Anna Maria was barely alive by the time the paramedics arrived to her mother's house and found her passed out on the bathroom floor. It was a miracle she survived at all considering the amount of blood she lost from the cut on her throat after running a razor across it. While attempting to escape from the world of the living, Anna Maria Smith lied on the floor and thought she heard a voice comforting her as she waited to die. The voice did not belong to her mother, for it was a masculine voice. There was no way the voice could have belonged to her father, for Anna Maria cut off contact with him years ago, having never forgiven him for the car crash that killed half her family, among other things that remained hidden in the dark.
The man, at least she thought it was a man, who appeared to her that day was not like any man she had ever known or met before. Anna Maria didn't remember seeing his face, but one thing she knew for certain was that this mysterious man of hers was made of shadow and light. Not an angel or a demon, but a ghostly apparition that had probably come to help guide her over to the other side. Anna Maria tried reaching for his hand, but remembered the mysterious man pulling his hand away before their fingers could touch. Had he tricked her? Was she seeing things? Was it not her time yet?
Please let me die...I don't want to be alive anymore...Help me...These were her last thoughts as she waited for death to come and take her away.
Anna Maria woke up in the hospital several hours to find her mother sitting by her bedside, staring at her with cold, hard disapproval. Although she was relieved to see her oldest child, being twenty-four at the time, was still alive, Anna Maria's mother did not appreciate the fact that she had attempted suicide and tried to throw away a precious gift, which was her life. It was up to the Lord Almighty to decide when her child's time on Earth was over, not Anna Maria herself.
Rather than pass on into the afterlife, Anna Maria simply lost her ability to speak rather than her ability to breathe. The doctor who saved her life and stitched up her wound informed the patient that she was very lucky to have survived, but Anna Maria's mother couldn't handle the pressures of dealing with an imperfect daughter, and thus she had Anna Maria sent away to a mental institution.
Several doctor appointments and therapy sessions helped Anna Maria take care of some of her problems, and for a while, she seemed to be getting better, until another tragedy occurred in the girl's family. Two weeks into her commitment, Anna Maria found out that her mother passed away from a sudden heart attack. She wasn't allowed to attend the funeral, thus Anna Maria never got the chance to say a proper goodbye to her mother. Even though they rarely saw things eye-to-eye, Anna Maria always loved her mother and vowed never to forgive herself for not being there for her mother when she needed her the most.
Eventually, a sign language teacher was brought in to work with Anna Maria, who learned how to speak with her hands after roughly five months, but still insisted on keeping a small notepad and pen with her to communicate with others. She also chose to stay in the mental institution for another year, having nowhere else to go once the state took away her mother's house in order to pay off some debts her father had gotten into.
The female psychiatrist recommended that she dabble in a leisure activity of some kind, so Anna Maria took up drawing to help her cope with her problems. Most of her artwork was on a macabre level, but it seemed to make her feel better. She even thought about turning one of her drawings into a children's book once she got out of the institution. Anna Maria continued attending therapy and no longer had any suicidal tendencies, but every night she lied in bed, she still thought about many things that made her unhappy. For one thing, she had to spent her twenty-fifth birthday all alone. Nobody who had ever been in her life came around to wish her well or say she meant something.
Three weeks before the anniversary of her commitment, Anna Maria found out she had inherited a house from her mother's sister after the family moved away to Hawaii. Her uncle had decided to build a vacation resort over there, but wanted to give the house away to the closest living relative rather than sell it for profit, claiming it held too much sentimental value. The house was located in Connecticut, but Anna Maria was willing to make the two hour and a half trip and accept the responsibility of taking care of the property. After discussing it over with the doctor and her psychiatrist, Anna Maria signed a letter, and three days later, was finally able to leave the institution.
Now a free woman, Anna Maria hopped on the earliest bus heading out of Brooklyn, arriving in the quiet little town of Winter River around noon by the time the bus dropped her off. It was still quite a ways to the house, so Anna Maria started walking, passing through a red, covered bridge on her way to her new home, which was a Victorian style house large enough for a family of four people.
Soon as she set foot into the empty house, a strange feeling came over Anna Maria, as though some spiritual being had tried to take control of her. Supposedly, the house was haunted by ghosts, but Anna Maria didn't believe in things involving the supernatural. Shrugging it off, she stepped inside and went to take a look at the place, finding herself standing in the living room with concrete gray walls, a hardwood floor and a massive fireplace.
Anna Maria went to check out what was upstairs and discovered a small bedroom with walls that were painted a dark purple color, like the skin of a plum. Having a good feeling about this room in particular, she decided to make it her bedroom. Anna Maria went down the hallway and found an office space with an envelope sitting on the desk addressed to her. Inside, there was a letter and a black key with a skeleton's face on it. The letter said the key would open any door in the house and that she was allowed to live in it as long as she wanted to, so long as she promised to take good care of it and not make any adjustments or summon any evil spirits in the place. Anna Maria rolled her eyes at this, thinking it was a joke, but chose to follow the rules and do what the letter told her by keeping the house the way it was.
Later that night, Anna Maria settled down in bed and fell asleep while watching a movie, having a weird dream about a creature that looked an awful lot like Godzilla, only it had striped skin, huge, bulging eyes and spiky yellow hair. There was a pale man wearing a long, dusty coat and a tour guide hat that pulled her out of harm's way right before the monster could crush her with his giant foot, and the man dipped her in his arms before he planted a kiss onto her lips, surprising her and making her blush. Anna Maria tried to get a look at the man who saved her life in her dream, but he disappeared by fading into thin air right before her very eyes. She thought she had seen him somewhere before, but couldn't remember where from.
When she tried to take her life, Anna Maria remembered hearing a man speaking to her and seeing a blurred image of what looked like a human silhouette against a bright, yellow light. For days, she racked her brain trying to figure out whose voice had spoken to her when she attempted suicide. It could have been a hallucination for all she knew as a result from the blood loss, but to Anna Maria, the man who she thought she saw sounded and felt real. He was real, for she remembered him petting her hair and touching her face, telling her she was going to be okay and to be strong.
Anna Maria never told anyone about her mysterious man, preferring to keep it to herself. After a while, she seemed to forget about him, yet the question remained of whether the man she thought she saw was a living person or a ghost with an agenda.