Chapter 1

Tracy stared at the mess around her in utter disbelief. Her living room was in complete disarray. From the turned over tables, to the shredded curtains of her high windows, the room itself was unlivable. She staggered through the jumble of mess and slumped against the wall on the far side of the room. She knew she had to call the cops but she just wanted to breathe for a moment longer. It was too much for her right at this moment to even think that this destruction was even possible. She sighed and slid down the wall and remained there until she heard an enormous knock at her front door and someone shouting something on the other end. She could not remember getting up and wading through the mess again to get the door. But she had and opened it, to her surprise, to a police officer. The officer peeked around the corner, took a quick look at the room before announcing herself.

"Officer Watson." Then she showed her badge. Not that Tracy noticed. She was still in shock. The officer looked at her and from her level of expertise could see that this woman needed an ambulance. She continued. "Neighbors called and said there was some sort of disturbance here. Thought we'd check it out." The "we" being her partner and herself. Tracy looked from the officer to the living room before she collapsed. The officer noticed this and leaned over the stop her fall. Her strong arms easily caught the falling woman as she slumped forward unconscious. "Walter call for back up. This lady needs an ambulance!" She yelled over her shoulder to her partner a few feet behind her. Officer Watsons short cut, light brown hair, fell over her shoulder as she kneeled down and laid the woman on her back making sure the woman's passage way was not blocked. She moved the woman's hair out from around her face before she stood up again to asses the situation. Whatever happened here, she thought, sure wasn't your typical break in. Someone was obviously looking for something. She shook her head as she turned to the footsteps of her partner running up the steps to the front door.

"My god... what happened here Watson?" Walter asked as he skidded to a stop.

"Darned if I know Walter... I would love to find out actually." Watson looked at the woman on the floor and added, "I'm glad she wasn't here at the time. No telling... we could be trying to find her pieces all over the place if she had been." She shivered at the mere thought of having to luminal the place, having to face and categorize the glowing greenish-yellow tell tale signs of concealed blood.

"Back up is on the way," Walter said then added, "I guess you'll have to get a statement from the subject at a later time." He concluded as he shuffled between the debris of plastic, wood, and metal.

"I'll take care of this end Walter. I was the last thing she saw and I want to be the first thing she sees when she awakens." Her radio crackled to life. On the other end a dispatcher asked her if they need anymore assistance. "Negative!" she spoke into the radio on her shoulder, "We're taping the scene off as we speak." She mouthed to Walter the tape off the area. Walter smiled and headed back to the car to get the yellow crime scene tape. Officer Watson kneeled down beside the woman on the floor. Under normal circumstances she would have loved to meet her. She seemed like she was a nice person. She reminded her of an earth conscious individual. Her hair was in a simple ponytail but with all the crazy mess that she had been through more than a few strands had escaped the rubber band prison. Her face was etched with worry even in her unconscious start, but other than that she felt confident that the woman would pull through. A few moments later she heard the distant wail of sirens. Good she thought help was on the way. She did not really want to stay here. There was something as work here. And whatever it was it was not friendly. Her last thought surprised her. She shivered. I don't want to come back here. But I'll have to.

Officer Watson quietly walked into the private hospital room. It was requested by the department in case the intruder/intruders came back. It was still not known what happened to the woman's house but they were not taking any chances. Standing in the doorway, Watson could clearly see the outline of a sleeping body. She approached with caution. The steadying beeping of the heart monitor was the only sound that she interrupted the otherwise silent room. She took off her hat. Straightened up her blue firm fitting police issue uniform and leaned in to awaken the woman. "Ms. Tracy. Can you hear me?"

Tracy's eyes fluttered open and she turned her head slightly to face the officer.

"I'm not deaf officer... you don't have to yell." Tracy said with a slight smirk on her face. Watson was taken aback but regained her composure adding, "Good. I need to ask you a few questions. Are you well enough to talk?" She said as she took out a pen and note pad out of the top pocket of her shirt. Tracy looked at her from the corners of her eyes. "I'm feeling a lot better Officer... although that stands to reason when I get out of here what will happen when I look at that wreck of a house."

"Ms. Tracy..." Tracy interrupted her.

"Please call me Tracy... just Tracy." Officer Watson smiled and continued.

"Alright... Tracy... do you remember what happened from the time you entered the house to the time I got there?

"Actually... it's all a blur. All I can remember is I walked in the house... nearly passed out

and... eventually I did pass out. I woke up here a few hours ago."

"Do you know what day it is?" Watson asked scribbling away.

"Uhhh... let's see... it was Monday when it happened... but I don't know the day." Tracy admitted.

