16th June 2012,

As the taxi turned the corner, I could see the outlines of Coe's house.
Unlike me, Coe doesn't live in an apartment but in a two-storeyed house left to him by his adopted parents.

The house, set in a cultured and well-bred neighborhood, was one of the oldest ones in the street. His parents had bought it only a year before their death in a car accident. I'd never actually met his parents for we became friends only after his regular visit to the bar near our office to drown his sorrows and lift his mind off his parents.

Soon as we met each other, something clicked, and we knew in an instant that this was the start of a friendship that would last a lifetime.

"Is this the house, Sir?" The driver's voice snapped me back to reality.

I nodded and paying the driver with a tip of $3, stepped out.

As the cab drove away, I walked up to the driveway and rang the bell.

"In a minute", came Coe's voice from inside which was followed by the sound of his slippers brushing the floor.

"Hi", he greeted as he opened the door.

I smiled at his greeting and stepped inside his living room.

His house had always succeeded in astonishing me at how Victorian it looks from outside but is every bit modern from inside.

As we sat on his blue sofa, Coe popped open two bottles and gave one to me, taking a swig from his.

I slowly sipped my beer, thinking about the way Ella had suddenly grabbed my shoulder and stared into me, telling me not to forget her face.

Coe picked up the remote and switched on the recordings of a football match.

"I recorded today's big match", he said, staring at the television screen, "I knew you must have given the match a miss because of all the work dumped on you."

"Thanks, man", I replied, patting him on the shoulder.

As the match went on, my thoughts returned to Ella's strange behavior.

"Something wrong?" Coe asked.

Surprised by his sudden voice, it took me some time to realize his question.

"No", I replied, "just thinking about my neighbor."

"Neighbor?" He straightened himself and switching off the TV, turned towards me, "you haven't had any neighbor since you moved to that apartment."

"She moved in on Friday," I replied.

"How come you didn't tell me about her in the office?" he asked, sounding disappointed.

"The flat got bought and furnished while I was abroad and she moved in while I was at work", I justified," I got to know only when I returned. That's when we met."

"So", he shifted closer, "is she young?"

"About my age."

"Beautiful?"

I nodded.

"And you were thinking about her right now?"

"Yes", I replied. "but not having dirty thoughts about her!" I added, alarmed by the smirk Coe gave at my simple yes.

"And why exactly should I believe that you weren't having dirty thoughts about her?" He asked with a scoff to show his disbelief.

"She...she is...not my type," I said, rejecting the thought of telling him the real reason.
I had already played the conversation in my head which ended up with him saying that I was over thinking it. Maybe I was, maybe Ella was just messing with me, but somehow, I wasn't satisfied with that explanation.

"And what is Sir-perfect-in-every-way's type?" He launched another question with raised eyebrows.

"Someone who doesn't spell trouble!" I said, annoyed by his constant questioning.

"What do you mean by trouble?" He asked with a serious look and tone.

"Nothing", I said in a low tone, realizing my mistake," She is just...plain weird."

Before he could ask what I meant by weird, the doorbell rang. It was the pizza boy with our ordered pizzas. Bless that guy.

We played video games while we ate and it made me stop thinking about Ella or her look.

An hour and a half later, when I returned home, I changed my clothes and straightaway went to bed. I must be really tired for I immediately fell asleep.

I woke up to my alarm screaming five-thirty. I immediately hit the snooze button and jumped out of my bed.

I desperately tried to find the light switch and to my surprise found it in my third attempt, a rare phenomenon. I shaved the streaks of hair that had begun to form under my chin and admired my clean shaven face.

As I started brushing my teeth, my thoughts returned to the glare my neighbor gave me. Was it really just her messing with me or did those words hold a deeper, darker meaning I would later know of?

With my mind still dwelling in those thoughts, I changed into my jogging outfit and grabbed my iPod U-2 from the shelf and then with a sigh, opened the door. I locked the door and switching on the music, ran.

The sky was slowly stirring, turning to a shade of Prussian blue. The birds were slowly leaving their nests, thankful for another free day in the open sky.
We humans too wish for such a day, a day when we are free of our duty and obligations when we can take flight in the open sky. And we get it too, but in our childhood, when all we do is use up the time, wanting to grow up, wanting to be caged birds. How strange are we?

With these thoughts, I jogged into the park.
Seeing the number of people exercising there, I got re-energized and with a renewed enthusiasm I started sprinting.

As the Hollaback Girl grabbed the rhythm ( I know it's an old song, but what can I say, I love its catchy tune), I smiled and slowly all the people around seemed to disappear. There was just me, and only me, jogging in a worriless world of beauty and happiness.

As I reached the outskirts of the city, my phone rang. 'Weird', I thought for I did not remember bringing it with me. Fishing it out of my pocket, I flipped it open.
The screen read Coe's name.
I answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hey"

"Get out of there", he shouted " It's too dangerous! Get out!"

The line went dead.

An uneasiness washed over me as I wondered what he meant.

I turned around to retrace my steps only to find the road replaced by an unfamiliar marooned path with dead, burnt trees lining it.
I looked up. The sky had turned a dark violet.

Suddenly, the ground started shaking. I looked down to see that I was standing in between the railway tracks, with a train thundering towards me.

I tried to jump from the tracks, but suddenly, a hand grabbed my leg in an iron grip. I turned around to see a dirty woman in tattered clothes and shaggy hair that covered a scarred and part-mutilated face, standing inside a pit dug between the tracks. Her cold blue eyes stared right into my soul.

"Don't leave me", she said, "stay with me, don't leave me."

As she started screaming and repeating the same words over and over again like some chant, my head began feeling heavy.

As the black monster with the deafening noise charged towards me, the woman's scream increased. I closed my eyes to the scream of the woman and the noise of the train increasing with every growing second.

17th June 2012,

I woke up with a start to the screaming of a woman.

It was coming from Ella's place! Without a second thought, I ran out to help my neighbor.

I tried the door, but it was locked. The scream had died down only to be replaced by a deafening silence.

Finding no alternative, I busted open the door and was horrified by the view that now stood in front of me.

Ella was standing in the corner with a bloody knife, staring at the floor which was covered in blood.
From where I was standing, I could make out a head with jet black hair lying lifelessly.

As I looked up, her steely eyes met mine.