After a few days Maka was mostly settled into her new home. She had not ventured back to the barn since the incident with the scythe. Occasionally she would peek out her kitchen window to look at the barn as if expecting the damn thing to get up and walk away into the woods (sometimes she wished it would). Whenever she would look at it she got the unsettling feeling that she was being watched and would retreat further into her kitchen. This particular morning though as she held her staring contest with the barn, she noticed something different. It came in the form of a short male with…blue hair?-what was this world coming too- and a tall slender woman. She watched as they walked straight into the barn without hesitation. Even though she never wanted to enter that barn again she marched straight toward it ready to give the trespassers a piece of her mind. As she reached the slightly ajar barn door, quite ready to bust in and make a scene, she heard a noise, whispering to be exact.

"Soul, it's great to see you again! Have you recovered?" said a voice that seemed to belong to the woman that had walked into the barn.

"OF COURSE HE'S RECOVERED! MY GODLY PRESENCE HAS HEALED HIM" yelled another voice, an annoying voice, Maka already wanted to stab its owner. She could only assume it belonged to the boy with the annoying blue hair.

"You idiot, shut up! We can't have that girl hearing your screaming," said another voice. A voice that had not arrived with the other trespassers. The rumbling baritone struck a chord with Maka, it seemed almost familiar though she was sure she'd never heard it or met the person it belonged to.

"Anyway," the voice continued, "I wouldn't say I'm recovered. I'm not really sure what I am right now, but there has obviously been a change. I know it has something to do with the girl that moved into the house," the speaker paused and then sarcastically added "Oh, and thank you so much for RENTING OUT MY HOUSE!"

Maka raised a brow, so this house belonged to the mystery voice.

Boisterous laughing erupted from the barn, followed by a hushing from the female.

"Soul, Black*Star didn't rent your house as a joke, you know it was the only way to find someone," the female rationalized sweetly.

"I know, and it's really lucky we got someone the first time, but did you really have to rent it to this chick, I mean, did you just give it to the first bid?"

"Ahh, well…" the woman began guiltily before she was cut off.

"AW MAN, IS SHE HOT?!" the obnoxious boy yelled.

"Dude, shut up!"

"Sorry," said a somewhat sheepish reply, "but is she?"

"Eh, she's not ugly, she's a flatty though, if you know what I mean."

There came a few snickers between the two male voices and a small scold from the female voice.

Okay, that's it! Maka though, enraged by the comments on her body from people she didn't even know.

She suddenly threw open the doors intent on demanding to know what was going on and maybe hand out a few Maka-chops while she was at it. When her eyes adjusted to the light of the barn she trained her glare on the intruders. She quickly realized, though, that there were only two occupants in the barn. Only the girl and blue haired boy stood in front of her looking surprised at her impromptu entrance.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing?!" a very angry and confused Maka demanded. She stared down the two intruders who seemed to have recovered from the surprise. The taller one, the female, spoke up.

"Uhm, hello, we are…umm…your neighbors!" she exclaimed. "Yes, yes, we live a bit down the road!"

Maka eyed her suspiciously, the girl seemed pleasant and sweet, but something was going on here.

"Okay," Maka said "could you explain what exactly you were doing sneaking around into my barn?"

The annoying blue haired boy cut in "Hey, this isn't your barn it's S-". A hand being slapped over his loud mouth cut his sentence off, though Maka could still hear his muffled complaint. The girl kept her hand over the boy's mouth and looked sheepishly at Maka.

"Well, we really must be going." She rushed, "I'm Tsubaki and this is Black*Star. Uh, if you need anything, this is our number!" She magically procured a piece of paper with a number on it from her pocket. "Nice to meet you, we will be off now!" The girl, Tsubaki, quickly dragged the boy straight past a dumbfound Maka. She turned to call out, however there was no sign that anyone was around. She stood with her mouth agape for a moment, standing all alone in the entrance of the barn. She finally found her senses when the overwhelming feeling of being watched returned. She slowly turned her head, gazing resting upon the scythe. The blade almost seemed to flash and Maka could have sworn she saw a face reflected in the blade. And not just a face, one with white hair and red eyes, like the ones burnt into her brain from her initial contact. The feeling of eyes on her remained as she backed out of the barn closing the doors and backing into the house. Something was not right with that barn, she though as she found refuge behind the closed door of her house. The air seemed to lighten as she went to her room. She dropped onto her bed, she almost reached for a book but decided her brain was too far into overdrive to focus on a story. Sighing, she stared up at her ceiling trying to logically work out her situation. She fell asleep in the same position not too long after.

It was dark when Maka awoke. She sat up groggily, and swiped clumsily at her eyes. She sat up straighter as she realized that something had woken her up. A banging noise echoed in her sleepy consciousness. She focused hard on listening but the house was quiet, she could only hear the cicadas chirping outside in the summer night. Despite the silence Maka was unconvinced, the house felt off, as if she was in the barn again. Maka slowly stood grabbing the heaviest book from her shelf. It occurred to her, for the first time, that living in the middle of nowhere by herself with only a book to protect her might not have been the smartest decision on her part….still, a Maka chop could easily take a person down and she was decently skilled in more than a few forms of martial arts. She opened the door slowly and peered around the door frame. Light seeped out from under the piano room's door, and Maka was positive that the light had been off and the door open earlier. Readying the book into an attack position she inched forward through the hall. She paused along the wall to take a deep breath before putting her hand on the knob. With one more breath she threw the door open with her book raised high. What was beyond the door made her freeze, her book still held aloft. Everything in her vision seemed to slow down. Her eyes traveled from boot clad feet to the back of a body wearing dark jeans and a T-shirt and then up to a mess of spiked white hair. She watched as the intruders head turned in slow motion toward her, revealing a tan face and crimson eyes that seemed to pierce straight through her. She was so intent on watching this agonizingly slow play through of her intruder that she failed to notice the door that she had thrown open had rebounded off the wall and it only caught her attention as it slammed back into her head. The shock from the blow only distracted her for a second but by the time she looked back, her white haired intruder was gone…though she could have sworn she heard a small chuckle in the now empty space where he had stood. She sunk to the floor in the door frame, dropping her book as she tried to calm her racing heart. 'In the love of all that is holy, what is going on here' she thought as she rubbed her sore head. After a while she got up, leaving the piano room light on. In fact, leaving all the lights on in the house, as if that would magically keep mysterious vanishing persons from entering her home. Finally she climbed back into her bed, but she didn't sleep the rest of the night.