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The next morning I found a body beside my bed. My heart raced and I sat straight up. I nearly screamed. However, this body was fury and it had a tail that was now wagging. I sighed and laughed at myself. Yesterday's events were really getting to me.

I made myself some breakfast which was the usual sugary cereals that my mom said I shouldn't eat anymore. It was Sunday and I again had nothing to do.

My mom's alarm clock rang when it turned 7:00. She left in an hour and I began to worry if those incidents would happen again. I felt relieved when I realized that I could just hang out with my friends again. She came into the kitchen and poured herself some leftover coffee. The bags under her eyes were heavy and she looked pale.

"You alright, mum?" I asked.

She yawned and sipped her coffee. "Yeah, just a little stuffed up." She coughed a few times and then blew her nose. It was that time of year after all. I was blessed with the worst immune systems between the two of us and was a little shocked that I didn't catch the cold first.

Roger was begging to go outside for his morning dump and I took him out after I finished my cereal.

I stood in the backyard near the tree line, waiting for him to pick the perfect spot to shit in. Meanwhile, I stared back at the house, looking for some opened windows or something to cause panic about. I really wanted to peel my eyes away from the windows but I just couldn't.

The leaves began to rustle.

I swallowed hard, my breathing quickened.

Even Roger stopped sniffing around and froze. Something was out there and it wasn't nice. I could feel the presence of something terrible; I just knew it.

I stood there for a few minutes, fixated on the foliage to see anything move. Meanwhile, Roger took a dump on a pile of leaves. I never saw a figure of any kind unless they were wearing some kind of camouflage. I brought Roger back into the house while I looked behind me nearly every five seconds. I swear something was out there, watching.

My mother notified me that she'd be in the shower so I hopped onto the computer to catch up on some social media posts. When the monitor turned on, a website that I had never seen before was there like somebody purposefully left it there for me to see. I scrolled down the page and found that it was a business that sold security systems. I figured my mom thought about getting one for our house last night and never closed the tab when she shut down the computer. I exited it out and browsed Facebook until my mother left for work. I insisted that she take a sick day but she refused.

I called up my friend Roxas and told him to come pick me up. He said that he was too lazy and that he was still in bed. It was typical, he was pretty lazy on the weekends, but nobody could out-lazy Axel; he slept in until noon. I told him to get his ass out of bed and that I was expecting him in ten minutes. He only lived about eight minutes away by car. He finally got out of bed and said that he was on his way over.

I was now alone and it was quiet. I had nobody to talk to and I couldn't help but feel anxious. Remembering the squeak I heard yesterday, I went upstairs into my mom's room, trying to find that creaky spot on her floor. I didn't find it anywhere which was weird. I stepped on every inch of her carpet. I tried it without shoes and then with shoes. It was then that I realized that it must have been the house creaking when the wind blew last night.

I filled Roger's dish with some dry food and tossed him a dog biscuit which made him happy. I felt uneasy, leaving him alone. I didn't want to see my baby scared to death. Out of all the years I've had him, I had never once seen him hide under the table. He was always brave. Even when he was a puppy; thunderstorms never jumped him and loud motorcycles that drove by didn't make him run and hide. He was always a good, protective dog.

I thought about taking him to the dog park but Roxas wouldn't appreciate Roger's slobber and dog fur all over his car. Besides, Roger was very heavy. I didn't want to stay home by myself either.

When Roxas pulled into the driveway, he tooted his horn; something he always did. I ran out the front door and made him roll down his window so I could talk to him He sighed and did so anyways.

"What's up, Xion?" He had large sunglasses on. What a dork.

"How about you and Axel hang at my house today; I don't want to leave Roger all alone." HE coked his head to the side in curiosity and suspicion. I didn't want to freak him out about the probability of someone being in my house so I told him Roger wasn't feeling good. He agreed because he's a great friend. He may come off as an asshole sometimes but he would give you the shirt off his back. He parked the car and got out.

Something shattered. I clearly heard something break. Roger barked madly and I ran inside. Roxas was confused and hurried in after me.

"They're upstairs!" I exclaimed, grabbing a baseball bat from the closet and making my way upstairs quickly. Roxas kept calling my name and asking for an explanation. Roger ran up ahead of me and booked it into my mother's room. I stood in the doorway with my bat ready to knock out whoever was in my house. If I could see them then I'd have all the proof I needed. My adrenaline was pumping through my body; I had forgotten Roxas was behind me so when he came in shouting my name, I almost smacked him in the head. I was too focused on this intruder.

