famous white, picket fence. Then I took a look at the window. There seemed to be a faint, dark shadow in it. I paid no mind to it, I just figured there must have been someone in the house while the other person was outside taking the picture. I continued reading over the ad. Apparently, the owner wanted to sell it as soon as possible and was willing to take any offer the buyer wanted to make. This sounded like my kind of house to live in. It was in the middle of a small forest and the nearest neighbor wasn't for about the next five miles. There were two bedrooms, a small living room, and a small kitchen. Surprisingly, there was basement and an attic, and the backyard was the rest of the forest. I fell in love with the house immediately and knew it was the perfect place I could just get away from it all. I called my best friend Alison to come with me to visit the little cottage. After getting the directions from my place to the cottage, it seemed that it would take about an hour to get there.

I called Allison and asked her to go with me and she said that all she needed to do was take a shower and get ready then she would head over to my house. Unfortunately, that meant that she would take about an hour to get ready. So to pass the time, I decided to call the owner to get more information on the house.

"Hello? May I speak with the owner of this cottage?"

"Yeah, you're speaking with him."

"Oh great! My name is Rachel Glee and I'm interested in buying your cottage."

"You're a foolish girl to be wanting to buy this house! You don't know its dark history, the horrible acts that have been committed in this house! You'll be stuck with its curse!"

"E-excuse me? What do you mean… 'dark history' and 'horrible acts'?"

Just then I heard some footsteps from the phone, some rustling, and then the man on the phone was arguing with someone who had been there. I then heard a loud thump and then silence. It completely freaked me out. Right when I was about to hang up, I heard a voice on the other end.

"Wait! Don't hang up!"

"What's going on? Who am I talking to?"

"Sorry, my name is Eric. The man who you were talking to was my grandfather. He's been watching too much Twilight Zone episodes. It completely screwed with his head to the point where he can't think straight anymore. He now suffers from paranoia and gets easily scared. I'm sorry if that scared you."

"What was the thud I heard then? Where is he now?"

"Oh um…you see, the doctors gave me some medication to give to him when he becomes out of control. I was trying to get him to give me the phone and he started getting a little violent with me. So I had to tackle him down in order for me to give him his treatment. That's the thud you heard. And right now he's asleep on the floor."

"Oh I see…okay. Well anyway, I was telling your grandfather that was interested in buying your little cottage."

"Really? That's wonderful!"

"But are you actually willing to take any offer I give you?"

"Yes I am. I really have to sell this house as soon as I can."

"May I ask you why?"

"Well, I can't tell you that because it's uh…personal. All I can tell you is that it's really important I sell this house soon."

"Oh okay. Well, I don't really have a lot of money to spend. The most I could give you is five hundred dollars because I—"

" Sold! When can you come seal the deal?"

"Wait, you don't mind getting just five hundred dollars?"

"No of course not! When can you come?"

"Well, I wanted to come by today to take a look of the house before actually buying it."

"Believe me, it'll be the house of your dreams. It's homey and cozy. How soon can you give me the money?"

"I would have to give you the money tomorrow because I have to ask my parents—"

"That's fine! It's okay. Just come down right now."

"I can't. You see I'm waiting for a friend to accompany me and she's suppose to give me call me when she's ready—Hey, could you hold on a second please. Someone is on the other line. It might be her."

"Yes, of course. Go ahead."

I then switched over, "Hello?"

"Rachel, I'm finally ready! I'll be over right now."

"It took you long enough," I laughed, "Hey, guess what! I bought the house already!"

"What?! But Rachel, you haven't even seen it! You can't do that just yet! What did you decided to give the guy anyway?"

"I'm giving him five hundred dollars for the whole cottage!"

"Only that much?"

"Yup! Oh Ally! I have a great feeling about the house! It's my dream home!"

"If you say so…I still think you should look around a little more before settling on the first place you find."

"Well, that's just your opinion and I want this house. There's only one thing though."

"What's that?"

"The owner wants to sell it a.s.a.p. and he won't tell me why. And there was this weird situation with his grandfather. Then I see what looks to be a shadow in the window in the picture of the house. You know what? Okay, I'll take your advice."

"See! Okay, I'm coming. See ya when I get there."

"Okay!" I then switched over, "Hello sir?"

"Yes, I'm still here."

"Okay, we'll be coming now. We'll probably be there in about an hour. But I have to tell you right now, I'm not settling a contract just yet. I have to at least see the house first. I have to be smart about this whole thing."

There was a long silence and then the man finally spoke, with a cold voice, "Fine. I'll see you when you get here," and he then hung up.

I printed the directions to the cottage from MapQuest and when Alison got to my house we both left. It was a peaceful drive, but the man's cold voice was stuck in my head. How was it that he was so cheery when I had told him that I would buy the house but then became so cold when I told him I might not? It made no sense to me. It even made me start thinking about his crazy grandfather and then the shadow in the picture. Was there really a curse bestowed upon the little cottage? I had to find out.

