Chapter one

Out of the ordinary

  Raining yet again; it never seems to stop, always the same; overcast and gloomy, the same cars driving down the road, always at the same time everyday. Some of the people getting out to go in to one of the houses along the street and coming out again five minutes later, I see this happen every day, sometimes one of them might not turn up but that rarely happens, I can tell you when the next car will go by, for example a yellow Vauxhall Agila will go past at five thirty carrying two people and their shopping and ten minuets later a blue Volvo estate passes in the opposite direction, with only one person in it, only to return ten minutes later with two children in the back.

  My names John; I'm eighteen and pushing five foot nine, I have a shock of blond hair and blue eyes; more often than not I wear a pair of worn dark blue jeans and a       t-shirt, mainly dark colours. I work as a dish cleaner in a hotel, the pay stinks but it pays the bills, I have next to no social life and spend almost all my time at home.

   I usually just sit staring out of the bedroom window watching the traffic, I have nothing better to do, sometimes I clean or read but that's about it, when I think about it that's all my life is or at least used to be...

That was...until I met her...

 It was a day like any other, I was sitting by the window watching a man in a pinstripe suit go in to number forty-five;  he's usually in there for about half an hour. I noticed a girl sitting on a wall down the street, not far from number forty-five. She was wearing dark blue jeans, black trainers, and a black coat, she was rather pretty from what I could tell, she also had short red hair except for at the front where it was longer and died black. I'd never seen her before she hasn't ever been there, and I should know I see all the people that come down this street even the ones that don't come often I notice, if she came down hear before I would have seen her so why is she hear?

 She's there the next day as well and there every other day but she never sits on the same wall two days in a row, and she never turns up at the same time or is there for the same amount of time, some days I see her when I get back from work but whenever I get near she seems to disappear in the second that I blink or turn away.

 Some reason I find the fact that she is never there at the same time extremely annoying everything changes and seems out of place. This carries an for a few weeks then all of a sudden she doesn't appear one day, I don't know why she just didn't show unsettling as it was ,and annoying as her random appearances were, I grown accustomed to her being there, so her sudden absence felt as wrong as her initial appearance.

 I decided not to dwell on it maybe she had been and gone while I was at work, for it was to be expected that she may only have been there for a short period today, and was more than likely that I would see her tomorrow. Except I didn't, and the same the next day and the one after that. It was about the eighth day after her disappearance when I noticed someone walking up the road. It was another stranger, and what a stranger he was, I would say he was in his late thirties and walked with a pronounced limp in his left foot, but that was not what made him stand out, what made him stand out was that he was wearing what appeared to be a cloak. Now why in the world would he be weaning that for? Was it a publicity stunt or was he trying to sell something? It certainly seemed that way because he was walking up every ones pathway and knocking at their doors to show them a piece of paper only for them to shake their heads and close the door. The strange man was slowly making his way down stopping at every house. Finally he made it to my house walked up the garden path raised his hand to the door and knocked. I had no intention of answering so I just let him wait, five minuets later he knocked again this time harder and as the last time I didn't answer, after five more minuets he raised his hand to knock a third time then stopped and looked directly at the window where I was watching, hard cold eyes boring in to mine lips twisted in to a cruel feral grin, thin eyebrows all surrounded by wiry grey hair.

 I backed away from the window as fast as I could throwing my self to the floor. How could he possibly of known that I was there? Did he see me or did he just guess.

Five minuets passed, ten, twenty and still I hadn't moved, finally when half an hour passes I slowly get up and look out the window fearing what I might see, when I look he's not there so I look down and up the road I still can see him, I run to another window to try and spot him but as hard a I try he seems to of disappeared. I decide to keep an eye out for him, wondering if he'll come down the street again.