He stirred from his slumber as he felt her soul nearing the house. After all the years of solitude, he was anxious for his new toy to arrive.

Finally, after two hours on unfamiliar roads, the last thirty minutes on winding back country roads, the yellow a frame house came into view. Olivia Adler felt the excitement course through her body. Her new home looked more beautiful than the pictures. She stopped at the gate attached to the fence that enclosed part of the yard. The house sat on four acres, roughly one acre was fenced. The gate being unlocked seemed odd to her. In the city an unlocked gate was an invitation to have an addict walk off with anything saleable. She pulled through the gate, stopping to close it behind her. Following the arching drive, she drove in front of her new home.

In the middle it was an A frame. There were extensions on both sides. The paneling was a cheery yellow color while the brick work was white. The front door was dark stained wood with a huge ornate glass panel that covered three quarters of the door. The steps that led down to the door made it a poor choice to unload the car by. If she remembered the layout from the online ad correctly, there was a side door near the three-car carport on the side of the house. The drive continued past the carport to the workshop beside it. Which allowed her plenty of room to back the unfamiliar SUV into the carport. She was proud it only took three attempts to get it where she wanted. Not bad for someone who hadn’t driven in years let alone anything as bulky as her rental SUV.

Olivia grabbed her phone, purse, and lunch before hopping out of the car. The woods surrounding the house blocked a lot of the sun, casting shadows everywhere. It felt as if eyes were watching from them as she walked the couple of yards to the side door. The quiet country life was going to take some adjusting to. She jumped when a dog in the distance barked. Inside the hibiscus pot near the side door was the key to the door as promised by the realtor. The door opened silently into the utility room. She passed the built-in cabinets that framed the empty space the washer and dryer should have been. The door into the house was unlocked. Obviously, the utility room was an add on since the door was an exterior one. Or the previous owners were paranoid.

Careful to keep his shape hidden by the shadows the trees cast in the afternoon sun, he paced her from the tree line. Excitedly he looked upon her for the first time. She appeared to be in her late thirties with long brown braided hair that almost reached her waist. The distance was too great to determine more of her features. Her soul, however, he could sense. There was a delightful amount of turmoil coming from within the new resident.  

Once though the door she stepped into the dining room and kitchen area. A smell assaulted her nose. She wasn’t sure what it was other than foul, air fresheners were added to the list of things she needed to get. The dining area wasn’t bad, but the kitchen was going to need a total gut. The laminate counter tops were a pink popular in the eighties. The appliances appeared to be from the same era. The flooring was a boring black and white checkered vinyl. A small window overlooked the sink. On the wall that faced the front was a floor to ceiling window. It had no curtain on it. Again, odd. Olivia made a mental note to correct that. She didn’t want anyone to be able to peep in. She sat everything down on the counter to dig her lunch out of the bag. Before she had turned off the main highway, she had come across a BBQ shack on the side of the road in a small town that had a line wrapped around it. Taking a chance that the locals knew what was good, she had stopped to get a plate.

She took a bite of her first Texas BBQ while crossing into the living area. That first bite proved she was right to trust the natives. The living area was a decent size. On the wall across from her something was hanging on the wall with a sheet draped over. A quick peek revealed it was a mirror. Thinking it was odd, she moved on to the foyer. It was as wide as the living room, an arch on either side. The wall between the arches also had a mirror covered by a sheet. The wall against the kitchen had a fountain on it. Continuing around she went down the hall off the foyer that led to the master bedroom and bath. The bathroom had been remodeled sometime in the nineties, so she added that to the list of things to get. Oddly, the mirrors were covered there too.

Having finished her meal, she returned to the kitchen to dispose of her container in the sink. Once she washed her hands and guzzled a drink, she went to discover the rest of the house. The office was to the right of the dining room was unremarkable other than the picture window that ran the length of the back wall. The view of the woods was beautiful. She hoped the deer would come close enough to see. The secondary bath would also need to be gutted. Again, mirrors were covered with a sheet. This was bizarre. Olivia could think of no reason to cover up mirrors.