"Rachel?"

"Huh? Oh sorry Al, I was just thinking that's all."

"I would rather have you pay attention to road," she laughed, "What were you thinking about anyway?"

"Well, I didn't tell you but before you called me I was talking to the man's grandfather and he was telling me that I was a fool to be wanting to buy the house and that there was a curse on it. Then all of a sudden there was a racket, then someone arguing, then there was like a loud thump or something and then silence. That's when the other man came onto the phone. Then later when I told him that I wanted to see the house first before already deciding to buy it, voice got really cold and told me, 'Fine. I'll see you when you get here.' It was so weird."

"That does sound pretty weird. See! I told you not to buy that house right away. You know what, maybe we should just turn around and go back."

"Nah, we're almost there anyway. We might as well just see it."

"If you say so."

As soon as we drove up, I felt a chill run down my spine. Something was not right about the house, but the strange thing was that something was drawing me to this house. Alison and I walked up to the door, but before I even got the chance to knock, a man showed up at the door. The man was in his forties, dressed in a black suit, had messy black hair, and needed a shave.

"Come on in! You must be Rachel Glee. I'm happy to see you. Come, let me give you a tour of the house."

"This man has bi-polar written all over him," Alison whispered to me.

"Um, sir how's your grandfather doing?" I asked him, ignoring Alison.

"Who?"

"Your grandfather? How is he?" Now he was starting to scare me.

"Oh! He's fine now that I gave him his medication. He's asleep upstairs."

"Now I know this guy is bi-polar," Alison whispered to me again.

"Well, I would still like to see the room he's sleeping in. I want to see every single room in the house."

"Yeah yeah…sure," he said uneasily.

"So um, do you know who the neighbors are?"

"Well, I see him once in a great while, like if we come across each other in town but that's it. He's a nice boy. About twenty years of age."

Alison and I smirked at each other.

"Well, let's step out of this hall and into the living room. Shall we?"

The living room was beautiful. It had the feel of the Victorian ages with all the lace everywhere and the 18th century paintings. As we moved through the entire house, it was all that way. It was beautiful! I soon forgot about the bad feeling I had about house. The only thing left on my mind was how a man his stature was able to keep the house this beautiful. Lucky for me, Alison was my very blunt other half.

"So how does a man like you keep a house like this beautiful?"

"Alison!"

"Oh it's okay. My wife before she died had remodeled the house and well, I just wanted to keep it this way as a reminder that she will always be here with me. But I need to move on now. I have to get away. That's why I need to sell this house so fast. I'll go crazy if I don't get on soon."

"Yeah because we can already see that you're beginning to lose it," Alison whispered to me.

We finally got to the room his supposed grandfather was in and well, I guess he was right. There was an old man, lying down on the bed, snoring away. And if that wasn't enough evidence, there was the collection of twilight zone episodes on the floor in front of the TV. Now I felt guilty about it all and more than ever I knew I had to buy the house. So I signed the contract with him and the deal was sealed. I gave him the five hundred dollars and he gave me the house. He actually let me keep all of the furniture and even the kitchen silverware. That was a pretty sweet deal, but I still found his story a bit odd. But hey, I didn't care. I was eighteen and now I had my own house!

The very next day, my parents came to help me move my things into the house and Alison came to spend the night with me. It was about eight o'clock when were gossiping and watching TV in the living room when I heard a knock at the front door. Alison and I looked at each other, we had no idea who it could be. The only people who would come see me is my parents, and they would have called first. My other friends don't even know that I had moved yet. We started walking towards the front door and when we looked through the peak hole there was a young man outside. That must have been my new neighbor and he was totally hot. As soon as I opened the door he walked right into my house and started walking all over the place as if he was looking for something. Okay, that was rude and creepy.

"Excuse me! I think you it would be a pretty good idea to introduce yourself before waltzing into my house." I said a bit irritated.

"Why did you move into this house?"

"Hey pal, don't you think you should at least tell us what your name is before you start questioning us?" said Alison.

"You made the worst mistake moving into this cottage," he then grabbed me by the arms, "Do you even know about gruesome history of this place?"

Now I was scared, "No and can you let go of me please? Your scaring me!"

He then let me go and walked into the dining room, it was pretty obvious that he's been here before. He sat down on one the chairs and looked as if he was trying to gather all his thoughts together. He was silent for about a minute or two. Alison and I were completely confused. We had no idea weather this guy was real and was just trying to warn us about something or this guy was completely psycho. Finally he got up and walked towards us.

"My name is Adam Blake, I'm your new neighbor. I'm sorry I barged into your house the way I did, but I need to warn you about this cottage's dark history. Come sit down with me. So what are your names?"

