• I released a long sigh and swiveled back and forth in my computer chair, boredly. I glanced up at the sound of my dog barking obnoxiously outside.


    "Sakari!! Shut your furry muzzle!" I whined. Jesus, did she ever shut up?! Sakari's barking ceased, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I had a killer head-ache, and the barking wasn't exacty making it better. But then again, I guess it could have something to do with being on the computer for five hours straight (not counting potty breaks^^).



    Hey, Myspace, Quizilla, and Gaia Online can be addicting, alright? If I ever had a slogan it would be:



    Internet

    : My anti-drug (because when you're addicted to the internet, how can you possibly have time for drugs?)



    But anywho, enough of that. I stared blankly at the computer screen, trying to figure out how to get more gold on Gaia Online when Sakari started barking abruptly once more; furious, frantic, high-pitched yips. I rolled my eyes and growled under my breath (yes, growled...like rawr! I do that sometimes... some people think its weird- I call it constructive anger release).


    I wanted to yell at her to shut up again, I mean, what the hell can she be barking at at two O'Clock in the morning, anyway? I figured it was just one of those freaking raccoons that keep breaking into our garbage cans at night, but she sounded so.... frightened somehow. I mean, what if it was a burglar or something? We were likely candidates, with one of the nicest houses on the block. It wouldn't hurt to check.


    I spun around and rolled the swivel chair to the window behind me. I had a computer in my room, and it faced the backyard (which was where my dog was barking). Oh, and before you ask why my dog wasin the backyard at two O'Clock in the morning, my mom makes me keep her out there all the time. She said that in the summer, Sakari is an 'outside' dog, because she can't stand the thought of all the fur all over her new, imported persian carpet (pfft, clean freaks...).


    But, honestly, I didn't see any criminals cloaked in black slinking around the outside of my house trying to find a cracked window or something. Besides, I didn't know what I was so worried about. We have an automatic light on our four-car garage that goes off whenever it senses movement, that and a real kick-a** alarm system.



    I opened my window, pulled open the screen and leaned out over the sill. There she was, my 140 pound Great Dane, barking up a storm. She had her huge front paws propped up on the side of the house, and was barking frantically, looking up at me or somewhere near there- I don't know. She kept jumping up and down as though she were trying to climb up the wall like spiderdog or something.



    She almost made me worried; Sakari never acted like that. She rarely ever barked. Call me paranoid (which I usually I am) but I was starting to get seriously freaked out. But, honestly, I did that all the time. I usually walked around looking for excuses to some supernatural or dangerous thing to spice up this boring thing I called a life. I was always waiting-no-wishing, for something interesting to happen. Unfortunately, I was going to get that wish.


    I swiveled back to my computer desk and hastily logged out of Gaia. And as eager as I was to discover the source of Sakari's barking, I wasn't about to wander the house in the middle of the night with some potential criminal creeping around. I didn't know what I was getting so hyped up about anyway, it could have just been some midnight animal Sakari was barking at. I rolled my eyes at my own stupidity and stepped into the bathroom (which is located inside my room-because I'm just that awesome-Hah!-).


    I had to be at work at 7 O'Clock tomorrow morning and I needed a shower. I woud have got one in the morning, but with four hours of sleep I knew I would never wake up on time. Stupid summer jobs. I know what you're thinking... rich girls don't work,their parents pay for everything,right? Wrong! I'm not rich, my parents are. And when I move out of the house next year when I'm 18 I don't get to take any of that money with me. My dad isn't even going to pay for college for me even though he has enough money to send me to college for the rest of my life and then some (what a cheap a**!).


    So anywho, off topic-again!. Basically I stepped into the shower and turned on the water and- well you don't want the complete details, do you? (guys: The hell we don't!!) Perverts... Oh, right. So I had only planned on taking like a fifteen minute shower max (lather-rinse-don't repeat), but the warm water felt so unbelievably good beating down on my bare shoulders.I just thought, to Hell with it, I'm already up this late. Plus, it was doing wonders for my headache (like Advil on steroids).So I took the time to scrub my body thoroughly with Dove soap and shave and all that jazz. I was working on my last stroke on my right leg when I could have sworn I heard a woman cry out. Not just any woman, my woman... well, my mother anyway. But it was so quiet and so brief I'd figured I'd just imagined it. I did that kind of thingall the time-hearing things that aren't really there and such. So I just thought nothing of it. I continued on in my merry, shaving way.



    I stepped out of the bathroom with my red, silk robe wrapped loosely around me, feeling very cleana nd sexy, even though there was no one around to impress. I felt sexy, and that's all that mattered. I felt so refreshed that I completely forgot all about my dog barking before. Whatever she was barking at must have left because she was quiet now, that or she just gave up all together. I peered out of my still open window to check up on her. It was dark out, so I couldn't see too well, but I spotted her gigantic figure laying next to her dog house in the backyard-sound asleep. I smiled (finally some peace and quiet) and then made my way downstairs for a glass of water.

    Weaving past our island in the kitchen I opened up the door to our fridge and snatched a bottle of Aquafina from the bottom compartment. I glanced at the green letters on the clock on our stove; 3:25am. My dad would be leaving in exactly three hours to catch his plane for some business trip he was going on or whatever. I feel like he told me and I wasn't payng attention. He's some big CEO for his business and travels a lot. He's hardly ever home; I hardly ever care.



    I creeped back up the stairs, careful not to wake him or mom up. Not that I care about interrupting my father's sleep, I just didn't want him chewing me out for staying up all night. So I crept up the stairs as quietly as possible, wincing at every creak in the floorboard (which seemed as loud as a gunshot in the quiet of the house). Finally I made it up the stairs and into my room. I stopped in the frame of my door, thinking to myself. I didn't remember turning off the light, but then again I forgot things all the time. It may have just slipped my mind. I walked into the room and flipped the switch, readying my eyes for a burst of bright light.... that never came.



    All of a sudden I heard the door behind me slam and I was thrown back onto the bed. At first I was so shocked that I couldn't even think straight. All I could see was large, gaping darkness. A void empty of color and light, a blackness that swallowed my eye sight (putting it short, it was dark- I couldn't see). I scrambled out of bed with my heart pounding in my chest. And then I saw a large shadow, a silhouette of a man walking my way.