Prologue
It was supposed to be a relaxing Sunday morning where people wake up late and start their weekend with their favourite coffee, bacon and eggs. But Claudia Ruskin did not get this privilege. While everyone at home was sleeping, Claudia kept twisting and turning in her bed at 5 in the morning. She could feel a group of workers inside her stomach hitting its walls with a hammer. The only time she could remember stomach pains was when he would eat a lot of candy or over eat every time mother cooked her favourite food for dinner. But this pain was different and a hundred times worse than all the pains she had altogether. She could remember her mother telling her last month that this pain will keep visiting her every month for almost rest of her life and that it was a part of her slowly growing up in a woman like her mother. Her 14 year old mind failed to understand what that meant but considering the way mother said it, Claudia knew this was supposed to be for a good reason and so she tried hard, harder than it was necessary to suppress her groans. But the pain kept getting worse and at that moment she prayed for a miracle to happen or something to happen to take her mind off of it.
The very next minute, she saw a silhouette of someone standing right next to the door. The room was dark. A ray of light that fell on the white door came from the lamppost that stood on the street right outside her window. The only thing Claudia could make out was the silhouette belonged to a woman with an unusual tall height. She rubbed her eyes several times making sure she wasn’t seeing things and she wasn’t. Every time she looked, she saw the silhouette still there without being moved an inch here or there. The woman seemed to have dressed in an oversized dress that ended a couple of inches above her ankle. Claudia also noticed her wearing a weird shaped hat on her head. She was a tall and huge lady for sure.
“Who are you?” Claudia asked very bravely covering her fear with a very stern and confident voice.
“Clauuddiaa!!” The woman said.
“Yes? How do you know my name?” She asked.
“Mag..nifi..cent!...” her voice sounded distorted like the sound of a cheap speaker.
“Jus.. er.. ther..” The woman spoke but Claudia couldn’t understand a single word.
I am seeing and listening things. Maybe its the pain. - Claudia thought.
“Claudiaaaaa!” The woman spoke again in a louder and sharper voice this time.
Claudia couldn’t take it any longer. She was scared to death and she could not act brave anymore. She hid under the bed and screamed on top of her lungs.
“Motherrrr!!!! Papaaa!!” She yelled.
Mr. and Mrs. Ruskin rushed in Claudia’s room immediately and found her hiding under the bed.
“Sweety! A bad dream?” Mrs. Vonnie Ruskin, Claudia’s mother asked.
“No! I saw a tall fat woman standing near the door!” Claudia explained.
“Honey, we just came in from the door. There was no one at the door.” Mr. Jeff Ruskin, Claudia’s father answered as he stood near her yawning.
“Papa I promise I saw someone. She even called out my name.” She tried to explain again.
“Alright baby. Let’s get back to bed. We can talk about this in a couple of hours over breakfast. I will sleep with you. Okay?” Vonnie exhaled sharply as she comforted her, tucked her in bed and slept beside her. She was sure that all this was Claudia’s imagination and she was seeing things because she has been obsessing over all sorts of fantasy movies, TV shows and novels.
Despite of her mother promising her that they will be discussing this over breakfast, Claudia knew her parents probably thought she was imagining things. They would ignore her or laugh at her and ask her to slow down on her fantasy and science fiction novels. Claudia too wanted to believe that all she saw was just her imagination because the fact that a weird, creepy woman somehow managed to get inside her bedroom and even know her name scared the daylights out of her. Claudia noticed that her stomach pain was still there but it did not bother her anymore. Maybe the fear of being watched was greater than the pain she had been suffering with. She snuggled under the blanket and in no time drifted in her dreams.
Meanwhile, a shadow of an extremely thin, tall man appeared on the wall by the study table and disappeared in the blink of an eye. Claudia on the other hand was fast asleep and unaware of anything that was about to happen.
