Her sisters left later that day—Jeanette off to her job at the local library and Eleanor off to the grocery store. Brittany currently stood in front of her closet as she tried to focus her thoughts on what to wear today, but kept getting distracted by different thoughts. Her black dress she had worn last night seemed to be hanging back inside her closet, looking as nice as it had when she picked it out. Her heels, however, were missing. She remembered one of the heels were broken, unaware as to how it broke in the first place…but just because they were broken didn't mean she didn't care about them. It upset her to think that her poor precious heels had even broken in the first place. They served her so well…

But enough about that. They broke, they're unusable—she could accept that—what she couldn't accept was that they were most likely thrown away, and not by her.

Crossing her arms, she huffed and walked over to her bed, sitting down on the edge of it as she stared at her closet with concentrated ice blue eyes. Crossing her legs and propping her right elbow against them as she rested her chin on her hand, she exhaled out deeply. This would've been so much better if her sisters actually remembered what happened… But then as she reflects about the painful image of Jeanette, she begins to think otherwise. It was probably best Jeanette didn't remember anything. It still would've been nice though for Brittany to be able to talk about this with her sisters and not have them giving her strange looks, thinking she needed to so see some doctor about her "delusions."

Dropping her forehead into her hand, she rubbed at her head. Her headache was now gone…but she was beginning to think it would come back due to how much she was thinking about all of this. Obviously what happened last night wasn't supposed to be a part of her memory, or else why would everything be back to normal like it was supposed to be? She got her wish—hooray—everything was normal—but she still has the memories and they're not quite giving her the happy results she would've liked with this wish. Everything was normal. But now she was beginning to desire it wasn't normal because she seemed to be alone with the awareness of what the heck was going on and that wasn't making her feel at ease…

Brittany glanced over to her bedroom door that was wide open, practically begging for something to freely come creeping in without her knowledge of it. Biting her lower lip, she stood up and walked over to the door, momentarily peering out into the empty hallway before she softly closed the door. Slowly turning around with her heart skipping a beat, half expecting someone to be standing there when no one was standing there, she scanned her room to make sure nothing oddly conspicuous would prove she had made the wrong choice of closing herself inside her bedroom alone, defenseless.

As an unnerving sensation of fear bubbled up in her stomach, making her feel like she was on a rollercoaster that was zooming at a very angled elevation to the ground, she glimpsed over at the window, almost too scared to do so. For a moment, she thought she had seen something outside her window from the corner of her eye as she was surveilling her room. But as she stared back at her reflection, she only saw herself.

Taking in a deep breath, she dropped her gaze as the eerie image of the dark figure and sharp teeth came to mind. Taking another glance at her window, she grabbed her laptop and headed over to her bed. She really needed to invest in getting some sort of curtain for her window…she'd rather not see what was out there if it ever came to her window. Opening her laptop and typing in the password, she self-consciously touched her neck as she waited for it to load.

Immediately when her laptop's home screen came on, she clicked on one of the browser icons and then on the Search box as she rested her fingers on the keyboard. How was she going to type this in? She wasn't even sure if she wanted to look up an image of what she had seen looming over Jeanette like she was its prey…but she wanted to know what that thing was. As she stared at the screen, she pursed her lips. This was just like typing in images for spiders—freaky and terrifying.

Eventually after what felt like forever from simply sitting there with her hands unmoving, Brittany closed her laptop and marched over to her closet, picking out a bright neon pink jacket and black shirt, along with skinny jeans that were folded at the cuffs. As she dug through her closet after finding the other pieces of clothing, she then pulled out a pair of matching, casual, bright neon pink Nike shoes and quickly dressed her half-naked body with the clothing and shoes she had picked out. Pursing her lips, she glimpsed in the mirror, checking her usual ponytail and fringe she styled her hair into, and headed over to her door, freezing just as soon as her hand had touched the door knob like it were a Pause button.