The back half of the A frame contained a winding staircase that wound up to the loft second bedroom situated in the front of the house. Olivia admired the detailed work of the stairs. She would bet money they were hand carved and built. As she climbed the stairs, she looked up at the Texas sun shining in. The back half of the A frame roof was solid glass. The listing online mentioned how beautiful thunderstorms were to watch through it. At the top of the stairs the door to the second bedroom was closed. Jiggling the handle did nothing. It was locked. There wasn’t a key hidden on the door frame. She hoped it was with the other keys downstairs. At the first turn of the stairs, she glanced back over her shoulder. For a moment, there appeared to be a shadow briefly visible under the door. She ran back up and tried the door again. Still locked. Knocking on it she shouted for them to let her in. Frustrated she pressed her ear against the door. Silence. Once again, she started down the stairs. Perhaps the shadow had been the result of the sun shining in a window.

Her frustration filled the air. Closing his eyes, he cocooned himself in her emotions. He delighted in the feeling of her frustration flowing across his body. Yes, he thought to himself, she is perfect.  

Twenty minutes later she had drug in the three trunks containing everything she had brought with her from Chicago. Having been raised in the big city, she beeped the car alarm. Then locked the exterior door and the door into the utility room. While turning the deadbolt she noticed the door was dented. Curious, she unlocked the door to look at the side in the utility room. That side showed normal scuff marks. The echo from the door when she knocked on it revealed it to be a steel door. Odd. What had dented a steel door? On the inside? Shrugging it off, Olivia went to unpack the trunks.

Triaging the unpacking, she started with the bathroom and bedroom trunk. The wheels rolled smoothly across the hardwood floor in the living room. Deciding the master bathroom should be done first, she rolled the trunk down the hall to the master bedroom. Before unpacking her bathroom toiletries, she dug into the bag from the Dollar General she had stopped at. Quickly she cleaned the bathroom. Once she was satisfied that there weren’t someone else’s cooties on any of the surfaces, she unpacked the few toiletries she had brought. Later tonight she planned on searching online for bathroom décor. Over the next couple of hours, she scrubbed the rest of the house. When she had walked the house earlier, she had opened every window. The smell of the outdoors had replaced the foul smell that had permeated the house.

Fascinated by the locked door, Olivia climbed the steps again, this time with all the keys the realtor had left. One by one she worked her way through the ring. None of them worked. With pursed lips she studied the door hinges. She had never removed a door from its frame before and had no idea what tools would be required. Looking at the doorknob she saw no way to remove it either.

“Open Up Sesame!” Olivia tapped out a shave and a haircut on the door. Seemingly in response, the doorbell rang. Startled by the bells, she froze in place. Then she remembered this wasn’t the city so there was no reason to pretend she wasn’t home to hide from solicitors.

On the other side of the door, he listened to her attempts to enter. She was a determined one. He smiled. She would be a fun toy. He matched her footsteps across to the window. The delivery boy turned white before fleeing to his vehicle when he caught a glimpse of him in the window.

She hurried down the winding stairs as fast as she dared to see who had tried to give her a heart attack with church bells. Once she was under the bedroom her footsteps sounded like someone pacing her in the room above. Shrugging it off as odd acoustics since the house was empty, she swung the door open to see a delivery driver closing her gate on his way to the truck he had left in the road. Excited, she looked at the packages he had left by the door. Quickly she drug in the three boxes straight to the master bedroom. She had been worried that they wouldn’t get there until the next day.

Opening the heaviest first, she found the blow-up mattress, linens, and gel pillow she had ordered. Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor tonight! After a quick glance at the manual, she plugged it into the wall so it could start airing up. While the bed was doing its thing, she set up her Bluetooth speakers to play her favorite playlist while she unpacked the other boxes.

Gleefully she pulled the green halter dress with brown dots out of the box. It was gorgeous. The kind of dress she had never had the confidence to wear before. Lovingly she hung it from the expensive plush hangers that were in the box the bed had come. One by one she unboxed her new wardrobe. All of it was feminine and slightly reveling. She had spent days clicking on the ads on her phone with the pretty women in all the pretty clothes she had never been allowed to have. Unable to hold back any longer, she grabbed the V-neck tank with sunflowers which she paired with the ripped boyfriend cut jeans. She turned to go to the bathroom to see how it looked when something about the sliding closet door caught her eye.

The doors were covered in some kind of film. The doors looked like frosted windows except at the top where the film had started to peel down. Curious she moved the trunk over to use it as a step stool. Tugging only ripped it. Not willing to accept defeat, Olivia pulled the glass cleaner and plastic putty knife out from under the sink. For the next ten minutes she sprayed and scraped the film off one of the doors. Once she was done the mirrored closet door shined. Stepping back, she got the first view of herself in her new clothes. A slow trembling smile started to spread on her face. A tear traced an equal slow path down her face. Olivia turned to look at the back of her outfit. The sunflowers made her happy.

