I hold my breath, but when I approach you it’s a Trap

Even though you hide in the darkness I can clearly see your cards

The moon peeks out and shakes your thin shoulders

I can never go to sleep again

I stay up all night Shine on us

- Guess who – 

Anna helped her aunt wash the dishes from lunch and they were both tidying up the rest of the kitchen.

“Don’t you get bored of living here?” Anna asked while she swept the floor.

“No. It’s very quiet and not that far from Seoul that we can’t go there once in a while. Your uncle goes there once a week to take care of his businesses like he did today.”

Anna peeked outside the window as if to confirm that his car wasn’t parked at the usual spot.

“I don’t understand why he bought this house when he has so much money. You could live in a mansion with a lot of employees, no?”

Her aunt chuckled cleaning her hand on a dishcloth. “Not really. He isn’t that rich. We have enough to survive and plus he fell in love with this house. He plans to rebuild it and we had a girl helping me around the house. I told you, she ran away with a boyfriend.”

Anna scratched her nose, the dream from yesterday and the weird sensations coming back to her.

“About this house…” Anna asked looking at her aunt that was taking off her apron. “Do you know the story of it?”

“The story? Like the previous owners?”

“Like as if it is haunted.”

Anna’s aunt laughed. “What nonsense. Sarang, who worked here used to say the same thing. Did you see any ghost?”

Anna pursed her lips thinking. Her aunt was right, she didn’t see anything. A dream and the feeling of being watched wasn’t enough to prove that something was wrong with the house.  She wasn’t the type to believe in ghosts too, but she couldn’t deny their existence either.

“I didn’t see anything!” She end up answering and her aunt brushed the subject away.

That afternoon Anna decided to go for a walk and took both the dogs with her.

Maybe the shadow was right. It was probably a product of her imagination but she actually felt better outside the house, as if a big weight left her.

She walked around the house and then entered the woods, following the dirt road to the house on the cliff. She wasn’t sure why she decided to go that way, but it had probably to do with the shadow called Taemin from the previous night.

She didn’t walk for long and she was going to go back because the weather was too hot and her long white dress wasn’t helping. Next time she decided to go for a walk she would bring a hat and shorts.

She was thinking about that when she saw a man.

He was thin and tall and was wearing a black t-shirt over black ripped pants, his hair was blonde and he wasn’t even looking on her direction, too busy, almost at the edge of the cliff admiring the view.

Anna who almost turned back home decided to walk in the direction of the man. The two dogs followed after her but stopped when they noticed the man, growling and barking at him.

The young man turned around and for a few seconds Anna and the man looked at each other.

Then he walked in her direction with a hand on his pants pocket and stopped a few meters from the dogs.

He crouched and called the dogs to him and they did so in a very obedient way surprising Anna.

Was he a dog enchanter?! What was that?

The man raised his eyes to her and she almost followed the dogs, running to him too. That was how powerful his charisma was.

She watched the man pat the dogs and then he stood up and turned around completely ignoring her presence. Anna noticed how he had his ear pierced, how handsomely he walked as if he danced instead of walking.

She stood there with the dogs admiring him until he disappeared inside the house on the cliff.

Anna blinked her eyes feeling like an idiot and then turned back calling the dogs, going back home.

Later Anna asked her uncle about the neighbor. Both were on the living room couch, with him reading a business-related newspaper and Anna trying to read her book, a silly romance that was very boring to her.

“Who lives in the house on the cliff?”

Her uncle, a man with black hair and an easy smile raised his grey eyes to her. “No one. I never saw anyone around there.”

“Are you sure? I saw a young man today and he definitely entered the house.”

“The owner left it a long time ago and moved to Seoul with his two sons. At least that’s what I heard when I came to buy this house. The other one was for sale too.”

He turned the page of his newspaper.

“Then maybe someone bought it.”

“Maybe…” He didn’t seem happy with the prospect of having a neighbor.

Anna tried to get back to her romance but she felt her uncle’s eyes on her so she looked at him.