What if something was waiting outside her bedroom door…? She was alone, so now would be the perfect—

She abruptly shook her head, her high ponytail slightly whipping against her neck as she forced herself to press Play on time and open the stupid door. Great—one night of terrifying horror and now she was acting like she was stepping on glass. What if that was just one of those occasions where she and her sisters just so happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and now nothing like that will ever happen again?

Her stomach still flipped when she (gratefully) found nothing waiting outside her door and she glimpsed right and left like you would before crossing a street as she headed down the hallway, past her sister's bedrooms and to the front door. Grabbing her keys to the apartment, she then left, making sure to lock the door before she headed down the many stairs to reach normal ground. She was going a lot faster than she normally did as she headed down the stairs, but she chose to ignore this and the bouncing echoes her feet made from each step she took, making it sound like she wasn't the only one making so much noise on the metal stairs.

It was a great relief to her when she had made it to normal ground and was heading outside her building and out onto the busy streets where normal people were walking on the sidewalks. Her stomach still felt like she was on that thrilling roller coaster, but it had settled down a little bit once she had surrounded herself with the open, noisy public. She couldn't help but glance back at her apartment building, just to see if maybe there was something abnormal there, but all she saw was a bespectacled boy at the base of the apartment steps, looking up inside the building. She vaguely wondered what he was looking at and fixed her gaze forward.

Brittany wasn't exactly sure what she was expecting or hoping to find, but when she made it to the same parking lot and same parking space she and her sisters had left their car at last night, all she could do was stand there dumbly and wonder, Now what?

Glancing around the parked cars, she casually walked around the area she had seen her bespectacled sister laying on the ground, trying to come up with a backup excuse to give to anyone who happens to question her at the same time.

There wasn't really anything significant she could see on the asphalt…it just looked like a boring black pavement. There was no blood, no sign of damage—nothing. Sighing as she glanced up at the sky, she couldn't help but frown. It better not rain. The cloudy sky seemed to be getting slightly darker and she walked here with no money or umbrella… Grabbing at the end of her ponytail and running her fingers down her glossy, light auburn hair, she examined the ground one last time, of course finding nothing. Heaving out a sigh, about ready to head on back to her apartment or maybe visit Jeanette at the library, she suddenly stood still. Her face contorted itself as she focused her senses on her ears.

She could hear something…it sounded a lot like heavy steps, as if someone were dragging their feet with much difficulty and will…and then there was the long drawl of something sharp scratching the asphalt in a continuous slog.

Feeling her heart beat fall out of rhythm with the heavy steps, her gaze flickered from here to there as she quietly breathed in the faint, rotten-smelling air, pivoting in a full circle. The noise suddenly stopped, causing her to anxiously begin walking backwards away from the parking spot area. The silence almost seemed too quiet, and just as she turned on her heels, about ready to make a break for it, she found herself come face to face with a dark, blonde-haired boy.

"Ah—!" she jumped back, feeling a mini heart attack. Her small outburst caused the boy to slightly jump as well.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the boy blinks, his innocent green eyes wide.

"Ho-how long have you been standing there?" Brittany questions nervously.

"Oh, um, I just got here…um, yeah—that's my car right there…" He then points over to the car parked in the parking space beside the area she had been inspecting.

Chewing on her lower lip, Brittany slowly nods her head, trying to mask the discomfort on her face. "Oh, right…of course… I'll just—yeah…" and she walks past the seemingly confused boy as fast as she can, not even daring to glance behind her. She can feel his eyes trailing after her like a watching owl and she's trying to debate whether or it's comforting to her that some random stranger is still staring at her or that she'll be having a witness if something happens to her.

While walking quickly with her hands shoved in her jacket pockets, she quickly heads inside the local grocery store in hopes to find her youngest sister. She didn't feel like walking back up the apartment steps alone and the library would be her next stop if she didn't find Eleanor. She wasn't sure what to think about those…noises, and frankly, she wasn't sure if she wanted to find out the source of them was. The more she thought about the noises, the more she thought about the looming figure over her sister's body, and she couldn't help but think: I'm next. And this time, things may never go back to normal like they somehow did from last night. She felt silly and absolutely irrational…but something inside of her wasn't just about to let this all go so easily.

