I woke up with a long yawn, and looked around my bed. Katie wasn't here. She must've woke up and gone downstairs already while I slept. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and looked at my calendar while picking some clothes. December 26th. It was so close to New Years, and I was excited for it. Since we celebrated Christmas at my house, we celebrated New Years at Katie's house. I chose a pair of yoga pants and a shirt and went downstairs to find Katie. I looked around the whole house, but I couldn't find her. In fact, I couldn't find anyone. I went into the kitchen to find them, but all I found was a note on the refrigerator.
"We went to the store to shop, we tried waking you up but you were so tired, and I didn't trust you and Katie to be home alone. - Mom"
At the bottom of the note I saw a frowning face. Katie had drawn it, she has a peculiar way of drawing things. Well shit. I'm home alone for who knows how long. I was walking towards the phone to call Katie when I heard my stomach growl. Damn, it growled loud. I decided to eat a quick bowl of cereal first, then call her. I looked in our food cabinet and found a box of Lucky Charms. I liked Cheerios better, but these are okay too. I opened the bag and poured some in a bowl, then out the box back where I found it. I opened the fridge and took out the milk, then I heard a bang. I mean a loud bang. It came from upstairs, but I just assumed something fell so I didn't think anything of it. I mean, what could it be? I poured the milk in the bowl and then put the milk back. I sat there eating my cereal in silence. It's funny, silence is supposed to be the absence of noise but you can actually hear silence. It's not usually quiet here, so it was weird. When I was half finished with my cereal, I heard another bang. Okay, what the fuck? I got up from the table and started walking up the stairs to see what was going on. When I was at the top of the stairs, I heard another bang. Specifically in my room. I walked to my room door, and surprisingly, it was shut. I don't remember shutting my door. I opened the door, and found my room perfectly normal. I walked in, then I noticed some of my things were on the floor. It looked like my lamp fell, along with a picture. But that was only two things, and I didn't expect them to be that loud. I shrugged it off, and began putting them back where they belonged. I felt those eyes again, burning into me. I told myself I was just paranoid, I mean, what could it be? Another weird thing, it looked like someone had just laid them on the floor, not fallen on the floor. After I was done setting everything back in place, I turned my lamp on to see if it still worked. It did, but there was something different. It was like someone had drawn on the inside of my lamp, so when I turned it on, I could see what was drawn. Except, it wasn't a drawing. It was words.
"I've always been watching." It was in the same hand writing as the gift I thought was from Katie. Damn that girl, with her pranks. I'm pretty sure it was here, but I never got the chance to confront her because it never crossed my mind. At the same time, I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something there. Katie just made me really paranoid, you know? I shut my lamp back off and went back downstairs to finish the rest of my cereal. Before I could take a bite, someone knocked on the door. My heart jumped out of my chest, and I strained to see who it was. It was just mom. God damn it Katie. I got up and opened the door for her, she had her hands full with groceries.
"Hi honey, how are you doing?" She said and leaned down to give me a kiss.
"I'm doing fine mom." I said rolling my eyes in embarrassment and she laughed. The rest of the family came in along with Katie's, Katie was last.
"Hey girl!" She squealed and set her bags of groceries on the table. I would be groggy, but after what happened I'm just a little jumpy.
"Hey, what's up?" I asked back and sat down on the couch and relaxed. She sat down with me.
"I was wondering if you wanted to hang out on Friday." She asked me and I looked at the Calendar again to see the date. December 26th, Monday.
"That's like four days!" I said and she nodded. Since it was Christmas, we had Christmas break. I'm not sure when we go back to school, but I do know we had at least four days.
"I'll be busy helping my family set up for the New Years party." She said with a groan.
"Can't I help to?" I inquired her so we could hang out more.
"No, they want it to be a surprise. We should be done by Friday, and by then we can go to the mall and have you sleep over."
"Okay, cool." I said smiling and she smiled back. Friday was December 30th, and if I slept over, it'd be December 31st. New Years Eve, the day my family would come over. Sounds like a nice plan.
"Well, are we going to hang out for the rest of the day?" She asked me.
"Yeah, let's go to the park." I told her and we got our boots and jackets on, though it wasn't really that cold out. She was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt along with her jacket and boots, we didn't wear shitty Uggs like some people. I mean, there's a reason they're called Uggs.
"We're going to the park!" I hollered to my mom.
"Okay, bring your phones!" She yelled back and Katie held up her phone.
"Already on it!"
"Yeah!" I said silently creeping to the couch where I had left my phone and out it on my coat pocket. The park wasn't to far away, just a few blocks. We walked outside to the view of our neighborhood, and I drew in the cool scent of winter. It was pretty warm for winter, though. We walked out and shut the door behind us. We chatted for a bit while we walked to the park, it was silent besides our voices. There was no one else around, it was kind of like a ghost town. But I didn't mind it.
"Hey, Katlyn." Katie started up a new conversation as we began to walk towards the park.
"Yeah?" I answered her as we walked up to the swings of the park and sat down on them. They weren't wet, thank God.
"Have you ever had a crush on a guy?" She asked seriously and I blushed thinking about how I liked her a bit.
"A while ago." I replied and pushed off the swing a bit and started swinging low levelly, it looked like she wanted to say something else, but she didn't. Silence.
"Do you ever feel like something's watching you?" I began a new conversation and she opened her mouth to reply until my phone rang.
"Hang on." I said and I looked at the caller ID. It was mom. I flipped it open, and answered,
"Hello?"
"Hey, sweetie. Come home, lunch is ready." She told me and I rolled my eyes a bit. I just woke up, barely had breakfast, and now she wanted us to have lunch.
"Okay mom, we'll be there soon."
"Okay, bye honey."
"Bye." I disconnected the call then out the phone in my jacket pocket again.
"We gotta go home for lunch." I told Katie and she jumped off the swing in excitement, she was out of her serious attitude.
"I'll race you there!" She squealed and she ran forward, she was actually pretty fast.
"Hey don't cheat!" I yelled at her, running forward, and she just laughed looking behind me. I ran a few steps before I felt that feeling again. It was more... Malicious. Violent. Inhuman. I whipped my head around, and I could swear I saw something move behind the jungle gym of the park. I shrugged it off, Katie got me paranoid with her little pranks. I looked forward, and began to ran forward to catch up to Katie.
