Dai woke up the next morning and said goodbye to her brother and sister. She couldn’t get the voice out of her head. Where was it coming from and why was she the only one hearing it? She sat down at her computer thinking about what she was going to do when her doorbell rang. She looked out of the window and there stood a very handsome man. Dai opened the door and thought he looked even better close up.
“Are you Dai Sakaue?”
“Um…oh…yes. Yes I am. And you are?”
“Craig” he said simply.
“Oh. Okay…Craig. What can you do for me? Erm…what can I do for you?”

Craig looked at her curiously and laughed to himself.
“Hmm…I like your first question much better Miss Sakaue.”
“It’s Dai. And what makes you think I’m not a Mrs.”
“Well if I were your husband you wouldn’t be living here.”
“Is there something you wanted?” Dai asked. She was getting tired of the lame come-ons.
“Lunch. A picnic in the park perhaps?”
“Why would I have a picnic with you? I don’t know you.”
“I have some information you might like to hear.”
“So tell me here and skip the picnic. I don’t lunch with strange men.”
“Strange men? Are you saying I’m strange?” Craig chuckled.
“Yes I am” said Dai matter of factly.
“Okay no picnic then. How about a nice restaurant? There will be plenty of people around to protect you.”
“I don’t need protecting, and I’m not hungry. How did you find me anyway?”
“”Not too hard to find a beautiful blonde in this town.”
Dai blushed a little. “Well thank you Craig. I guess I can make you something to eat and we can talk.”
“Sounds good.”
Craig walked in and Dai shut the door.

Meanwhile…
“Scot what are you doing?”
“Kei I am trying to protect Dai. I don’t know. I have a feeling there’s going to be trouble ahead for her. Something’s not right.”
“How are you going to explain this to mom and dad? Or Dai? She will be angry.”
“Well I’ll tell them I fell in love with the quaintness of the town. I’ll be far enough away from Dai where she won’t know for a while.”
“Well maybe I should stay too. You know, to keep an eye on you.”

“Stay if you want, but I will be the one keeping an eye out.”
“Fine. We will stay here together. I just hope that Dai doesn’t run into us and mom and dad believe your lies.”
“Let me worry about that stuff Kei. I will tell them that you found a new job here too as a stylist. It will be fine. Don’t worry.”
“What if mom and dad ask Dai what she thinks about us living here in the same town?”
“Oh…I didn’t think about that. I can’t tell them not to mention it to her.”
“See? Flawed plan.”
“I’ll just tell them we decided to stay a little while longer then.”
“Sounds good. Make the call” Kei said.

Back at Dai’s…
She couldn’t help but stare at this handsome stranger. He seemed oddly familiar to her, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“So you said you had some information for me Craig?”
“Oh yes. I heard you were asking around about the Hunter place.”
“Yes as a matter of fact I was. Do you know something?”
“Maybe. This is a great salad by the way.”

“Thank you. Now quit stalling.”
“Oh fine then. I’m sure you’ve heard the stories about the place?”
“Mmm…yes. Family murdered. Son never found. People say the son did it.”
“Really? Do you believe that?”
“I don’t know yet. I’m planning on reading the old police reports on the crime scene this week.”
“Why are you so interested in this? I think you should leave well enough alone.”
“Why would I do that? I’m going to write a book about it. Fiction of course. It will be based on that story line though.”
“Hmmm…still…I think you should write about something else less…dangerous.”
“Dangerous? Why is it dangerous?”

“Look at the time. I have to be going. Thanks for the food. Maybe I’ll see you again?”
“Yeah. Maybe you will at that.”

Craig walked out the door and Dai immediately wondered who exactly this Craig was and why he was so interested in her story.
“Maybe I need to poke around, follow him maybe. See what’s up with him.”
Dai went to the window and looked out at the house across the swamp.
“Something weird is going on there and I’m going to find out what it is.”
She turned back around and went to her computer.
“I think I’ll just call my friends and have them tell me if he shows up anywhere.”

As Craig was walking away from Dai’s house he started thinks about things. He knew she would keep asking questions. He also knew that everyone that did that ended up dead. He didn’t know any other way to warn her without telling her the truth, but that was something he just wasn’t ready to do at the moment. He would keep her attention on him and then it would give him time to get his nerve up and tell her the truth about the Hunter family and himself.

Dai talked to several people, but they all said the same thing. That house has been empty for years and to their knowledge still was.


She just couldn’t understand it. She knew she saw someone there. She got back home and decided to do some research on the house. Maybe she could find something there.

“Oh wow!” said Dai as she read the article. Suddenly the phone rang. She looked at the caller id and noticed it was her sister Kei.
“Hey there sis! How’s life in the swamp?”
“It’s fine. Actually I’ve run across something pretty interesting here.”
“Really? What is it?”
“Well there’s a house just up the road. I can actually see it from my lower porch. Anyway, the first few times I went by it the house looked empty and abandoned. But when I got home last night there were lights on and a guy standing outside. When I  looked back a few seconds later the lights were off and the guy was gone!”
“Come on Dai! Maybe he went inside and went to bed.”
“Well I thought that too. So I went to town this morning to ask around and everyone said it’s been empty for years and still was.”
“Okay. That’s a little strange. Maybe nobody knew that someone had moved in.”
“Kei the whole town knew when I moved in. But that’s not all! I came home and did some research on that house and it said that the people that used to live there was brutally murdered by their own son! The son was never found.”
“Dai it doesn’t sound very safe there. Maybe mom was right. You should come home.”
“Please! Why should I do that? There’s so much exciting stuff going on here. Kei, I’m going to go over there and snoop.”
“Dai don’t  you dare! What if you get caught? Dad will be upset if you do that.”
“Dad’s not going to find out. I’ll be perfectly safe.”
“I don’t know Dai.”
“Listen, I’m going to go. It’s almost nightfall and I want to check it out. I’ll call you in the morning.”
“Why don’t you wait? Let me come down first. That way I’ll be there to help you.”
“I don’t want to wait. I’ll be fine Kei.”
“Well if I don’t hear from you in the morning I’m going to tell dad.”
“Fine. I’ll talk to you in the morning Kei.”

