Chapter 3:

Author's Note: This is going to be a long chapter, longer than the first two chapters but please just bear with me, I tried to write it as best as I can.

I was a fool to think that I could just get a goodnight's sleep and wake up next day all energized to go for work. But reality is never so good because the moment I fell into deep slumber I was plagued with nightmares.

Dreams:

I was 9 years old and I was just going to enter my house after coming from school when I heard the noises coming from inside.

Even though I was very little I knew just who the source of all these noises were, because no matter how much I hated it this was not the first time I have witnessed this. When I opened the door all the noises ceased at once making you believe that perhaps you were hallucinating or something, but I knew better, they simply did not want others to know what we were going through.

When I say 'they' I mean my mother and father. My mother is a very beautiful lady who is small in stature with caramel colored hair and honey-brown eyes and she has a fair complexion. My father on the other hand is huge he has dark hair and dark eyes and like my mother he also has a fair complexion . When I saw the scene in front of my eyes it broke my heart no matter how many times I've already seen it. Today my mother's cheeks were red, she had her right eye swollen to the point she could not open it and there was a bruise forming on her left temple. Like always my father must've come home drunk after losing all his money in gambling and released all of his anger on my mother.

After seeing me my father just glared at me in a way to say that I am the reason his life is full of difficulties.

"What are you looking at you brat, go get lost to your room or do you want me to give you the same treatment as your mother." he spat.

"No no no just please leave her, she is just a child, I told you I don't have any more money." My mother pleaded to my father.

"Shut your trap you bitch." my father said with a kick to her stomach.

At that my mother just kneeled on all her fours probably due to pain, perhaps thinking he had done enough for today, my father left the house after pointing one last hateful gaze at me and my mother.

After the door got closed I hurried to the kitchen and got the icepacks for my mother and sprinted towards the living room where my mother was leaning against the armrest of the couch for comfort. I quickly sat in front of her and started icing the new bruises that were starting to form on my mother's skin. Even though the one who was hurt was my mother I couldn't stop the tears that were spilling from my eyes like a broken dam. But my mother who was already hurt so much, just hugged me tight against her body even though it must have increased the pain in her stomach caused by the kick. She just kept whispering that it's going to okay, again and again in my ear and rubbing my back in circles to soothe me. After what seemed like a long time I had finally calmed down and I pushed myself away from her so that I could ask her all the questions that were in my mind like 'why does father hate us?' or 'why can't he act like other dad's who play with their kids and do a lot of fun stuff with them.' But before I could ask any of these question I was starting to hear 'ding' and a voice saying 'Hey anybody home let me in.' repeatedly. At first I thought it was my father who had came back, but before I could even use my mouth to say something, darkness from all around had already enveloped me and was starting to suffocate me. When it became too much I woke with a gasp.

Dream Ends

After I woke up from my nightmare I was so frazzled that I didn't even notice the voice and the constant ding that was coming from outside the house for at least 5 minutes. All I could focus was upon my own ragged breathing making it seem like I had just ran a marathon. After what seemed like a long time but only just 5 minutes I calmed down and wiped away the tears that had fallen and noticed that the voice has gotten just more louder and ding of the doorbell more constant. I picked my phone which was placed on nightstand near my bed and checked the time to find that it was 1:45 am, ugggh, who the hell could it be at this time of the night outside my house. As soon as I asked this question I was filled with horrifying scenarios like what if it's a serial killer whose targets just happen to be girls, or what if it's a burglar, no no it couldn't be a burglar, what kind of burglar stands on the front door and rings the doorbell just to notify the residents that he has come to steal and ask them politely 'hey guys I was just wandering through your neighborhood, when I saw your house I thought damn you guys must be filthy rich so mind telling me the passcode for all your lockers so you know, just so I could get this done quickly for once.' While I was thinking all of these things the voice had gone quiet perhaps gotten tired of all that shouting but whoever it was sure had compensated for it by ringing doorbell more repeatedly.

"Uggh will you give it a rest I'm coming you will break my doorbell!" I shouted at whoever it was outside the house. At that ringing of the doorbell ceased at once.

After that I sprinted to the living room and fished out the baseball bat which Mrs. Dodds had given me on my first day when I came here, from the closet. At the time when she had gifted me the bat saying I'd need it for emergencies, I had just kept it in the closet thinking I'd never need it, huh, perhaps she knew that I'd have strangers standing at my front door at late night shouting and ringing the doorbell demanding to be let in.

After arming myself with the baseball bat, I crept towards the front door, why was I even being so subtle don't ask me because I just did what a sane person would do when you have a stranger at your front door at late night.

"Who are you and what do you want?" I asked.

"Uhh before that, this is the house of that old hag right?" stranger called.

"What are you even saying and what do you mean by old hag?"

"Oh sorry I mean this is the house of Mrs. Dodds right, I'm supposed to be your new roommate considering I'm at the right house?" he asked.

Oh, could it be he is the one, no no don't be foolish it's better to be safe than sorry.

"How do I know you are not some serial killer or fake who is just trying to enter my house just so you could kill me or do other things?" I asked him.

"Whaaat why would you even think that?" he shouted from the other side.

