Stalker

The pair of sparkling eyes never blinked nor did they look away from hers, it felt somewhat like they were pulling her in. She was disturbed by a loud calling from her brother behind when she turned around to signal her brother she heard him, Naeun immediately looked back at the pair of eyes. The gold eyes disappeared as if they were shut or the thing moved on to somewhere different. She’ll give it a point for winning, normally she's good at staring competitions.

“Naeun, are you coming in?” Jun called for the final time. She blinked twice and walked towards her house what made it scarier was that the thing staring at her was right opposite her house. She hoped it’s gone for good now. Maybe that’s why she's been feeling uncomfortable, all week it’s like someone or something has been watching her. 

“I’m shutting the door” she speed walked up the drive to the door and entered inside before Jun could close it. “Dad!” Jun shouted up the stairs, but there was no reply. Dad would usually reply with “Jun!” it was odd that he hadn’t come home yet. “Where’s dad?” Jun asked like Naeun knew the answer, but she could only reply with an unsure ‘I don’t know’.

“He should be home now, he’s never been out this late, I’ll phone him ok why don’t you go and change into your pyjamas” He trotted upstairs into his room while Naeun quickly dialled her dad number, she was just as worried as Jun right now.

She waited and waited until he finally picked up the phone. “Dad, it’s late where are you? Can you come home now?” she worriedly shouted down the phone, but he wasn’t talking. She checked the screen to see if he picked up and he did. “Dad? Answer me?” she paused to see if she could hear anything and when she did she regretted almost instantly after. It sounded like heavy breathing, but not from a person more like an animal of some sorts. Husky, deep growls breathed down the phone, it almost felt like she could feel the hot air coming through speakers. Frozen for minutes, Naeun ended the phone and quickly dialled the police.

“Hello, what is your problem?” the man asked on the other end, she began to think things like is dad going to be ok? Who or what was that thing answering dads phone.

“Please, help my father he’s still in the forest and I think something bad has happened to him” the phone was slowly sliding out her hand from the sweat pouring out her palms.

“Please, can you give us a description of what he looks like?” she gave him a clear image of her dad, black curly hair with dark brown eyes and wore glasses. Also, carrying a big rucksack which possesses his bird watching equipment inside. “We will do all that we can to find him, for now, please keep calm and we will send a few officers to your house to check up on you.” Naeun ended the call, both arms falling to her side. She looked to her left when she heard a creek coming from the stairs, it was Jun he was listening in on everything.

“Sis, what’s happened to dad?” Naeun tried to quickly think of a sensible reply, but her head was full of worry she wasn’t in the right state to think positive.

“I don’t know” again she let Jun down, It’s the third time second said 'I don’t know' she seriously needs to vary her vocabulary. Jun stepped down the last few steps and stood in front of her.

“Dad will be alright” Jun confirmed what his sister couldn’t and wrapped his arms around her waist and smiled up at her. Naeun could see in his eyes he was concerned and wanted to know where dad is, but he put that aside just to put her at ease. She kneeled down balancing on her legs and picked Jun up placing his head on her shoulder. That’s when she heard quiet sniffs down her ear she went to peep a look at Jun but, he faced away from embarrassment.

“It’s ok to cry, I know you want to” she covered his eyes with her palm so he could cry alone, loud moans flew out his mouth. She felt her palm become drenched with tears, his tiny eyelashes lightly scraped on her fingertips from when he would blink. That still makes Naeun the oldest one then, Jun always tries to stay strong in front of her, he likes her to think of him as an adult. However, at times where you feel scared or distraught, it's ok to cry because that's what makes a person human. 

Half an hour later, police knocked on their door, both Naeun and Jun answered the door to let the police inside. Two men made their way into the house and began to ask us questions.

“How long has your father been gone for?” The man with the bleached blonde hair asked.

“He gone for over 18 hours, he left early this morning around 6:25 am, normally, he would arrive home at 6:00 pm” He jotted it down with his black ballpoint pen, while the police officer next to him asked them a question.

“Have you tried getting in contact?”

“Yes, I called him not too long ago, but it wasn’t him that answered” with what she was about to say next they were either going to trust her or think she's playing a prank. “I’m not sure what answered, but it was defiantly not human, it must have been an animal like a tiger because I could hear growling down the phone.”

The police officers grinned at one another forgetting Naeun was actually looking straight back at them. “I’m not stupid. I'm not crazy. This isn’t some stupid prank. I know what I heard. It was growling, so, if you’re here to tell me I’m wrong then please leave, I'll find my father myself” the police officer straightened his expression and went back to the question asking.

“Sorry about that, but young lady there has never been signs of any tigers living in that forest. Tigers tend to live in Africa or hot countries not here. So about the growls you heard, we can’t do nothing about that we should focus more on the disappearance of your father”. She nodded agreeing with his words, she should focus more on her father whatever she heard she should forget about it now. “We are off then, we will be in touch with you but, tonight please, stay inside and get some sleep” Naeun was going to get up to let the officers out, but Jun must’ve tired himself out from all that crying as he fell asleep sitting up leaning his whole weight on her.

