Monsoon has arrived.
In the middle of the night, flashes of light cover the sky. Despite the booming thunder, the scent of the rain brings peace after hot and sweaty summer. While under the sky shouts of many people is drown under the sonorous thunder.
The sound of thunder overlaps with shouts and the sound of alarm flaring.
The screeching alarm in turned off and the sound of shouts become clearer. "Catch him," A man shouts in the open garden. Others behind him follow his order. "Catch the intruder and ask the head guard to close all the doors, don't let him escape."
All the lights in the mansion have been turned on. A man in black robe steps out of it while looking around at the ongoing commotion.
The man who just shouted, hurried towards him with his head bowed, "What happened? Why are you shouting in the middle of the night?" The man in robe asks the man in an irritated tone.
"A thief broke in while a car was entering. We have closed all the gates and activated the seal so he could not use teleportation." The head of the security, Oliver, tells the irritated man while observing his employer expression.
On seeing Heimirich face turning ugly, Oliver lowers his head trying to hide his presence. A simple mistake could make him lose his job.
The owner of this house and famous businessman, Heimirich Anderson, despite not having manifested any power like most well-known celebrities in this world, he had managed to create a name for himself with his innovative business ideas. But he has quite a temper when it comes to his employees owing to his arrogance.
Employees working in the Anderson mansion are well aware of this but they all put up with the treatment because no one wants to lose such a high paying job.
"What's the use of paying you if you can't even catch a small thief? Fire all the guards who were on duty, they couldn't even keep their eyes open when needed. I can't get some sleep even after paying you all so
much." Heimirich shouts at top his lungs, all the staff nearby fall silent.
Heimirich continued his lecture for another ten minutes, the next ten minutes is full of telling Oliver how much he is worth and how every penny is wasted on him.
Everybody let of a silent sigh of relief on seeing Heimrich going back in the mansion.
At the same time, on the other side of the mansion cool wind blow into the room though the open floor-to-ceiling window connected to a small balcony. The curtains way with the winds. The lights are off and bucket of half-eaten popcorn is perched on the table. Verena tightens the thin sheer-white robe around her deep V-neck silk pink nightdress and rubs her palms.
It started to rain, the got colder. Verena shivers from the cold but kept her eye on the screen.
"Dear, can you close the windows, it looks like it is going to rain soon?"
"Yes, mom," The young woman in the screen goes back to her room to close the windows. She stops a few steps away from the windows and looks to her right. Eerie background music starts playing. Verena covers her face with her hands peek and from behind her fingers.
"Why did it get colder all of a sudden?" The woman says to herself, and the downpour begins with thunder and lightning.
Unconsciously, Verena shuts her eyes and rubs her arms before putting her hands back on her face.
Tuck
Verena jumps up from the sofa and looks in the direction from where the sound came from.
"What? What was that?" Verena's voice trembles.
"Why is the window open, I am sure the window and the curtains were closed?" She noticed the strong wind and her panic dies down a little. The wind pushed the windows open, It must be wind. She decides not to think any further.
It all because of the movie that she is freaking out this much. She took a deep breath and turned back to the screen.
"Aaaaa..."
"AAAaa..."
She flinched and put her hand on her racing heart. She lets out a sigh of relief. The scream from the movie and the sudden jump care startled her. The distorted face of the ghost on the screen frightened her soul.
Verena can't help but think it was a mistake to watch a horror film in the middle of the night alone in a room. She just wanted to try it once who knew the atmosphere would get all weird with thunder, rain and stuff. If she keeps watching the movie, he might die before the end of the movie.
She pauses the screen and she went to close the windows. The wind is getting stronger, rain is getting heavier and heavier. She grabs the handle of the window when a cold hand covers the back of her hand.
Her heart drums and she pull back her hand with a jerk. Before she could let out another scream, another cold hand covers her mouth.
A loud clap of thunder falls down the sky, covering up all the sound. Heimirich stops in his tracks and glanced towards the second floor.
"Did you hear a scream?" He asks the servant behind me, "No, sir, I heard nothing." Heimirich rubs her throbbing forehead and waives the servant off. It must be an illusion.
The thief has given him too much stress and he still need to prepare for tomorrow's meeting as well as the anniversary banquet.
The servants turn all the lights off and Heimirich goes back to his room to rest. He can deal with the thief later. The thief can't runway with all the security, which such thoughts he discards the screaming.
The room was dark except for the dim light from the screen. The heavy rain outside obstructs any light from getting but the light from the flashes of light in the sky is enough to make out handsome facial features of the man above Verena.
Verena slowly opens her eyes and meet the eyes of the person lying above her.
A hand was covering her mouth, preventing her from screaming. Cold sweat drenched her back and her heart was racing at the unexpected turn of events. What is going on? How did someone get in undetected?
The man observes her for a few seconds before meeting her eyes without removing his hand from her mouth.
She held the wrist of the hand covering her mouth and tried to pull it away forcefully, the man watched without moving, his expression undetected in the darkness.
Her adrenaline kicked in and she wanted to struggle but a single warning from the man stopped her, "I know that all the rooms are soundproof and the windows are closed, even if you shout no one will hear."
She knew and he knew, he will catch her before she could get out of the room. She could not outrun him;she could not outrun a man who could enter this mansion without being caught.
"I will remove my hand, if you understand nod your head?" Judging by the voice, the man should be around her age, she thinks.
Verena stubbornly glared at the man without answering him. The man observed her some more and removed his hand, and got up from her.
Verena lifts her upper body with the help of her elbow and shifts back before standing up. She keeps five steps distance and snatched the gold-colored metal vase from the nearest table.
Feeling a little secured with something her hand, she looked at him cautiously and hesitantly, " Who are you? What do you want? How did you get in here?"