For the length of her marriage her then husband, Sheldon Milton, had convinced her that a woman that wore a size ten shouldn’t show her arms. That women of that size had too much arm fat and shouldn’t wear sleeves shorter than the elbow. Every time he caught her looking at sleeveless tops, he told her to diet and get rid of her bat wings otherwise the shirt would just sit in the closet and that was a waste of money. He was even more vicious about her bosom. She had a generous DD set and according to her darling husband they made her look like a whore, and she needed to keep them covered. He didn’t want her flaunting them for all the other men to see. When she finally left him, she had cardigans in every color and style. During her marriage she had never fully lost her maternity weight. However, divorce agreed with her, she dropped two dress sizes and was now free to build her wardrobe any way she desired.

While she twirled and danced in front of the mirror, she had the oddest sensation that she was being watched. The bedroom windows were still open with the wooden blinds pulled up. She hadn’t felt the need to close them since they faced the back of the property. The wood line was a few yards from the house. It was possible someone was watching from the trees. Aluminum baseball bat in one hand, phone in the other, she opened the French door that led outside. With a determined stride she walked off the private patio, straight to the tree line. Glancing around there were no signs that anyone had been around. She didn’t see any debris or footprints. Quickly she circled the house. Finding nothing of interest she went back into the house.

Unnoticed he had watched her from the corner. As she twirled her joy filled the room. The happy feeling was abhorrent to him. He could not feed off such positive emotions. Gleefully he had followed her around the tree line when she sensed him. Destroying her spunk was going to bring him much joy.

Back inside she put the bat beside the inflated bed. Once she had linens covering the rubbery surface, she laid down to scroll through the food delivery app looking for dinner. Most of the offerings were basically what she could get back home. After much internal debate she went with a fried chicken place. Dinner sorted; she continued putting things away. As she passed the newly uncovered closet mirror, she noticed a black shape in the corner of the room in the reflection. Whipping her head towards the corner, she saw nothing there. Looking back at the mirror, the shape was gone.

“It’s been a long ass day.” Olivia muttered to herself. With a quick headshake she went to the bathroom to wash her face with cool water. She changed out of her new clothes into her PJs. Passing through the bedroom, keeping a wary eye on the corner the shape had been in, she hung up her sunflower outfit then headed to the kitchen. Once there she replaced her contacts with her glasses. Obviously, her eyes were just tired. Feeling creeped out, she dragged the blow-up mattress into the living room. One by one all the windows were closed and locked. She pulled down the wooded blinds on all the windows. Sleep would be impossible if she felt someone was watching her sleep.

Due to sleep issues Olivia slept on a wedged inclined pillow that made it comfortable for her to sit on the bed while browsing furniture stores on her tablet. Before she left Chicago, she had sold everything except a few mementos and the few clothes that she liked. The entire house was going to need to be furnished. Plus, a washer and dryer needed to be procured ASAP. Laundromats were too expensive to use long term.

The sound of the doorbell didn’t startle her this time. She had heard the delivery person pull in. The dodge Ram in the drive seemed an odd choice for delivering food. Maybe this was how he paid for the gas. With a thank you, she took her food from the kid.

After finishing her dinner, she fell asleep on the inflated bed watching YouTube videos.

Once she was asleep, he stood beside her. Humans were so weak, so vulnerable in their sleep. Lightly he laid a hand on her forehead to flip through her memories. Stopping when he came across the memory of her dog disappearing as a child, he flicked his tongue to just behind her ear. The suckers on his tongue latched to her skin to pull the life force from her. He only took a small sip, just enough to quiet his thirst. One with such pain as her was to be savored. After watching her sleep for a few brief moments, he silently dissolved back into the night.

A crack of thunder startled her out of a dream about her childhood dog. Groggily she looked up at the glass part of the ceiling. Rain was beating down in giant plops on the clear surface. She watched for a moment before her eyes started to close. Suddenly the room was lit up with the white light of lightning. For a second, a black human shaped form was visible through the glass roof appeared to be floating in the clouds. Olivia jumped hard enough to drop her phone when simultaneously the crack of thunder boomed, and the house went dark. Quickly she ran through the house checking all the doors and windows. Just to be safe she beeped the car alarm twice. Once she was satisfied the house was secure, she went to bed wondering if Texas BBQ always led to hallucinations.