The police insisted on letting themselves out when they saw her younger brother clocked out. Naeun picked up Jun and took him to bed and pulled the covers up over his legs to his chin. “Good night Jun, I’m sorry for not knowing where dad is or if he will be ok but I will pray and hope that we see him tomorrow.” Turning off the light as she shut the door to Jun's room, she walked to her dad’s room where a draft of freezing cold icy air blew her already messy hair out her face. That’s when she saw the windows fully open, she hiked around his double bed to the long, tall, double glazed windows. 

She squinted her eyes towards the forest when she saw something unusual, not human, more like an animal. A beast, maybe. To get a closer look she climbed on the cabinet her whole body hanging out the window and she was right. It defiantly wasn’t human. The ‘thing’ was on all fours she was sure of it; was this the same thing she saw earlier when she was walking home. It has the same gold eyes the only thing that’s different is before she couldn’t see it’s figure. Thanks to the streetlights she can grasp an image of it now. It was an animal.

Naeun was distracted by a loud insult directed at her. “What are you doing up there? Are you crazy? Hanging out the window like that can get you in a serious accident, what if you fall. Stupid girl” the old woman tutted swinging her hand in the air properly thinking about how teenagers these days are so daring and back in her days they weren’t like what we are now.

From the sudden attack of words, she removed herself from the cabinet and stood back on the floor, when she went to look over at the gold eyes, there were none. They disappeared again. She slammed the window shut and walked to her room gently closing it shut so she wouldn’t wake Jun as he’s a very light sleeper. 

She grabbed her backpack ping it to reveal a tonne of homework, assignments, letters and more random thing. She needed to sort out it all out. She got a few sheets of homework which were due in for next week. She likes to get it done early so she has one less thing to worry about. She sat at her desk in the far corner of her room, she switched on the little lamp that hovered over. Gripped the pen in her hand and prepared for a long night hoping she finishes it early so she can at least get 3 hours’ sleep.

The next morning, a ridiculous amount of pain came to her neck, she almost cried in pain when she quickly got up thinking she was late for college. She rubbed the back of her neck, twisting it left to right, she must’ve slept in a weird position. Naeun leant her body backwards hanging her neck over her chair. She stared upside down at her neatly laid out bed. Why did she let herself fall asleep on her desk once again?

She flung her head up when she heard a light knock at her bedroom door. She pushed herself away from her desk and flew up to quickly open the door. “Dad!” she smiled, but she was disappointed when Jun was standing there with wide eyes. “Sorry, Jun” she bent down and brought him in her arms ruffling her hands through his hair. 

“He’s still not home, I checked” Jun mumbled his words in her chest, she didn’t want Jun going school with this expression he was showing her. Therefore, she tried to rise the sprites in the house by playing a game before school.

“Jun, let’s play hide and seek” Jun frowned which then soon turned into a semi-smile.

“Why? You never want to play it any other time” Naeun spun around so he was now facing her back and folded her arms.

“Fine, I won’t play” He grabbed her arm and jumped up and down like a little baby making crying faces. She grinned ruffling his hair with her free arm, “1…2…3” she began to count and in a flash, he was gone out of sight.

Walking to her wardrobe she pulled open the flimsy door which was soon going to fall off from a number of times she's ripped it open. Pushing all the clothes she hated to one side, she searched for something to wear out of the few outfits that she liked. Jeans, a blue striped tee and white trainers was the outfit for today it was simple, but it was what she liked.

“I’m coming!” she yelled down the stairs, passing the stairs to enter the bathroom to brush her teeth and softly brushed through her hair. She hooked onto her backpack strap and threw it over her back and pulled her other arm through. “Am I getting close?” she asked hoping he would fall for the trick to answer back so she would know where he is, but there was no answer. This boy was one smart cookie. She tiptoed towards the kitchen and jumped from around the corner, but Jun didn’t seem to be in the kitchen. After that, she quietly crept into the living room searched around the sides of the sofas, but he wasn’t there either. The garden, the dining room and the study room were also empty, Jun wasn’t there, it was like he disappeared into thin air.

“Ok I give up you can come out now” she unhooked the keys that were hanging up from in the cupboard. She twisted the key that was in the keyhole, but the door opened by itself. It was already unlocked. She was positive that she locked the door last night before she went to sleep, so why was it open now? Wait, did Jun hide outside? 

“I’m closing the door so if you don’t come out your hiding place you will be locked in the house” she frowned pulling the door shut making sure she locked it and she wasn’t imagining things like she usually does. “Jun we have to go, let’s finish the game after school, yeah?” yet again she got no reply. Slipping her keys into her bag because it was too big to fit in a single small pocket. This was due to the key chains, ribbons and souvenirs from different trips that her dad took her and Jun to.

It had been over a year since she’d been on a trip, just the three of them. College was too important there’d be unplanned days she had to attend, not forgetting the exams that were too important to miss.

Stepping onto the path outside her house she called one last time, “Jun come out now, please!” it almost came out as cry. Her whole body jolted around to face the forest. Were her ears playing tricks on her again like last night? She certainly heard the rustling sounds of decaying leaves. Her eyes widened at the sight of her younger brother peeping out behind a tree revealing himself with a huge grin on his face.

“I win!” Jun cheered pumping a fist up to the sky and running down the hill connected to the forest. His little legs stormed up to his sister whose eyes were still glued to the forest, to be exact, the same spot she saw those glowing gold eyes. Jun also joined in on the stare trying to figure out if she was looking at something specific but he saw nothing but tall, bare trees. It was a