Hope heard the door open before he turned the knob. Another instinct she had developed over the years. From the moment he would step on the first step leading up to her room and to the very last one he would take before opening her door, she knew. She could hear everything without even actually hearing a sound. It was his presence that was more powerful than any stimulus around her.

When the door swung open, she turned her head and looked at him. He was still the same man. Apart from his graying hair, nothing really changed over the course of ten years. The fire in his eyes was still there, never wavering. And that fire was still focused on her. She could feel different emotions in those deep, dark eyes. Desperation, anger, irritation, murder, kindness, eagerness…all of them mixed into one.

She stared at those dark globes as if it was only natural. Ten years ago, she couldn’t even bring herself to look at them, but she learned that he liked her looking back at him. It somehow gave him the satisfaction that he couldn’t get in other aspects.

He smiled at her and placed the plates at the bedside table beside her tattered wing chair.

“I can’t eat downstairs?” she asked, her voice neutral, her eyebrows arched in question.

He shook his head and spoke in his raspy, cold voice she got accustomed to. “No. We have a new neighbor. He might get too friendly and drop by like the last one. We can’t be too risky, you know that.”

She nodded. She understood. He was pleased.

He started to turn around and Hope gathered all the courage she had saying, “How about--”

“Eat, Hope. I want you healthy. You don’t want to be sick, do you?”

Hope closed her mouth and shook her head. Getting sick would be a difficult matter. For her, there was no hospitalization. She was her own doctor and nurse.

“Good. Eat.”

And then he was gone.

She climbed off her bed and bent down to grab her plate from the table. Scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast. The same meal for the past three months.

Ten years ago, she didn’t dare eat anything he served her. She now knew it was stupid of her to even think hunger strike would work. Over the years, she had managed to make herself eat whatever he served her. The fear of being poisoned was long gone. Poison would be a miracle for her now, she thought as she carried the plate near the window.

She didn’t have a clock in her room so she didn’t know what time it was. She could turn on the television, but it would make a lot of sound and she wouldn’t hear him come upstairs if he would. She had to do the counting in her mind.

With her fingers, she picked up a piece of bacon fried in old oil and fed it to her mouth. She picked up the fork with her other hand and opened the blinds and then the window. With the fork, she started her work. She held the utensil by the head and used the handle to saw the rusty iron bar she had been working on for the past month. She was now on her third iron bar. Slowly but surely, she thought.

She had to be careful though. He shouldn’t notice anything wrong with the fork or the spoon. As she worked with the iron bar and the fork, her other hand was busy feeding herself.

Maybe she was too immersed in her work and her food that she didn’t notice the man behind the window across from hers. And when she did, her heart stopped. She immediately withdrew her hand from the iron bar and stepped away with her plate. She went back to close the blind, getting one last glance of the man. Their new neighbor was staring right at her.

Devin Frye was busy restocking his shelf with books when he noticed a small movement from the window across his room. He thought he saw someone from the room earlier when they were moving his things inside, but he never thought of it. Curious, he took a step in front of his own bare window to look.

And then he saw her.

She was doing something, but he couldn’t clearly see what it was.

He was not staring, he was merely curious. Curious was his job once and his new neighbor was feeding him with so much of that with whatever she was doing. And much more when she suddenly looked up, saw him and within seconds disappeared.

New neighborhood and things were already picking up, he thought as he returned to his work.

As much as he was curious about his new neighbor, he was not the type to bake a pie and bring it next door to make friends. His move was to start something new, not make friends.

But out of old habits, Devin went back to the same window to observe. If he couldn’t make friends with his neighbors, he should at least know them by their activities and actions. And he thought it was too early for anyone to clean window grills.

He dragged a chair and sat down beside the window. The blinds behind the woman’s window were still closed. It was not weird for him at all. People tend to be cautious in most neighborhoods. You could never trust anyone other than the people you lived with.

For the next five minutes, nothing seemed to be moving inside the room. He thought he saw a shadow pass by the window once, probably to check if he was still there.