"Whoa!" He shouted, putting his hands up in defense. "Xion, what's going on?"

I took one last glance around the room and found nobody. I let go of the baseball bat and heaved a sigh. Roger was sniffing like crazy near the side of my mother's bed. I went to investigate and noticed that her glass vase had fallen onto the floor. The fact that I had heard this fall from outside shocked me.

"Xion!" Roxas repeated, grabbing onto my shoulder and making me face him. "Tell me."

I closed my mouth; I was breathing very quickly. Swallowing, I relaxed a little. "I thought somebody was robbing our house, that's all." I said calmly.

"Why would you think that?"

I was dumbfounded. Hadn't he heard the sound of something breaking? Maybe it was because he was in his car or something. Sound travels very weirdly. I asked him if he heard the sound of glass shattering and he said that he hadn't. I told him I was overreacting and was in the mood for some action just to brush it off. I didn't need him worrying about anything; he was already diagnosed with anxiety.

I stared at the shattered vase. There was no way that could have fallen unless somebody pushed it. It was quite heavy and it wasn't near the edge of her night stand. She never would have put it so close to the edge because she cherished it.

My second thought was that maybe somebody entered the closet and that knocked it over. The way my mother's room was set up she had her bed parallel to the closet door. Sometimes when she opened the closet door far enough, it would crash against her bed. Perhaps someone went into her closet, not knowing how close the door would hit her bed, and it slammed against her mattress which caused the night stand to shake. This would explain how the vase fell only nobody was in here.

Our house had only two exits; the front and back door. There was no way someone could run all the way downstairs and exit from the back door seconds after breaking something , unless as they were leaving the vase tipped over but even that didn't make sense. My mother's room faced the road so if the intruder were to jump out the window we would have seen him.

"Let's watch a movie or something." I suggested, hoping that would get his mind off of the subject. I also hoped that it would calm me down. He agreed and went downstairs to pick out a movie while I cleaned up the glass.

It then struck me that the intruder could be hiding in the closet. I nearly smacked myself. I pretended to leave the room and then quietly returned. When I was in front of the door, I smiled. I totally have this guy. When I forced open the door violently, it crashed against her bed, shaking her alarm clock on her nightstand where the vase was. Nobody was inside. Nothing added up.

After cleaning up, I went downstairs, still on edge. I jumped every time Roxas moved positions in his seat. The sound of his body rubbing against the fabric put my brain on fight-or-flight mode. I could not calm down at all.

About an hour went by and we were both munching on popcorn. My stomach was queasy but I ate anyway to not make Roxas worry about anything. I was waiting for something else to happen.

And it did.

I heard the sound of water running and so did Roxas. We left the movie on and quietly made our way upstairs. I had my baseball bat with me again. The sound was louder as we neared the bathroom. The sound wasn't loud like a shower; it was more of a loose sound like a faucet.

I peered in the dark room and kicked the door open.

"Surprise, motherfucker!" I shouted as I charged into the room with my bat held high above my head.

Roxas walked in behind me and turned on the light. The faucet was indeed running but no signs of anyone in here. We both found it odd because neither of us had used the bathroom the entire time. I shut it off and we checked the entire room. This bathroom had no windows so it's not like whoever was in here could escape by that way. There was nobody in the closet either.

"I think your house is haunted." Roxas stated, peeking behind the shower a second time. "Maybe you should sprinkle some salt or burn some sage."

"Haunted?" I repeated, laughing at such foolishness. Ghosts didn't exist; there were many logical explanations to them. "Sorry, Roxas but I don't believe in that." He looked a little hurt and I felt bad. "But it couldn't hurt to try, right?" His eyes lit up again and we got some salt from the salt shaker on our kitchen table. We sprinkled it on our doorways. I didn't have any sage so Roxas said that he'd go get some at his house. Apparently his house had been haunted and he used holy water, salt, and sage to get rid of the 'demons'.

I couldn't help but feel watched and scared when I saw him walk through the front door. I patted Roger and gave him a scratch behind the ears.

That was when the lights in the living room flickered on and off three times. I screamed and ran outside with Roger.

"Oh, three times?" He asked when I told him. "That just means they're demons."

That just made me feel like shit.

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