As she swiftly roams past the many aisles of the grocery store, her hopes diminishing when she's nearly coming to an end on her hunt with nothing to return with, she sighs with great relief when she sees Eleanor standing near the meat counter. Nearly skipping her way over to her sister like a frolicking deer, she accidently bumps into some boy's shoulder saying a blinded, brief "Sorry!" as she continues over to Eleanor.

As if on cue, Eleanor suddenly glances up from her shopping list she held and a wide, surprised grin spreads across her face. "Brittany!"

Suddenly realizing what she was about to do, Brittany slows her pace down to something a little more customary as she approaches her sister. She just nearly gave Eleanor a big hug like she had done to Jeanette this morning and, well…considering the circumstances… She rarely ever greeted her sisters with a hug unless the situation matched, and the situation didn't exactly match. She was scared and giddy, but she had to remember Eleanor didn't know a single thing. She didn't want her sisters to act like they needed to keep themselves on leash whenever around her, so in order to keep the comfortable atmosphere, she had to put herself on leash.

"Hey!" Brittany smiles.

"What are you doing here?" Eleanor asks as she steps up to the meat counter and tells the big, beefy man her order.

"Oh, well, I got bored…" Brittany begins as Eleanor turns to look at her with a smile "…and I thought I'd be nice and help…" she awkwardly ends, trying to flash a genuine smile. This was so weird for her because she never comes to help grocery shopping. She helps to go shop for clothing, shoes, and anything related to fashion and beauty.

"Oh? Really…? Well, that's new…" Eleanor gives her a strange look, also knowing very well that Brittany's never done anything like this unless she were trying to avoid something. And the funny part was was the fact that she was trying to avoid something. How ironic…

"Yeah, so—need any help?" Brittany offers, trying to make this seem completely natural. She had never been such a disgrace to her acting skills this badly before.

"Um, actually this was the last thing I needed to get—you could help push the shopping cart to the cash register, though," Eleanor shrugs, folding up the grocery list and putting it in her lime green, shoulder bag. Smiling to the beefy man, Eleanor then turns to grab the freshly packaged poultry, setting it down in the full shopping cart. "Well, this should last us two weeks…maybe, right?" she grins at Brittany.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Brittany glances down at the shopping cart and states, "Um, yeah. Sure…" She didn't know…

Snickering, Eleanor begins pushing the shopping cart, but then pauses, moving aside for Brittany to take the reins. "Here—you said you wanted to help, right?"

"Right," Brittany grits as she places her hand on the long handle bar, walking beside Eleanor as she leads the way to the cash register.

"So I'm thinking of making either spaghetti or fried chicken—what do you think?" Eleanor asks when they arrive at the cash register and Brittany's hurriedly placing each item in the cart on the rolling mat, moving towards the cash register.

"Um," she sighs. "I don't know, uh—well, spaghetti?—sure?" Brittany honestly didn't care. She just wanted to get back to their apartment safely…and before the sun went down. Geez—she's never gotten this anxious before—almost like she had just come right out of a horror film.

.

It was about 4:30 P.M. when they returned back to their apartment under the sea of gray clouds blocking as much sunlight as it could. Jeanette was supposed to get off of work at 6:00, and that made Brittany worry. It began to get dark at around that time and Jeanette had already been attacked once. That only made Brittany think Jeanette would most likely get attacked again.

She began to drum her fingers against the countertop impatiently while listening to the sounds of Eleanor cooking, busy with her own thoughts, as she stared at the front door down the hallway. Sighing heavily, Brittany moved in her seat uncomfortably like a child with no attention span. She didn't understand anything. She didn't get any of this, and it was frustrating and terrifying to her. How come she was the only one who remembered what happened last night? Was she even supposed to remember what happened last night? She just wished she knew everything already…or at least could forget it and move on with her life.