Dai hung up the phone and walked outside. She looked over towards the house up the road. All the lights were off and it was completely dark. Now was as good a time as any to go looking around. As she was walking over she started thinking about what Kei had said. She stopped dead in her tracks.
“Maybe I should wait” she thought, “No! It’s just your nerves talking dai! You have nothing to worry about.”
She walked up to the door of the house and looked around. She didn’t see anyone. She made her way inside to look around. It was very modestly furnished in the living room and kitchen.

She walked back towards the bedroom. When she walked in she couldn’t believe what she saw. The walls were covered in writing. She took out her camera and took a picture of one of the walls.


“Wow this is creepy. What does this say?”
Dai was about to read it when she heard a noise outside.
“Oh well I have it on my camera” she thought and decided to get out of there. Once she was outside she ran all the way home. When she got there she noticed there was a car in her driveway.

“Who could be here visiting at this hour?”
Dai approached the lower porch quietly and looked around. When she didn’t see anyone she headed up the stairs.
“Hmm…front door is unlocked. I know I locked it.” When she stepped inside her heart jumped in her throat.
“He made me bring him Dai. I’m sorry.”
“Who made you bring him? What are you talking about Kei?” as Dai sat beside her on the sofa.

Just as the words came out of Dai’s mouth the bathroom door opened.
“Dai, dad would flip!” said her brother Scot. “What were you thinking?”
“Kei! How could you? You promised!”

“No, I promised not to tell dad. Scot isn’t dad.”
Dai stared at Kei then at Scot. 

“Look Dai, I overheard her on the phone. I forced her to tell me.”
“And where exactly does mom and dad think the two of you are?”
“Umm…well, we told them we were paying our little sis a visit.” Kei smiled at Dai.
“What? Didn’t they wonder why you both all of a sudden wanted to come visit at the last minute?”
“Well you wouldn’t believe the art museum they have here and Kei wanted to come and I volunteered to travel with her to keep an eye on her and of course to check up on you.”
“Oh! By the way Dai, you told me about the museum” said Kei smiling.

Dai couldn’t stay angry with Kei or Scot. She was glad to have them here anyway to share her information with them.
“Okay. Well you’re here now so I might as well show you what I found.”
Scot and Kei sat there looking at the research Dai had done.
“What does this prove Dai?”
“Well I just got back from snooping in his house. There was this wall that had all kinds of writing on it. I took a picture of it.” Dai showed Scot an Kei the photo on her digital camera.
“Are you sure you saw someone there? Maybe it’s just because you are in a strange place.”
“Scot I saw him. I even think I heard him growl.”
“What? Growl? Come on Dai!” Kei said.
Dai sighed and looked at her siblings. “Come outside with me. I want to show you both something.”
The three of them walked outside and downstairs to the lower porch. They all three faced the neighboring house.
“Is that someone staring out of the window?” Scot asked.
“Yes it is. I wonder if he knows I was in there?”

Suddenly Dai could have sworn someone whispered in her ear “Yes I know!” A chill ran down her spine.
“Let’s go back in. Tomorrow is a new day” Dai said.
As they were walking back towards the stairs Dai looked back at the neighboring house. He was standing there in his front yard staring back at her.

One of the locals she had spoken to had told her the town was overrun with evil spirits. She wasn’t sure who they were or where they came from, but the town had to actually hire a ghost hunter to get rid of them. Dai of course wasn’t scared of ghosts. She came from the bloodlines of something far more terrifying than any ghosts. Of course she wasn’t about to start that rumor.

It was getting late so she decided to head home. When she got to the house not far from hers she looked at it again. It looked kind of rundown and very empty. 

 She almost talked herself into going inside to check it out when her phone rang. She looked at the caller id and noticed it was her father.
“Hey dad.”
“Hey Dai. How are you?”
“Um…I’m okay.”
“That doesn’t sound too convincing to me. Maybe I better come down there.”
“No daddy! Everything is fine really. You just caught me in the middle of something.”
“Oh. Well if you’re sure…”
“I am. Look dad, I have to go. My dinner is burning.”
“I told you not to take cooking lessons from your mother.”
She could hear her mom slapping his arm playfully in the background.
“Yeah right dad. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Dai hung up the phone and went home. When she got to her steps she turned and looked. What she saw made her gasp. There was a light on at the porch now.

Not only that, but there was a man standing there in the yard staring at her.

 As she stood there, feeling almost hypnotized, she could have sworn she heard him growl. She snapped out of her daze and looked again. The lights were off and the man was gone.


“This is a very intriguing town after all” Dai thought as she walked inside.