"It's Thursday. You've been sort of out of it since you've been here. I've been here everyday since then... trying to get a report." Watson said as she pulled up a nearby chair and sat down eye level to Tracy. Tracy sighed, turned her eyes to the window on her left then looked at Watson again.

"Sooo... you don't remember a thing that happened?"

"Just the damage. Not the extent of... just what I saw. How could I know anymore than that? I wasn't there when it happened."

"Could someone want you dead? Some sort of ex husband... boyfriend?"

"No... couldn't be. I've never been married and I haven't dated in years... at least not seriously."

"So you can't think of anyone who would want you dead?"

"How do you know? If they were aiming for me officer... think about it... they would have followed me... got my routine. They would have attacked while I was there right?"

"You're saying "they" you believe it to be the work of more than one person?"

"From what I can remember... the massive damage I saw... there has to be more than one person involved." Tracy sighed and said, "I have a headache officer. Could we finish this later?"

"Sure." Watson said scribbling while standing up, and pushing the chair away with the back of her knees. Tracy turned her head away from Officer Watson and said nothing else. Watson added. "I'll give you two days to get back and settled then we'll resume this conversation. Is that alright?"

"Sure... whatever." Tracy said and closed her eyes as if she had gone to sleep.

Watson stared for a moment longer before she turned and left the room just as quietly as she had entered.

Call me as soon as she's released. She mouthed to one of the officers to her left just outside the door nodded in acknowledgment.

Watson headed out the hospital just as she turned the volume up on her c.b. It blasted to life. She jumped a little listened for a short while and answered the call. There was another break in at Tracy's house. She could not believe it. Two break-ins over a period of four days? This is incredible. She thought as she jumped into the squad car and raced down the road to the same apartment she had just left not too long ago. She eased into the parking space leery of what she might find, switched off her flashers and exited the car. It was an eerie sort of calm for her. She shivered and hoped that back up would arrive soon.

She slowly walked up the stairs with her gun drawn and a cautious eye on the look out. She jumped with she heard a noise from somewhere inside the apartment complex but relaxed when she realized that it was just an air conditioner shutting off. She slammed up against the wall just on the outside of the door drew the gun to herself and spun quickly into the door and yelled, "FREEZE" after she identified herself as a police officer. All the responded to her voice was a cat. It stopped dead in its tracks before it bolted out the window a few feet in front of it. Watson did not let down her guard until she walked through the entire apartment. She sighed, put her gun back into the holster and looked around at the place. She did not like it here. She shivered. What was that? She said to herself. She thought she had heard a noise. There it is again! She tuned her back to front door and looked back into the living room. She squinted her eyes and tilted her head. Yes, there is something here. But she just couldn't make it out. It seemed to have no depth but it had height. It seemed to have no width but it had strength... a lot of it. It was everywhere and nowhere. Her knees began to give out and she slammed to the floor. She couldn't move. She could barely breath. Her muscles tensed up. OH God! I don't want to die! Not here... not like this. Please! She felt something brush past her but she would not open her eyes. She had never felt fear of this magnitude. Whatever it was the brushed her was gone now. Her walkie-talkie crackled to life. She took a moment to gather herself before she replied. Backup was on the way. She slowly got off the floor and nearly ran out of the room. They would not like it if they'd known that she entered the house without her partner. She knew beyond any doubt that she had to get a hold of Tracy. Something... not someone wanted her dead. And if not dead... wanted to scare the living daylights out of her.

When backup arrived she was sitting inside her car with the door open, one leg inside with one leg out the door. She did not go back into the apartment with they moved in to investigate.

Watson turned over in bed when she heard the clock buzz. She reached up to silence it. It was not going off. She stuck her head out of the covers and looked at it. It had not been the clocks alarm. It was the phone. She groaned, sat up and vigorously shock her head, and blindly reached for the phone. "Hello."

"It's Walter... Morgan?

"Yeah it's me Walter. What's up?"

"Captain Mitchell wants that report on that Tracy woman. You had better get on the ball. You know she was released from the hospital two days ago?"

"Two days ago?" Watson blurted out. "How come no one told me? It' s my case and I have to know these things!"

"Chief said that you had been working too hard and wanted to make sure that you got your rest. Seems to me this case is some sort of a doozy. But he never anticipate that you'd be a day behind on this. Get on the ball Morgan!"

"Tell Cap... I'm on it now."

"Hold up... it's your day off. Cap won't like that you're doing this on your time off."

"What Cap doesn't know... and he won't find out will he Walter?"

"Find out what? he asked with a smile in his voice.

"Thanks Walter... Morgan grunted as she began to get out of the bed. "See you later."

She hung the phone back up, shoot out of bed and raced to the shower.