When was Jeanette coming home?

She had just about slammed her hand down on the table when she glanced at the clock. Abruptly standing, she begins to head down the hallway to the taunting, closed, heavy door.

"Where you going? Dinner's almost ready," Eleanor calls after her.

"Oh, I…"

She suddenly hears the front door open and clamp shut like a yawning mouth.

Whipping her head around, Brittany sighs with relief, passing a smile to Jeanette who was now taking her shoes off while moving a strand from her messy bun out of her face. Looking back to Eleanor, Brittany points to the door right next to her, which just so happened to be the door to her bedroom. She got lucky.

"Oh, duh—hey, Jeanette!" Eleanor chirps, heading back into the boundaries of the kitchen.

"Hey…." Brittany hears Jeanette call softly as she heads inside her room.

"How was work?" Eleanor's voice asks.

"Fine…"

And that's when Brittany closes her bedroom door, cutting the conversation out from her hearing. Leaning back against her door momentarily, she begins to take her jacket off, and hanging it back up, she then pulls her shoes off, tossing them carelessly inside her closet. Running her hand along her ponytail, she glances at her window, the still cloudy skies shadowing over everything it could touch. Pulling her lingering eyes away with much effort and self-control, she then strips herself of her shirt and pants, quickly changing into some comfortable shorts and a tank top before she goes and joins her sisters to eat.

The following days after, the days go by as normal as any day could get. Brittany hasn't heard the eerie noises since Saturday, and her sister's days seem to get more boring to her. She didn't get how Jeanette could stand just sitting in a library, every now and then walking around, reorganizing books people aren't considerate enough to put back themselves. And then Eleanor, who was currently working as a waiter at some old fashioned diner, was starting to work full time there—her goal was to eventually become a chef, and hopefully, be able to apply to a better job that dealt with the culinary arts—that just seemed exhausting, considering Eleanor was now working from 6:00-1:00 A.M. Brittany rarely ever saw her anymore, and she felt like she was spending more time alone, all by herself.

Just because everything seemed normal for her sisters, and that she hadn't heard those noises again, didn't mean everything abnormal stopped for Brittany. She always felt like she was being watched, and she finally got to the point to where she began to tape a sheet up against her window every night. She was beginning to have disturbing nightmares, and some nights she found herself waking up, crying over a dream she couldn't quite remember, only knowing that what had happened was far worse than what she had actually seen in person and had stored away in the back of her brain like a permanent tattoo for her to never forget. Her sisters were completely unaware of this, and she so badly wanted to tell someone about this—but she just couldn't.

She also could no longer stand staying inside her own room with the door shut and locked, for she always seemed to find herself hearing the floorboards outside her room creak softly, and she knew better that neither of her sisters would ever return home early or wake up in the middle of the night like that. In all her years, they rarely ever have to wake up in the middle of the night to go get a drink or use the bathroom—for something like that to happen was as often as she saw a shooting star; it's been ages since she's seen one. Also, she's never even heard the floorboards creak before…

Then Thursday happened...and everything she knew ultimately changed as the world's mask began to slowly break and fall to pieces before her eyes.


Oh my gosh - first off, THANK YOU Charr2003, no1nosme, Guest, a.r.h.f.20! :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD (Pretend that's a lot of double chins to show how big my smile is because I didn't know what else to do.) Can I just hug you guys? You don't even know how happy you guys made me!

And YES- my other story, I will begin to work on it. Probably will have to switch off between updates or whatever - I'll figure it out very soon... ;D But for now, bare with me as my brain spurts on this story. And I'm actually now making it a goal to read through my writing before I post it! - which is new for me because frankly I get too lazy to do that...and I'm trying to improve on my detailing methods because I feel like I'm a little bland oftentimes. :P But anyways...

Thanks so much for reading! And again, thank you for the reviews!