"I'm Rachel Glee, and this is my friend Alison Carter. I'm the one that lives here, she's just spending the night here with me tonight. What's so bad about this place? I mean, it looked perfectly fine."

"Did you ever get a weird feeling when you were talking to the owner of this place?"

"Yeah, the guy was bi-polar!"

"Alison!"

"He had to be! The guy had it written all over him. There was something weird about him. You even said it yourself Ray."

Adam now looked over at me, "Okay yes, I did get a weird feeling about him. Especially when I first talked to him over the phone. In fact, now that I think about it, there was something weird about the picture of this cottage. I'll be right back."

I walked upstairs into my bedroom. I grabbed the ad where it advertised the house and made my way downstairs. As I was walking through the hall I saw a shadow disappear in the room where the grandfather was in. I was more curious than I was scared so I walked over to the room. It looked complete undisturbed when I walked in. I shrugged it off thinking it must have been my imagination. Suddenly the door slammed shut on me. I ran to the door and it was locked, from the outside! I began screaming for Adam and Alison. Now the lights began to flicker on and off. My eyes caught sight of the vanity mirror that was in the room. Something began streaming down it and when I walked over I saw it was blood.

"Rachel!"

I turned around and saw that Adam had managed to open the door for me. I ran into his arms. I had never been more scared in my entire life. We all decided to sleep over at his house for the night. There was no way I was going to stay in that house after what had just happened to me. He lived in a farm house which was way bigger than my small, creepy cottage. It was a bit messy but then again, he was a guy. What guy keeps their home clean 24/7?

"Adam, what just happened?? Why did that happen?" I asked as I sat down on his sofa.

"And why did it only happen to Rachel? I mean, I was alone in some of the rooms too and nothing happened to me." Asked Alison as she began rummaging through the mess he had on the floor.

But Adam didn't answer us, he was staring at me. I couldn't help but start blushing and I looked away from him. What else was I suppose to do? A hot guy was staring at me!

"Rachel?"

"Yes?"

"Would you come with me for a sec?"

"Um sure.."

"Hey wait Ray, what do you want with her huh?"

" I have a picture she needs to see."

Alison and I looked at each other and we both nodded. I then started following Adam. He then took me upstairs and into this room that looked like a study room. He then began going through his book case. I began looking at all the photographs he had on the wall. They were dated back to the late 1800s. This must have been his family from back then.

"Look."

He gave me a photo album and when I looked down at the picture, I nearly dropped the book. I was looking at a picture of me, or at least a girl that could have been my twin. I was completely shocked. This picture was dated to the late 1800s too. What was going on here?

"Do you believe in reincarnation, Rachel?"

"Well, I believe anything is possible. Adam, I don't understand what's going on here. What's happening in my house? What did I see on that mirror? And why does that girl look exactly like me?"

"You mean, why do you look like her?"

"Whatever! This is way too creepy for me! I'm leaving,"

"Wait!"

Adam grabbed my hand. We looked into each other's eyes and for some reason I felt a strong connection between us. I felt as though I met him before and I've known him all my life. I walked up to him and we looked up at each other. I started feeling a tingly sensation in me, I even felt a little nervous around him. He looked down at me and started leaning into me. Something told me to start leaning towards him. He placed his hands on my face and I closed my eyes. I felt him getting closer to me. I felt like I want to give into him as if I was in love with him.

"Whoa, don't you think it's a little soon to be doing that, especially since we got a crisis on our hands?"

Adam and I quickly stepped away from each other. The strange thing was that the feeling was complete gone. I can't believe that was even happening. We looked at each other, I can tell he was confused too.

"What were we just doing? Was I just about to.. to.. kiss you?"

I nodded my head, "Yes you were."

Adam walked away from me and walked towards the window.

"Ally, would you mind leaving us alone please?"

Ally gave me a look but she understood what I was talking about. That's why she's my best friend and I love her. She'll be sarcastic all the time until she knows when to be serious. She left and I was alone with Adam. Adam continued looking out his window, thinking. I walked up to him and right when I was about to put my hand on his shoulder, he spoke.

"There was this weird sensation that came over me when I was looking at you. I felt like I've known you for a long time. I felt like," he paused.

"You felt like what?" I stepped back.

He turned to face me, "I felt like I was in love with you."

My heart jumped, "What?"

"I felt like I was in love with you… But I've never even met you before in my entire life! And yet, I was in love with you."

"Adam, I got that same feeling too. Okay you need to tell me what's wrong with that house now. Come on, Alison needs to hear too." I grabbed his hand and started pulling him downstairs. I sat on the couch with Alison, "Okay, now tell us exactly what happened."

Well, that's it for now. Let me know if you want me to finish the story =]