I

The house wasn’t exactly what Norah was expecting. A typical middle class suburban, fresh and ready to be lived in, it looked like it had been airlifted ready made into the cul-de-sac just like the others. Amazing how much more you could get for a dollar outside the city. It was a far stretch from their shoebox in Queens that was for sure.

Mary parked the BX in their short, perfectly manicured driveway, and had since buried herself in the trunk in an attempt to free their wedged suitcases “What do you think?”

Norah stared at the blue suburban. It wasn’t home. “It’s fine, I guess.”

Mary looked deflated as she handed Norah a heavy, moth-eaten travel bag and let them in through the front door. The house had the fresh chemical scent of cleaning products, yet the air was stagnant from sitting empty for several days. The movers had dumped boxes everywhere, but were kind enough to leave a narrow trail between them leading up the stairs and through to the kitchen.

“Wow, that is a lot of boxes”, Mary used her hip to push one of them aside to make room for the suitcases, “Do you remember us having so much stuff?”. She offered her daughter a weak smile, but it was ignored. Norah was busy studying the dark corners of their new home with an unreadable expression.

Mary disappeared into the darkness, groaning as she cleared a path through heavy boxes, before there was a sharp little click followed by a dejected grunt, “What? It was fine when I left”.

Mary flicked the light switch on and off a few more times and sighed, “The movers must've blown a fuse or something”, her eyes crinkled in despair, “Which means all of the meals I put in the freezer must be ruined too. Great”. Mary sat on a nearby box, her usually sunny disposition wearing thin as she rubbed her forehead.

Norah was in her own world, willfully oblivious to her mother’s distress, as she began climbing the stairs, “My room?”

Mary glanced up, “Huh? Upstairs to the right”, she got to her feet just as Norah was disappearing onto the landing. “Wait, you shouldn’t go wondering around in the dark you might hurt yours–” Mary stopped herself. Except that’s not a problem for you so never mind.

Norah ignored her mother as she carried on through the house. The upstairs smelled of fresh paint and the pile on the carpets was pulled up like someone had cleaned it before their arrival, although it was worn in certain places and stained from age. This was more space than Norah was used to and even the short walk to her bedroom felt like a long walk to the gallows.

“Your bed’s all made and ready, so you just need to unpack your boxes”, called Mary from downstairs as Norah approached the first door. A reasonably-sized bathroom with a square toilet, Jack and Jill basins, and a clawfoot bath with a rail surrounding it where someone had removed the curtain. It looked naked without one. Unnatural.

“Should I order take-out?” her mother seemed to be hovering at the bottom of the stairs, it was grating on Norah. Or just throw myself off the roof? There was a loud sigh when Norah didn’t reply. She heard footsteps moving around downstairs before there was a loud crash followed by a girlish yelp.

Norah rushed to the bannister to look down, but couldn’t see Mary, “Mom?”

There was a long pause, “I’m fine”.

Though she felt guilty, Norah really didn’t have the bandwidth for this, and so continued opening doors. The next one she tried was a room filled with boxes labeled “Norah” and tucked somewhere behind them was her bed, which was already made up with her favorite dark navy bedding.

Norah sat down on the soft inviting duvet and laid back, allowing her eyes to flutter closed for the briefest moment, before a sick flutter in her chest forced them open again. She sat upright, hunched forward with exhaustion, but feeling alert and agitated at the same time.

There were no curtains on the windows, which meant the light from outside was able to spill in. A full moon. Norah dropped her backpack down and went to stand by the window to let it soak over her. Her reflection in the glass was haggard, dark circles under her eyes, and borderline greasy hair slicked back in a low pony. She’d lost weight too, her cheeks were gaunt and hollow.

She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she swore for the faintest moment they glowed. Something knocked against her foot and when she looked down she saw her softball bat. Norah picked up the bat and twirled it around with melancholy. Was she ever going to get to play again? When Norah bent down to put it back, something skittered past her eye-line and disappeared across the room.

Shooting up, Norah looked around her bedroom, and froze upon site of a humanoid shape in the corner. She tried not to move or breathe, narrowing her eyes to try to see better. There was something rustling over there, and clutching the bat, Norah approached as slowly as possible.

The rustling continued, but as far as she could tell, the figure wasn’t moving. Whatever it was just stood there staring at her. Norah raised the bat ready to strike when the lights came on suddenly and dazzled her, she dropped the bat to shield her eyes. When the pain subsided, Norah glanced up to see the humanoid invader was just the vintage dress-form her mother bought her for her seventeenth birthday.

Feeling silly, Norah shoved the flowery dress-makers dummy causing it to rock backwards, frightening a black cat that was hiding beneath. The cat squalled shooting out and circling around Norah’s feet trying to find another place to hide. It stared up at her curiously, before taking a seat on the floor near her right foot.

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Norah couldn’t help but smile, “Now who, might I ask, are you?”

The cat mewed fidgeting as Norah bent down to pick him up, although he let her cradle him. The cat’s eyes were like shiny yellow disks staring up at Norah, and he began purring gently as she ran her fingers over his belly, “How on earth did you get in here?”

The door opened and Mary poked her head inside, she was wearing a triumphant grin, “I managed to get the lights back on”.

“I see that.”

“It was just a fuse–”, Mary’s eyes widened in delight when she saw the fuzzy creature lying in Norah’s arms, “Where did this cutie come from?”

Norah shrugged, turning her body so Mary could stroke the cat, “I found him hiding in here”.

“Does he have a collar?”, Mary ran her finger along the back of his neck but there was nothing, “Better let him out–”, Mary began talking to the cat, “Cause I’ll bet someone’s missing you”.

