A Stroll On Inverted Feet

Encounter Part 15

" She is a witch! Beware! Don't go near her ever. " said one of my neighbor about the new lady who had just come to stay in the bungalow next to us.

I was bewildered.

" Cmon, I know this is just an overstatement." I said sarcastically.

" No darling! Just wait and watch. You will soon get to know what I am saying." she said.

I kept on wondering as to what her words actually meant until a soft hand tapped me from behind.

" Mona, did you hear what she said?" I asked inquisitively.

" Ya! But at the moment leave her aside we need to get going for work." she said hurriedly.

I suddenly realised that I was getting late for work as my gaze met the sprinting hands of the clock. I rushed in, got ready came huffing and sat down on the table for having my breakfast.
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We, that is me and my roommate, Mona share the apartment together. First office colleagues and now roomies! It didn't actually take much of time for this transition to actually take place. More skill was required in order to get used to this transition. We live in a rented apartment in a plush Bungalow society. We had a neighbor on one side of our house while the other side was vacant for quite long. But now it seemed as though a new neighbor had just started to live in there.

We were getting late, so gobbling down a plate of sandwiches and sipping up some coffee we departed from our place.

After mental exertion at work, it was time to head home. We called for a cab and left for home. It was silent in the neighborhood, seemed like nobody was around. Calmly, we we walked past the street and neared our bungalow.

To our shock, the door was open.  Holding hands and trying our level best to keep our breath in control, we went in to catch hold of the uninvited guest.
The lights were off and obstructed most of the clear view. We heard some noises from the kitchen and slowly began walking in that direction.

There in the kitchen, we could see a rough frame of a lady sitting on our dining table with what seemed like a knife to us. Alarmed, Mona ran and switched on the lights.

It was our new neighbor.

" Excuse me mam, what are you doing here?" I asked a little shocked.

" Umm...Hey girls! I just thought to drop by and meet you guys. You weren't there in the house, so I preferred to wait back."

I swear I wasn't shocked to see her in the house as I was by the answer she gave. Nevertheless I chose to cling on
" But how did you get in the house?"

" Girls...Relax! I think you guys forgot to lock your house." she exclaimed with a weird grin.

" Anyways, now that you are home I should get going. I had come to call you for lunch at my place tomorrow. Perhaps we could get to know each other."

" Here take your knife, I was getting bored sitting alone so thought of getting some play. I hope you guys don't mind." she said with a wink and headed towards the door.

Both of us were silent and simply staring at each other for a while. We didn't know how to react.

However, after much thinking we decided to give it a shot and accept her invitation.

So the next day, being holiday for work we had nothing much to hurry about. By afternoon we prepped ourselves for lunch.

She welcomed us decently. We were seated in her hall, which was quite big, clean and very well organised.

" Girls here have your welcome drink!" she said handing us a glass of dark red colored drink.

" What is this Aunty?"

" Blood!" she quipped.

" What !" we shouted startled.

She pursed her mouth into a sadistic smirk.
" Guys! It was a joke. You can laugh it off and go ahead with the drink." she said picking a glass herself and sipping it up.

Later, we were seated on her dining table. At least the food seemed tasty. There was meat, fish, boiled eggs, vegetables and soup. I decided to indulge in the meat first, however it seemed a little hard. All of a sudden I let out a scream as there was a long knife, like that of a butcher dangling in front of my eye.

" Sweetie...Calm down! I have brought this to cut the meat and not you." she said grabbing the side of my shoulder tightly.

" Ummm....hmm ya I...amm sorry! I didn't mean to..." and even before I could finish she raised the knife and with one swift blow slashed the meat into pieces.

Mona and me, both were taken aback.

She calmly handed each of us a piece. Without looking here and there, we started eating.
She too started eating. Her plates were different, even her food.
She ate some solid vegetables boiled in red curry.

" Why are you not eating from any of the dishes you prepared for us?" I asked inquisitively.

" Darling I need my own food and you guys can't eat my food. So it's better we eat it separately." she said sternly.

" But what do you eat?"

" Meat...Human meat and this is heart of the person whom I had invited yesterday."

We fainted.