The Lady Next Door

“I remember when I was your age, full of hopes and dreams.” I said as I drove through a pathway of trees.
“Mommy, are we there yet?” Brianna asked not thinking about what I just said. We were on our way to move into our new house. Chris and Elijah were in the back seat sleeping. I hit a bump in the road and they both woke up. Elijah had a funny look on his face.
“This is our new house?” Elijah asked. We all got out of the car to walk inside.
“This house is scary looking. But I bet it could tell some great stories.” Chris says as he unlocks the door. Just then there was a knock at the door. A woman and her son were there.
“Can I help you?” I asked.
“Hi, we’re your neighbors. I just thought we’d introduce ourselves. I’m Susan and this is my son William.
“Um, hello.” William said.
“Well, I’m Nicole, this is my husband Chris and our two kids Elijah and Brianna.”
“We brought cupcakes!” Susan exclaimed.
“Thank you so much. Would you like to stay for dinner? We were thinking about going out to eat,” I said to her.
“Thanks for the offer but we should be going, we have to straighten up around the house.” Susan explained.
“Okay, see you later.” I call after them as they walked down the steps. We start moving boxes inside. By the time we were finished it was past the kids bed time. Chris and I put them to sleep.
“Time for bed.” I said as we walked to the bedroom.
“Goodnight, I love you.”
“ Night, I love you to.” During the night, I heard the door slam.
“Chris wake up. Someone’s in the house!” I say as I try to shake him, tying to wake him up as fast as possible.
“Stay here” Chris says. He went downstairs and walked outside. He found a note attached to the side of the house. I opened it and it felt sticky. I read it aloud.
“GET OUT!”
“Probably just some kids, don’t worry.” Chris says trying to comfort me back to sleep.

The next morning, we decided to let the kids stay with my mom until everything calms down. After dropping the kids off, Chris and I return home to find cookies on the porch. There was a note: “Congrats on the house, it’s beautiful. From your favorite neighbor.”
“Well that was nice.” I declare.
“Yea, um sure.” Chris responds worriedly. “I just think it’s weird for us to get food from a lady we barely know.”
“I don’t know.” I say while eating a cookie. I laugh.
“You’re not even listening.” Chris tells me. Then I hear something hit the side of the house.
“What was that?”
“I’m not sure. Wait here.” Chris walks outside and comes back with a strange package. He opened it and a horrible smell seeped out.
“Oh my gosh, that stinks!” I yelled.
“It’s spoiled milk.” Chris determines. That evening his mom invited us over for dinner. We had just started eating when, all of a sudden, my stomach starts grumbling. My mouth starts watering and I run outside to the bushes, to throw up. Chris runs over to me.
“Are you okay?”
“No, I didn’t even eat a lot, I don’t know what’s wrong.
“Well, let’s get you home,” He says. We say our goodbyes and head home.
“I was fine until we got home today.”
“I’m not sure,” Chris says worriedly.
“Well, tomorrow I think I’m going to the hospital,” I say.
“Let’s get you some rest. You look tired.”
When we walk in the bedroom, I uncover a note. It reads: ”You don’t follow directions very well. Tomorrow you will get what’s coming. Sleep tight. From your worst nightmare.”
“Maybe we should call the police,” I suggest.
“I don’t think so. Let’s wait and see if anything else happens,” Chris tells me.  
“Okay then. Goodnight, I love you.”
“Night, love you too.”
The next day Chris and I wake up at the same time. “I’m about to go to work,” Chris says.
“Have a nice day.”
“You too.”
I start cleaning the house. After I finish, I sit on the couch when I start feeling cold. Suddenly, all of the power randomly shuts off. It is as dark as night. I hear scratching on the wall. “Hello. Who’s there?” I walk upstairs thinking Chris had snuck back in. all of a sudden a black shadow appears behind me. I turn around and look into the eyes of Susan, my ‘friendly’ neighbor.