“Is something wrong?”

“Nothing. I was just wondering if you like living here with us?” He asked smiling.

“Yes, very much! Thank you.”

He rose up, bid her goodnight and Anna stayed alone in the living room.

She sighed playing with her long black hair and closed the book feeling bored.

She wasn’t entirely honest. She wasn’t enjoying that much. The house felt too cold and not in a good way and after her walk that afternoon she was once again sure that something wasn’t right with that house and it affected her somehow.

She wondered why no one felt the same as her. That constant impression of being watched, a cold presence behind her, a heavy dreadful feeling and...

The piano played and Anna stood up scared.

The piano was a few steps away from her, closed with no one playing and yet she could hear it.

Anna paled releasing the book on the couch and walked to the piano slowly, the sweet, happy melody that she didn’t recognize still being played. She opened the piano and the keys moved alone for a while until they stopped.

“Are you playing?” She turned around just to see her aunt at the door. “I didn’t know you could play!”

“I-I didn’t…” Anna answered nervously staring at the piano. “It played alone!”

Her aunt laughed “I have a magic piano now?” She walked away still laughing at Anna’s “joke” and Anna stepped back from the piano.

Something was definitely wrong with that house.

That night Anna was ready. She wasn’t scared of the shadow. She was going to wait for him.

She opened the window of her bedroom and then lied down on the bed closing her eyes, pretending to sleep.

Soon she heard a very low sound and she sat on the bed.

The shadow was there at the same place, she was sure of it.

“Are you there?” Anna whispered.

“Did you wait for me?”

He moved in the darkness and the fuzzy image showed that she was dreaming again. Somehow she must have fallen asleep. Anna scolded herself before speaking again “I did. Am I really dreaming?”

“Yes.” Taemin answered “You need to leave this house…Anna.”

She wasn’t even surprised that he knew her name and she stood up from the bed and walked in his direction. “I want to see you.”

He stepped further into darkness as if he was afraid of her reaction when she saw him.

“You can’t!”

She stopped a few steps from him “Why?”

He didn’t answer and Anna gave an extra step in his direction. “You were the one who played the piano didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“I knew it.” Somehow she did. His presence felt different from the other one that watched her every move.

She was going to say something else when he suddenly grabbed her arm with strength.

She complained when his fingers wrapped around her wrist in a deadly grip. His pale arm and burning hand, lightened by the moonlight, made her step back.

“Wake up…” he said desperately.

“What?” Anna asked trying to pull away from his grip.

“WAKE UP!” He screamed “NOW!”

He didn’t release her and Anna gulped grabbing his hand on her wrist. His skin was so hot.

“I warned you!” Taemin’s sweet voice said. He looked to the door; she felt it even if she couldn’t see his eyes “QUICK NOW…he is coming for you. CLOSE THE DOOR NOW!”

That’s when Anna woke up with her heart beating crazily. She quickly stood up and walked to the door of her bedroom locking it with the key.

She panted knowing that she was alone in the bedroom and silence filled it.

Nothing happened and she leaned against the wall next to the door wondering about what just happened. Maybe she was taking those dreams too seriously; maybe that shadow didn’t even exist and was all a product of her imagination.

Maybe her sickness didn’t go away and she was still depressed, maybe she was having visions now.

She was going to get back to bed when a small noise made her look in the direction of the door.

The doorknob moved and Anna panicked knowing that someone was on the other side trying to get in.

Maybe she didn’t dream at all.

“Aunt?” She asked in a whisper and the knob stopped immediately.

Anna waited for a few heartbeats that looked like hours and then walked to the door, leaning her ear against the wood. Silence.

She wondered if she should unlock it but Taemin desperate scream from her dream made her hesitate just enough for her to change her mind.

Instead she walked to the window and searched for the familiar shadow in the woods. There he was, watching her in the darkness.

Anna returned to her bed and hugged herself under the covers. She didn’t sleep that night, but she also didn’t close her window.