Our Sick Inheritance (editing)

Chapter 3 - Uninvited Guest

Anna bit her lip and laughed. She wanted to get married, but felt that she was smarter than most of her peers, so it was difficult to find a mate. She kept her childhood fantasies active, as she believed the power of thought and want made things happen. Anna was looking for her king in a state of constant perfection. He was a man who was always thoughtful and polite. Someone whose naughty side only she knew and developed. Anna wanted a man who could give her a gift without feeling stress or pressure from the thought because of how well he truly knew her. He was a man who would keep her secrets as if they were his own. Anna smiled wickedly, and thought a best friend is what she wanted most from her man, someone she could fully trust. What Anna really wanted was a male version of Harmony, which meant she was only looking for what most girls wanted. Her heart skipped a beat from the tingle in her pelvic.

Anna sighed. Positive wishing would have to wait since she was back in her real world of problems. She hoped it was her father on the phone, as she hadn't seen him in several weeks and wasn't expecting to for a week more. It would be great to hear his voice however Anna had a feeling she knew who it was going to be instead.

Proud of her hard work, Anna's quick roaming eyes studied every inch of her garden as she descended from next to her cherry blossom at the top of her hill. She took in every detail of the extraordinary white plants that were in full bloom amongst the wintergreens and red poinsettias struck out in various spots. Each bare leafed tree was swallowed by twinkling lights that made them look as if it were dipped in glowing colored diamond dust in different solid colors. It all brought a Christmas feel to the property with a celebration to bring in the New Year. The garden looked magical and mysterious.

Anna loved this time of year but hadn't planned on taking the lights down until the spring. She loved the lights brightening the garden at night and felt that they were the only thing about Christmas that could be stretched all year for evening parties. Not that she had any at the house anymore. She was too busy with her website and career to worry about throwing messy parties to make everyone else happy. The less she threw, the rare and more special they would seem was what Anna told her lazy side.

Besides making her garden look beautiful, the colored glowing trees also brought security. Anna knew she could be wrong, but she felt as if someone had been watching her last night while she was on her swing in the Cotton Candy section of her garden. She had just gotten back from the bar and not even the ringing in her ears from being slapped could drown out any noises from nature. A loud snap of a branch had jerked her soul sideways. She couldn't see into the shadows behind the brightly lit giant tree on top of her hill, so she ran instead of investigated the situation. Anna was still so shaken up over what happened on her date an hour earlier that she was afraid for a moment she might have been followed home. The last thing she needed was Ryan or Jolene to show up on her property for she hadn't let her family know she was meeting some guy at a bar she was too young to attend in the first place. She didn't need the punishment. With hope and suspicion, she kept the possibility that the noise could have come from an animal, like a bear or a fox. If it wasn't the people who had ruined her night, Anna knew she wasn't strong enough to fight off an intruder, much less a wild animal no matter what size it was. Living in the mountains meant there were many animals and none of the wild ones were kind enough to trust her. To Anna, paranoia wasn't a bad thing to believe in.

This morning when Anna got up she had checked the cameras and saw that certain cameras on the back of the house were off all night long. This made her angry because she had been hoping to see if there had been an animal at the top of her garden or not. Since they were turned off nothing had been recorded. This was puzzling because Anna never thought they were ever turned off, or why have them at all? She wondered.

Half way down the icy center path towards her house, Anna tried not to slip in her house shoes. Static changed within a few more steps and hairs stood up on the back of Anna's neck. Instantly her sixth sense was alert. Anna also hadn't failed to notice the atmosphere went from cold to freezing and she knew it had nothing to do with the winter weather. She passed each section of her garden with slower trepidation. Anxiety deepened as she headed towards the patio which seemed to stretch two steps further with each step she took. It looked as if she were alone in the garden, but Anna knew better. With the sensitivity of isolation, a tight sensation in Anna's body was changing her comfort level. Anna held her breath for she was hoping to pass by the offending dark chilliness at the bottom of the garden without issues for that was where the shadows seemed the darkest.

As Anna approached the last of the bushes, she was disappointed to see what she had expected to be there. The distaste of the feeling stung her. To soften the beating of her heart, she tried to concentrate on the mist of breath that escaped her lips instead of the woman with ratty long blond hair standing under a bright blue lighted tree by the patio. The woman's throat had a spot of red paste the size of a half dollar on the side of her neck. Red and black splashed blots were smeared on her shoulders and down her arms and chest before the long red dress hid the rest of her state to her bare feet. Anna couldn't handle how brightly green the woman's eyes were under the layer of red film that layered the eyeball. The woman's appearance gave Anna a fresh wave of chills because she creeped her out more than anyone she had ever seen.

Each time Anna saw her, the blond hair woman wore an expression of amazement, as if she was always surprised to see Anna. That never made sense to Anna, since this woman had appeared to her for a while now, and it wasn't as if Anna ever went to seek her out. What bothered Anna most was how uncomfortable the woman made Anna feel. She always changed her surprised expression to one of distaste as if she were judging Anna. The woman only stood in front of Anna when her guard was down. Frankly, Anna thought it was a bit over dramatic. She had no idea what the woman wanted or what her intentions were but Anna refused to indulge her. She couldn't understand why the woman kept coming around to bother her when there were millions of other people she could haunt on this earth.

Anna looked straight ahead as she slid faster with ice skating skill down the icy path down towards the house. Her heart slammed harder in her chest the closer she got to the woman. She wondered how long this was going to go on. With her luck the woman could be in her life forever, which would be extremely annoying, Anna thought. She didn't know if she would ever get used to her, and wished she had wings to fly past the blond woman.

Anna's cheeks reddened deeper than what the cold air had already done as she thought the woman could have been a witness the whole time she was acting out her fantasy. She didn't care who the woman was, an audience was an audience. Anna kept her attention focused on the glass doors where her House Mom Christine had summoned her but was no longer waiting to protect her from the unseen blond woman. Anna knew she was the only one that could see her because the dirty ratty woman had been in the house while Christine was present but didn't acknowledge her existence. It was then Anna knew the woman she had always seen as a little girl was only visible to her. Her best friend Harmony had never seen her either so Anna didn't talk about the woman much. Anna just hoped that someday the woman would get tired of popping in on her.

With generic confidence and a steady pace Anna sucked in a large air of breath and mechanically moved past the bottom section of the garden ignoring the woman as she passed. Once Anna reached the giant patio set, she quickened her steps in short of running to enter the safety of her home. A strong sense of relief flowed from her lungs into a fit of coughing from holding her breath.

Christine was holding the phone out to her.

Anna forgot there may be worst things inside the house than what she just left behind in her garden.