“I told you, you’d get what’s coming to you!” she yells. “This is supposed to be my house and you stole it from me.” Susan then hits me on the head with a frying pan.
I wake up feeling horrible, I pick up the phone and call the police. After they get here, I tell them everything that has happened involving Susan. They put out a search to find her. They call an ambulance for me, just to make sure everything’s okay.
When I wake up in the hospital, Chris is there ready to take me home. No sooner than I get home, I see another note on the door. It reads: “You got lucky, this time.”
“What does that mean?” Chris asks.
“Today, Susan snuck in and attacked me. She knocked me out with a frying pan. That’s why I was at the hospital.”
“I’m staying home tomorrow.”
“No. Go to work. I’ll be fine. Cops are looking for her. She won’t be back.”
“If you say so.”
“I’m going to sleep, goodnight.”
“Night.”
After I wake up the next day, I take a shower and start combing my hair. Right when I’m don’t a big glob falls out. “AAAHHHHH!” I exclaim. I throw the brush away and wash my hair again to get whatever’s in there, out. Later that day, I call Chris. He’s stuck at work and doesn’t know when he’s getting off. Tomorrow’s trash pickup so I grab the trash bag and head out the door. Feeling dizzy, I walk into my bedroom. When I open my bathroom door I feel as if someone is staring at me.
“Turn around,” a voice commands.
I turn and am tripped by Susan’s foot. I fall onto the floor. She then drags me to the kids play room. She unlocks the door and throws me in. I do everything I can to crawl out. “Have fun!” she says as she walks out laughing. I scream as loud as I could for help, but nobody answers. I am blinded in this darkened room. I turn and find two buttons on the wall. I press the second one, hoping for the best. The door unlocks. I run looking for my phone. On top of the table, there was a note: “Next time you’ll end up in a much worse place! Ha!”
I tried calling Chris, no answer. An hour after I calm down a bit, I go looking for him. I get a call from a weird number. “Hello?” It’s the hospital, Chris had been in a very bad car accident. They don’t know if he’s going to make it. I hop in my car and speed all the way there. I arrive to find him in critical condition.
“Omg,” I say with tears dripping down my face. “Doctor, How? Who? When?”
“It was a head on collision with some lady in a red car. Her information has not been released. But police are looking for her. Apparently, she fled the scene on foot.”
I know someone who drive a red car, I thought. “Omg, Susan!?
“Who?” asked the doctor.
“This lady has been acting very suspicious.”
“Oh okay, anything serious?”
‘No.” I replied. I didn’t want him to know yet.
I walk to the waiting room. However, I felt as if something is going on, so I decide to walk past Chris’ room instead. I see a lady nurse with short black hair messing with his I.V. “Um, what are you doing?” I ask as I walk in the room. She turns. It was Susan! I see a strange needle in her hand. She hits me in the face and we start fighting. I try to stop her but, she keeps hitting and smacking me.
“NURSE! DOCTOR! HELP!” I scream. Ten people run in the room. A cop was fighting to get the needle. I run to see if the doctors had seen what she did. Susan was injecting poison in his veins. Luckily, she didn’t get very far. The cops capture her and within a couple hours I was able to take Chris home. Two days later, they discover Susan had poisoned me as well. Susan was placed in a mental hospital based on two counts of attempted murder to which she pled insanity.
Her son, William, went to live with his grandmother in Washington D.C. We went to pick the kids up from my mom’s house. They asked why they was there so long. “Well, it was what we needed to do.” Chris said.
“Okay,” Elijah and Brianna said at the same time. We headed back to the house to pack our bags. We decided that it would be best to move. We are moving to California. We made the trip from L.A to California pretty fast.
The day after we got to California, I received a text. “You miss me?” I imagined it was Susan, then I thought no, it can’t be.
I texted back, “Who is this?” Ten minutes later, I got a reply.
“Your friend, Susan. I’m coming for you. See you soon!”