"Oh I don't know what would you think if someone comes at your door at 2:00 am declaring that he is your new roommate, and if you are not a fake give me some details to ensure me that you really are who you say you are." I said.

"Damnit fine the owner of this house Mrs. Dodds she looks hideous and not only that she's got the matching personality to go with it, which is worse than her face." He declared.

I couldn't stop the smile appearing on my face after hearing him say that.

"You know for someone who is going to stay in that old hag's house you are quiet disrespectful, hmmm how do you think she will react when she hears about this, huh?"

After I said that, there was total silence.

"Hello you still there?" I asked.

"Uh ye-ah yeah I'm still here, you know I was just kidding so of course you wouldn't happen to tell her right?" he asked.

"Nevermind all that, you know anyone can figure that out after meeting her for the first time, you really don't have to know her for a long time to say all of that."

"So you agree about her being hideous huh I wonder how she will react to this." He finished.

Arghhh, seriously I don't even have to see it to know that whoever he is, he already has a smug smile plastered on his face judging from his tone.

"Do you or do you not have anything else to say, if not then you are staying out." I declared.

"Heh wait I swear I don't know anything more."

"Hmm not even my name or who I am, of course she would have told you something like that considering you were planning on living with me ,huh, what do you say?" I said

"Huh you see I don't know, but I swear I asked that old ha- , I mean that old kind lady but she wouldn't tell me anything, she would just tell me to stop wasting her time or other times she would just threaten to kill me if I didn't shut up. I swear I'm telling the truth please open the door I'm not a serial killer or a thief. I –."

But before he could say anything more I interrupted him. "Yeah yeah I believe you okay, just calm down I'm opening the door, just wait a minute."

Typical of Mrs. Dodds to not tell him anything about me just like she wouldn't tell me anything about him when asked, saying that how I was wasting her time. Although minus the death threats I suppose.

After opening the door I was met with a pair of eyes so beautiful, I don't even think I have seen eyes more beautiful than his. They were perhaps Sea green in color with swirls of blue mixed in it or perhaps were they blue with Sea green mixed in it. Whatever the case I was so entranced by their beauty I would've lost myself in those eyes, if not for the horrible stench coming from the man to whom those eyes belonged.

"What the, what is that horrible smell and why do you smell so bad?" I shouted at him.

"Uh about that, you see I was using a public restroom but perhaps it didn't like me because the second I flush the toilet, it just spilled out all it's content on me giving me a thorough bathing with it in the process." He finished while rubbing the back of his neck.

"Wait a minute here and don't you dare come inside unless I say it's okay to and keep your eyes closed in the meantime."

I didn't even wait for him to answer because I sprinted into my bathroom and started filling two buckets with the water.

By the time I was back at the front door he had his eyes closed but he just wouldn't stand still. He would be pacing right and left or keep wringing his hands.

"Would you please mind standing still."

"Uh okay but can I ask why did I have to close my .."

Too bad for him, he wasn't able to finish his sentence seeing that I spilled the first bucket on him.

"Arghhh what the hell what are .."

Sadly, again he was interrupted by me as I splashed him with water from the second bucket. Yeah you heard it right I splashed him but he just wouldn't stand still. Now where was I, yeah right after splashing him he just fell on his butt. He was quiet for few seconds perhaps not able to believe he was being given a bath by his new roommate at 2:00 am but in all honesty is it that hard to believe when the drenched person in question was smelling so horrible he could almost destroy your nasal system.

When he finally got out of shock of being given a bath, he made a low growling noise in the back of his throat and was starting to say " why you .." but whatever it was he didn't finish it when he looked up. If not for timing and the fact that I was little skittish due to the whole scenario I would have just laughed at the scene in front of my eyes, I don't know what happened but he was just closing and opening his mouth like a fish and was just staring at me perhaps not believing that I was the one who gave him his open-air cold bath.

After waving my hand in front of his face he finally got over his shock and stood up. I don't know how I didn't notice it before but he is quiet tall maybe 6'3 or something and he is lean, not too skinny nor fat. And he has jet black hair which was sticking to his forehead. I was broken out of my trance when he spoke.

"Are you crazy or what, why did you do that?" he asked.

"Are you serious, because, mister you were smelling horrible, what did you expect me to do welcome you in my house and clean after your mess." I said.

That made him shut up.

"Anyway now are you going to let me in or are you now what going to blowtorch me? Huh."

Hmm isn't he sarcastic.

"Fine you can come but first just go in the bathroom and dry yourself, it's in right from the living room."

At that he seemed a little nervous.

"What's the matter just come in." I said.

"About that do you have extra clothing, you see my luggage got stolen so I don't have anything to wear other than the things I'm already wearing which you can see are pretty wet." He finished while rubbing the back of his neck.

Perhaps he does that when he is embarrassed, good he should be.

"Fiine, just go in the bathroom I will search for something large enough for you to fit in." I said.

But before he could answer, his stomach made a growling noise which would've given a bear a run for his money. At this point he was so embarrassed his face just turned crimson red. For some reason I would've have loved to embarrass him more but I let it go.

"Don't worry I already have some food prepared, so just take a bath before I serve you."

He just nodded his head and made a run for the bathroom perhaps not trusting his stomach to not make any more noises.

This was going to be a long night.