About two hours later, Morgan clad in stylish black pants, red cotton shirt, and sneaker, was out the door and in she squad car heading toward that all to familiar road. She did not really want to take the car. But she had left hers at the station. She hadn't felt like signing in the squad car and signing her vehicle out. She laughed as she came upon an intersection and all the traffic just seemed to halt. People always seemed to get nervous when a cop car approached. She breezed through the light as it turned yellow and picked up the speed. In no time at all she was traveling at a steady pace through the city heading into the suburbs.

She pulled into the driveway once again, thoughts of the previous night flooded her mind. But it was daylight and she wasn't too scared in the day. She reached for her pad before she opened the door and made her way to Tracy's apartment. The door immediately swung open and Morgan yelped.

"Oh sh... I'm so sorry..." Then the intruder's face registered to Tracy. "Officer Watson." She said formally and extended her hand, dropping a few paintbrushes in the process.

"Ahhh... did I interrupt something?" Morgan asked as she bent down to retrieve the fallen items.

"Not really officer. I just wanted to get out of here and paint... I'm an art teacher... I do a little original work on the side here and there for different people. I'm sorry... did you want to see me?"

"Actually... yes... uhhh... can we go inside?" Tracy looked at her for a moment almost pained, but reluctantly invited Officer Watson inside.

When they stepped inside they both looked around as if they were searching for something and both breathed a sigh of relief that all seemed quiet and calm. The room had been cleaned up of sorts. Most of the wood had been picked up and placed in a pile at the far end of the room. There were still the smaller splintered pieces tangled in the carpeting. The furniture, or what had been left of it, had been moved out and replaced with what looked like thrift store specials. But all in all the room felt a lot better. Tracy lead Morgan to one of the only chairs in the room. Morgan sat down with a yelp. The chair was lower than she anticipated and when she sat down her legs shot out in front of her and her arms went flying out in front of trying to grab hold of something. The notebook went through the air leading just at Tracy's feet. Tracy giggled as she picked up the notepad. "Officer?"

"I'm alright... just shaken... and a little embarrassed." Morgan said with a slight quiver in her voice. "I guess that's my excitement of the day." Tracy giggled once more as she handed the notepad to Morgan. Morgan ran her fingers through her hair to make sure all the hair was in place. Tracy stood and looked at her for a moment, tilting her head to the side before she added, "All seriousness... I know that you're here to finish the report. So... shall we?"

"Let's see," Watson said as she flipped through the notepad sitting up in the chair, "You were giving me your assessment of what may or may not have happened."

"Look... Watson... " Morgan felt a twinge of disgust when she heard her name pronounced with such tight anger. "... like I recall telling you. I don't remember much of what happened. I was only speculating when I implied that it might be the work of many individuals. I'm sorry if you want something else but I can't give you anything else. I don't remember what really happened!"

"Tracy... listen to me. I know. I know that you're not a crazy woman and I know that you have to know that I have my head on straight... but I have to know this. What did you feel when you walked into the house again for the first time in a week?"

"On or off the record... officer?"

"Off and it's Morgan."

"Alright... something's wrong with this house. I mean... when I first got it... it was nice and peaceful. I felt like I belonged here. Like the house needed me... that it wanted me here." Tracy said as she sat in a chair opposite Morgan. "But a few months ago... things started happening. Dishes thrown.

Paintings... my work... had slashes going through them... things got broken. It was a mess. And I don't know why I'm telling you all of this except... you're a kindred spirit. That much I do know."

Morgan squirmed, cleared her throat before said, "I felt the house when I came back here. It did not want me in here. But the house... I don't think it's the house. It's something in the house. I can't explain it. But then again I will have to make some kind of report about this because my boss isn't too happy about the progress that I have made so far. Now unless you give me something to go by... I don't have a clue what to tell him."

Tracy looked at her for a moment then back at her hands in her lap. She looked back up and looked into Morgan's eyes. "Don't tell them anything just yet... wait for a day. I will have something to tell then. You do know that you and I have to get to the bottom of this right? You're the only person that I can trust with this. It's new to me and I know that you've never encountered anything like this. Or have you?"

"Actually... no... not part of the force I haven't. But growing up I have seen a lot of strange things. I know about the "other" world that exist out there. I was afraid then and I am afraid now."

Morgan looked around and stood abruptly. "It's time to go... NOW!" Both women bolted out to the room slammed the door just in time to hear a loud crash from somewhere inside.

"I can't take this Morgan!" Tracy whimpered and Morgan automatically opened her arms to the weeping woman. They stood for a few minutes before Morgan suggested that they leave the area. A shaky Tracy and a stunned Morgan walked to the car and was gone before a chair came flying through the window of Tracy's apartment landing just behind the car as it drove away.

Chapter 2 »