Norah felt sad, hugging the warm, fuzzy creature to her body as she made her way downstairs. She could feel his heartbeat, and the vibrations of him purring against her chest, and an overwhelming sense of calm came over her. Did she really have to send him back into the world? He seemed like he wanted to be there.

“I wonder how he got in?” her mother was leaning over the bannister staring down at them.

“Maybe someone left a window open?” Norah opened the front door and was hit with a fresh breeze of an early-fall night. She popped the cat down onto the tiled doorstep, “There you go”, and gestured for him to leave, but the cat sat there staring up at her with a bemused cock of his head.

“Go on, off you go”, Norah waved her hand more demonstrably and the cat flinched but didn’t move. It stared into the darkness, then began inching backwards towards the safety of the house, like it was wary of something out in the dark.

Hearing footsteps, Norah squinted into the night but she couldn’t see anything, “Hello? Is someone there?”

As the footsteps shuffled closer, the cat’s spine curved upwards and it hissed, moments later a shadow caught the moonlight and Norah finally saw a figure stumbling towards the front door.

“Who's there?” said Norah, holding the door ready to slam it closed, but her whole body felt numb as she watched that thing keep shambling towards her.

Norah’s breath caught in her chest when a girl burst from the darkness and stumbled into the light, she was covered in blood and clutching at her throat. With one final squall, the cat bolted into the night, leaving Norah all alone with this terrible girl. Norah knew those green eyes, that pained expression. It was her best friend Susan… or what was left of her at least.

Susan reached her hands forward, revealing a jagged wound across her neck that spouted blood everywhere as she gagged for air. Before Norah could think, those hands grasped for her shoving her to the ground. Susan’s dead weight fell onto Norah’s legs, and she was pinned down, unable to escape. Norah screamed, trying to wriggle away but Susan was already on top of her, trying to wrap her hands around Norah’s throat.

As Norah struggled, Mary appeared in the hallway and began unpacking a box, seemingly unbothered by the horror show taking place on her doorstep, “Oh, I invited your friend Susan to stay, I hope that’s all right?”

Norah couldn’t hear her, scratching helplessly as Susan’s muddy, furious fingers pressed into the skin around Norah’s throat, cutting off her oxygen supply. Susan leaned over her, causing blood to drip into Norah’s face and eyes, as she clamped her fingers around her throat and squeezed.

“Please… don’t”, Norah was losing consciousness.

Susan bared her jagged, bloody teeth, “Look what you’ve done to me!”

Susan’s eyes rolled back into her head so that they were completely white and the edges of her lips began to rip apart like wet paper, revealing gigantic glistening fangs, slick with saliva, as they came chomping down directly at Norah’s–

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II

Norah bolted upright in terror, scratching at her throat as she launched herself off the bed.

Her heart was racing as she stood against a wall guarding her body and it took her a moment to realize that she was safe. Norah rested her head against the cool wall until she felt like she was able to breathe again. She should have known it was a nightmare. She’d been having a lot of those lately.

Hearing a cat squall in the distance, Norah saw that her window was open slightly and she rushed over to close it, almost tripping over her backpack in the process. She held the window closed and stared out into the darkness. The moon was low in the sky, suggesting she’d been down for a while.

“Bad dream?” came a man’s voice from the other side of the room.

Norah flinched in surprise, slamming her knee against a heavy box, and almost putting her arm through the window pane in an attempt to steady herself. There in her wicker chair sat Braran with that typical smug look on his face.

“What are you doing here, Braran?” Norah rubbed her stinging elbow with a scowl.

He smiled, getting lithely to his feet, “I came to see how you are”.

Though Norah wasn’t sure exactly how old he was, she put Braran somewhere in his late-teens, maybe a year or two older than she was. She’d made attempts to learn more about him but he’d never been much for the personal information. He more liked to show up unannounced and talk incessantly about her.

“I'm doing just great”, said Norah.

Braran smirked. The moonlight glistened across his huge, dark eyes as he studied her from across the room in that smoldering way of his. Norah wished he wasn’t so attractive, it made it harder to be angry with him invading her privacy like this. He was a master of that “not even trying” look, with his classic gray tee and shaggy brown hair.

Braran walked to the window and studied the world outside it for a long moment, clearly no intention to rush their conversation, “So, you found a new town”.

Norah wrapped her arms around herself, feeling chilly in his presence, “The old one got too small”.

Braran crossed his arms and raised his brow. He always did that. Made her feel like the things she said were stupid.

Irritation rippled through Norah, “Is there a point to this because I’m tired. I have a long day tomorrow”.

“Ah yes”, he smiled, revealing his slightly crooked teeth, “The new school, if you ask me that seems… unwise”.

Irritation turned to anger and Norah scoffed, “Luckily, nobody did ask you”.

Braran tutted, though his expression was unreadable, “If I didn’t know any better I would think you were trying to run away”.

She hated the way he read her so easily. The way he could cut so cleanly to her inner workings. It made Norah feel violated. He might as well have stripped her naked and thrown rotting vegetables at her. It was like he always knew the very worst times to appear, something he appeared to savor.

Norah narrowed her eyes, “So, what if I am?”

Braran laughed at her bluntness, he moved to stand beside her, walking around her. He didn’t have the presence of a normal person, he had no breath to speak of, no warmth. He didn’t even disturb the air as he moved. Yet, there was an energy to him. A vibration that was very unlike any human she’d come across. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

“Does running away change what happened?”, he moved his lips close to her ear, “Does it change what you are…?”

Norah felt a lump in her throat, “…What I did?”

When Norah turned around Braran was gone. She stared into the darkness, before bursting into tears.