He gave it another ten minutes. A man wearing a red baseball cap emerged downstairs. The man looked around, his hands deep inside the front pockets of his jeans. And then his eyes went to Devin’s room. Devin disappeared out of sight within seconds, jumping to the wall beside his window.

Old habits, he thought.

He counted to twenty seconds and slowly walked across the room, passing his window. The man was gone.

Devin scoffed and shook his head. Laughing at himself, he returned his chair back to its proper place. He was crazy if he thought there was something weird going on next door. Every family had their quirks. Every person had their own crazy things. It didn’t mean they were worth his time.

He was back to his books in no time, organizing each one religioiusly.

That was when the doorbell rang.

He hesitated for a moment. No one knew where he lived. And if it was a neighbor trying to welcome him in the neighborhood, he didn’t have time for that.

The doorbell rang again.

He went to the window facing the street and looked down.

The man in red baseball cap was standing before his door.

Devin frowned. He walked to the other window facing the room next door. He saw something move. It was the same shadow and this time, it was standing before the other window facing the street.

She’s watching baseball cap guy, he thought. Did she send him here? He wondered.

The doorbell rang again.

Devin decided to give in to his own curiosity.

He walked downstairs and to his front door.

He opened the door.

Hope watched as their new neighbor welcomed Carl inside his new home. She was not worried, but she was scared the guy would tell Carl about the window incident this morning.

Visiting the new neighbor was not new for her. He would always make sure that the neighbors wouldn’t get curious. It was always the same story. But the incident this morning was new.

She paced around her room when Carl disappeared inside the man’s house. She couldn’t be found out. If she did, she was dead. This room was her only exit. The others were dead ends.

The visit lasted for almost an hour and it was always the same thing. Carl would get out and the neighbor would follow, looking up her window with sympathy.

Same old story.

Simple but never suspicious.

But this new guy was different. Yes, he did look up her room not with sympathy but with curiosity. It was the kind that would alarm Carl, she thought as she watched the man walk back inside his own door.

Before Carl could come up to her room and find her standing before the window, she hurried to her wing chair and turned on the television. She didn't know if he would come right away. But he eventually would.

Her heart was calm when he entered and turned off the box later that afternoon. She heard the plate touch the table beside her. Her second meal.

“Well?” she asked, looking straight at the blank television. She could ask him questions as long as they were the right one. And they had to be at the right moment. And they had to be according to his mood.

Right now, she sensed he was in a good mood.

His story worked. And the neighbor didn’t tell him about her breakfast escapade.

“As usual, he bought it,” he said with pride. “He’s new in town, trying to find a new life.”

“Same old story,” she commented in her deadpan tone.

Carl chuckled. “Eat your supper, Hope. Before it gets cold.”

“Thanks,” she answered just to feed his mood.

Maybe it was not time to ask about the other matter. She didn’t want to spoil his night and ultimately hers.

She picked up her plate the moment he went out the door.

Another safe night, she thought as she picked up the fork. She had already used it by the look of the handle. She then checked the spoon. No, she couldn’t use it either. She was running out of utensils.

She’d have to use the last wire tonight. And when that one wore out, she’d have to find other means.

Her neighbor might still be curious about the window incident. She couldn’t risk it.

Hope’s hand unconsciously went to the metal band around her right ankle. She’d have to work on her chains tonight.

For the rest of the day, Devin’s thoughts constantly went back to the odd visit he received from Carl next door.

It was odd in many ways. Carl was odd.

But he was used to odd. He had encountered a lot of them in the past.

The guy didn’t do anything but tell him about his daughter and the worries he carried.

They never even knew each other for him to talk about such matter. But Devin figured the guy might have been out of company for some time and he found a shock absorber in his new neighbor.

On the other hand, Devin was no shock absorber. He was far from that.

There’s something wrong somewhere, he thought.

He stopped himself and shook his head.

It was not his problem to think about what was wrong. He had a job to do.

He had a new life to live.

His neighbors could live their own without him.