Something was not right.

Like the character Miss Clavel from the children’s franchise Madeline, that thought plagued you; especially at night. Something was not right at home, and a home did not feel like home anymore. You would return, and although you were quite convinced that this was sheer paranoia, you were sure certain things were out of place. There were days that seemed as though that while you were away, someone else lived in your apartment. Lingerie had been moved, stuff had been cleaned, and the milk would be replaced. With your sanity on the line, you desperately blamed your landlord, who had the only other copy of your apartment key. It wasn’t as though whoever it was wasn’t replacing what they took, it was just that this was a complete invasion of privacy that you did not consent to and were quite frankly freaked out about. You had never given permission for anyone to have access to your apartment, so who thought that this was okay? Maybe you were just paranoid though. Maybe, and you were sincerely hoping for this option, you just hadn’t been getting a good enough night’s sleep which was resulting in mild delusions. The lack of sleep from truly believing that something was not right plaguing and haunting you into keeping you awake.

It was starting to affect your work and your social life. Not only were you exhausted during the day, but you were just unwilling to go out. You hoped that if you could get home fast enough you’d catch the person in action… if there really was someone living in your home while you were away. If not, if you really had a stalker, you were also scared they would find you while you were out with friends. There was only so much of this psychological torture you could take. So in order to avoid your wild imagination from taking flight while you were out with others, you stayed at home and attempted to catch up on the rest you never got at night. Sleep was turbulent at best. If you managed to drift away, you would be woken only hours later to nightmares of people watching over you. Things stopped changing, the nightmare became a recurrence and you couldn’t shake it no matter how you tried.

Like most days, you awoke with a start and a yawn quick on its heels. Never truly rested, you reached over for your phone. It was a day off! The first in a week and a half which called for a much needed chore day. Namely because clothes you had discarded on your floor a week ago had not been moved, and you were quite sure that you could see the dust bunnies making their homes in your corners. Grumbling to yourself as you slid out of bed, you found a discarded pair of sweatpants. Of course you needed to give them a good sniff but they smelled clean enough to wear for one more day. Gathering all of the dirty clothing scattered around the floor of your bedroom, you dragged your hamper to the laundry room and started splitting up the first load. Doing laundry really let you think about your life because the tediousness of separating clothing allowed you to zone out and just take the time to think about what is going on, not necessarily with your problems but in general. For example, sometimes you would think of words, repeating them until they lose their meaning. Sometimes you’d sound like the beginning of Macklemore’s Thrift Shop. It was fun though, repeating words until they sounded weird. It was a simple joy that brought an easy smile on your face because you can’t help but giggle at how goofy it sounds.

While the load went through its cleaning process, you used your time to vacuum the floors. The familiar ding from the laundry machine went off just as you had finished vacuuming the main room and you quickly discarded the relatively heavy machine in order to fetch your clothes. Dragging the heavy load of wet laundry to the balcony, you hung your clothes up to dry. It had to be on specific days or else the clothing would not dry fast enough, the perfect amount of sun and heat is required for the quickest drying time. Today was going to be the perfect day for this, weather reports all week had boasted consistently beautiful weather all day. As you continued with your chores, your phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Yah! Olivia! Let’s go eat something together! I need to talk with you!”

Albeit not an urgent or pressing matter but a lovely excuse to put off housework for yet at least another day, you accepted this offer. There was no need to dress to impress. Sure, magical things can happen in coffee shops; but if you were going to go bare faced and in a baggy hoodie, you weren’t expecting those things to happen to you. So you joined your friend for a nice and piping hot cup of coffee on a relatively nice but chilly day. The transition to fall was quite lovely, and one of your favourite times of the year. There was a warmth found in the rich colours that cluttered amongst the city streets. Bright greens turning into deep reds set a fire in your soul like a late night bonfire. Despite the chill that ran down your spin from the cold winds, something small was keeping you ever so slightly warm. But that all changed as you were with your friend and the concept of time disappeared. That was the beauty of friendship, although you could be away for days or weeks at a time, being together felt ethereal. There was no time attached to the moment, and you would drift hours at a time without realizing your surroundings or the situation. As the laundry which meant to be in the back of your mind blew away with the sunny weather, the onset of pouring rain forced you to take cover with your companion in the warmth of the quaint coffee shop. Though when you finally remembered the fact that you needed the clothing hanging, there was a panicked set of goodbyes as you ran home in the rain.

Drenched from the downpour of chilly rain, you returned to your apartment to find the door unlocked. Weird. You were quite sure you had locked the door, though you had been in a rush so there was a chance that you just let it shut itself behind you. Kicking your shoes off in a rush, you tossed your keys on the table by the door, wondering when you had left a mug there. You definitely remembered putting your mug away before leaving that afternoon. Slamming a hand against the door frame as you basically threw the door open in a pathetic attempt to stop yourself, you looked thoroughly confused when nothing was there. Turning around, the clothes in question were sitting ever so neatly folded with a note staring at you. A scream escaped your lips, and you weren’t really sure where it came from but the fear was real. Someone had been here. Someone had touched your stuff, gone through your things… and likely left a coffee cup by your front door in a quick attempt to escape.

Olivia-ah, you really ought to be more careful with your stuff, what if I hadn’t been here? I’m glad I could help you! I’ll talk to you soon! Love xoxo

With trembling hands, you ripped the note up and threw it out in a desperate attempt to get rid of the unpleasant reality. Making sure you thoroughly lock up that night, you went to bed early, hoping to wake up and have this all be some sort of bad dream.

Hey darlings!

Thank you for all the support! We've only got 5 chapters left! (Gasp!) We're so close~

Hopefully to have maybe all of this done by halloween? We'll see! 

Thank you for the continued support!