It was an ordinary house, not cleaned, moved in haste and left in a state of confusion. But it wasn't that which bothered me... it was a strange yellow light that bathed the rooms. It was too bright to be the late evening sunlight and yet too glazed to be the bright noon. Then I felt a presence of ... something. I looked at my mother, she felt the same but could not verbalize. "Ahem, well, since we're here we can look and they can always clean up the house..." John suggested weakly. We started upstairs toward the bedroom, John, my mother and I and...........something. the master bedroom had brown spots on the carpet, like something had dripped. "hmmm coffee stains... seems like they liked coffee here... " announced John unnecessarily. Then we went to the other bedroom which was decorated like a nursery. There was what seemed to be a splash of reddish brown on the walls. Someone seemed to have continuously banged a watermelon against the off white nursery wall. Brown dripped and seemed hastily scrubbed off the carpet. We hurried out of that room and half heartedly pushed the bathroom door open. The tub... it was the tub which caught my attention... there were streaks of thick, dried, reddish brown goop all along the bath tub. "Lets go!" I almost yelled. My mother ashen faced whispered forcibly, "kasto kasto thaaoon ma liyera aayeko.. yo manche ley". "Ya... sorry about that! This house had just come up this morning!" John appologized. We hurried downstairs, my heart racing... and closed, secured the door.. leaving the yellow light, the brown streaks and and spots behind us. But, as I got into the car... the something walked behind me, so close that I could sense it by the hair on my nape.... We went back to my apt. I was silent, So was my mother. "Sitara... go wash your hands and face!" That night, I had a nightmare... the something had followed me into my apt. ************** to be continued*************