Stranger in the Night

Prologue

The sound of heels clicked and clacked into the night. Lila Aniston was rushing home after a night out with some friends. Her parents were going to be home any minute from a business trip to London. She would' Being only 16 years old, she needed to be back before they suspected anything. The wind is blowing harshly as the leaves resting on the ground are rustling and do twirls in the air as her feet shuffled over them laying on the ground. Branches on the trees are flying from left to right as it was slowly shaking itself off of the tree. The park was empty and cars barely drove past.

Her phone dinged loudly. She grabs it from her back pocket and sees that it's her mother checking in. She smiles at the message as the winds became calm.

"Hey, hon. We're on our way back now. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I'll see you guys when you get back."

As she locks her phone and places it back into her pocket, a twig is heard being snapped from behind her. She looks down and notices the spot she's standing in was clear. Frightened, she turns around and sees someone standing four feet away from her. They had a dark hoodie on and a red scarf was wrapped around their neck twice with the ends stopping at their waist. The wind began to blow again and the ends of the scarf began to fly. They went to fix it and Lila notices a sharp object in their hand, making her turn around and start running.

Leaves are heard shuffling behind her as she feels the adrenaline running through her body, causing her to run even faster. She speeds into the middle of the street and onto her street.

Lila looks behind her and notices the person was nowhere to be found. Calming down, she takes off her shoes and begins to walk to her house. Lila didn't know who that was or what they wanted, but she wanted to make sure she got back inside.

As she walked closer to her house, she began to notice a silhouette leaning on a car directly in front of her home. Feeling her heart drop, she stopped, trying to figure out what was happening.

"Who are you?" she called out. The person stood up properly and the sharp object glistened in the moonlight. She saw that it was a hunting knife. Before anyone could move, headlights appeared and the mysterious person ran in the opposite direction. Without hesitation, Lila runs to her house. She shoves the key into the door, unlocks it, slams the door and locks it back. She runs up the steps to her room and slammed the door. Sliding down the door, she began to cry loudly. She couldn't understand what just happened but she knows what not to do anymore.

Meanwhile, her parents arrive. They park their SUV inside the garage and shut the car off.

"Home, sweet home." Lila's mom, Ida exclaimed. She ran her fingers through her waist-length dreads and let out a big breath. George, her father pushed the garage button on the ceiling and watched as the garage door closed.

Ida is a lawyer and George is a stockbroker. Both of their jobs were high demand and often caused them to travel across the world. They started to travel around when Lila was just nine years old, missing out on some of the most important events of her life. Over the course of the years, they began to stray away, not having that close bond they used to.

"Tell me about it. I'm ready to take a hot shower and get inside my bed. He unbuckled his seatbelt and winced in pain holding his stomach. He refused to believe that he was getting fatter only that the car manufacturing companies were making the seatbelts shorter.

"If you would come to the gym with me, you wouldn't have that issue," Ida stated, unbuckling her seatbelt, grabbing her phone and stepping out of the car. He kissed his teeth and ignored her remark, knowing that it can simply cause another argument.

Ida walked up the steps and unlocked the door while George locked the car and grabbed their suitcases from the trunk. Walking in, Ida called out for Lila. She looked around the house and took a deep breath. The powder blue walls that graced the living room always put her at ease. With the chairs and the couch helping set the tone, the livingroom gave off a "homey" feeling.

"Yea, makes you miss coming back, doesn't it?" George asked, sneaking up behind Ida.

"Oh goodness. You scared me." he laughed and placed the bags down. Realizing that Lila never answered, Ida began to get worried.

"I'm going to go check on Lila. She hasn't responded to me." she began to walk up the steps, making sure to hold on to the railing. Ida had a little fall in the airport and her knee was feeling a little locked. She then remembered to make sure she rubbed some Icy Hot on it and elevate it while she sleeps.

Ida walks to Lila's room and knocks softly. A few moments go by and Lila opens the door with her pajamas on, fully unsuspecting.

"Mom? My goodness, I didn't hear you come in." she reaches in to hug her. George comes up the stairs and puts their luggage in their room. Lila looked up and waved at him

"Yea your dad and I just got in a few minutes ago. How are you? Did you eat? Are you sick?" Ida pulls back from Lila to get a look at her, making sure she was healthy.

"Mom, I'm fine. I was just in here relaxing and reading a book."

"Ok, well your dad and I are going to get ready for bed now. It was a really long flight back home."

"Ok. Goodnight." Ida kissed Lila's cheek and headed to their room. Lila went back into hers, sighing as she closed the door. Her parents didn't suspect anything and she was going to make sure it stayed that way. Lila noticed the blinds on her window were rolled all the way up. She walked over to pulled down and stopped in her tracks.

She saw the person from earlier again. This time they were standing under the streetlight, watching her through the window as the red scarf was blowing. Taking a big gulp, she began to pull her blinds down. The person waved something in the air as she squinted to see. Realizing what it was, she silently cursed to herself.

While she was running inside, she mistakenly left her keys in the door. After seeing her face, the mysterious person walks away into the night. Whoever this person is, now has access to her house and Lila has to sleep with one eye open until she can find who that was and what did they want with her.