The world froze around me. I found it difficult to breathe. Surely he climbed up my apartment building and landed on my window, but that was a different case. I was at home at that time, and now I'm in the middle of nowhere.

I took a step back and immediately thought it to be a wrong move, as I was met with a wall.

Stupid, stupid Hannah. How can you be so dumb that you choose to walk when you know there's always a creepy stalker behind you!

M's scary eyes stared at me, and it looked like I would faint anytime now.

No, Hannah. You are a brave girl. You will escape.

But how in world could I escape? I was trapped.

But escaping isn't a brave thing to do.

I saw some space beside M. I didn't keep staring at it like a normal person would, and let M get the idea of me running away.

There were two options: one being I can be a coward and escape and the second option that I can be courageous and confront him about Hailey.

I did what I thought what was best.

"What do you want from me?" I snapped at him, to which he didn't reply anything.

I became irritated at this and said, "You killed Hailey. Fine, bravo, you got what you wanted. My life was made into hell, and when I thought I found my heaven, you're here. Now what? You want to kill me too? Go ahead. It's the perfect time now."

He still didn't reply anything. Then he just glared at me and said, "Watch your mouth rat. You will know with time."

You will know with time? So that means I have to be in a pit of questions all the time? What does he think I am, a piece of tissue paper with whom he can play with?

I glared at him my very famous dangerous glare, which once made John cry and hide behind Sherry, which made Lily shut up for almost two days and which didn't affect Alice at all.

Well, Alice, after all, doesn't care about anything.

I thought it to be a perfect moment to escape since he wasn't giving an appropriate answer to any of my questions, and then ran away from the space beside him.

I ran all the way down the narrow alley and then took a turn to Lily's house. It's better to take a safer and long route sometimes.

I want to kill M, probably in the most deadliest ways, or perhaps lodge a complaint to the police against him, but I don't know what he wants. If he says that he doesn't want to kill me, and is just simply wandering in my life, then even I would have no proof to convince.

Yeah, I can still show the letters and make M be put behind bars for Hailey's murder, then I would never know the reason he killed Hailey and the reason he came back in my life. And also, Macy seems to be connected in a way to him, and that's a mystery too.

Why is he wasting my time like this? If he didn't want to kill me or didn't want to answer my question, why does he take the pain of following me?

Looks like you aren't the only one stupid, Hannah. M has joined the category too. The dangerous kind of stupid category.

I walked and walked with these thoughts in my head until I reached Lily's house. I'll make sure I take a taxi next time. It's time I cut down my level of stupidity.

Once I reached, I made sure I looked perfectly fine and no one could guess that something happened to me right now. On the day where my mood was so good, I had to be angry and sad again.

My life just can't see me happy, and that's why I stop myself from happiness in the first place. Happiness doesn't suit me, I've come to learn over the years.

I tried to have a small smile on my face as I stepped on the porch and ran the doorbell. Within no time Lily opened the door and I grinned.

Lily hugged me and said, "I was so scared. You took longer than usual. I was about to go out and search for you. You came by walk again, didn't you?"

"I'm pretty sure if I came by taxi you would hear the sound of a car slowing down and stopping blah blah and then me having a wallet in my hand paying the cash, huh?" I said teasingly.

"Chit-chat. Well, come in!" she said and I entered the house along with her.

I entered the living room and saw the whole group standing in a line. I smiled at all of them.

"Hey Ann!" everyone shouted.

"Wow. I'm pretty sure it's not my birthday today. Neither is it Christmas. Wait, is it?" I said with amusement.

Well, at least I tried to sound like that. That stupid 'M' incident was replaying in my head again and again. I hope I get an award for my acting.

Then Sherry said, "Nope, it isn't Christmas. No, your birthday is coming, but it isn't today too. We just wanted to say..."

He did some gesture and everyone nodded. Then they all split away in two directions and screamed, "Congratulations!"

My eyes went wide in shock and I had to cover my surprise as I looked at the huge banner saying, "CONGRATULATIONS" and below that a small, "Our Little Montana". Woah. How did I not think of this when I was wondering what were they upto? Of course! It's the event of the publication of my book!

I broke into a smile and then said, "Oh my, thanks so much! This was a great surprise. I don't know how it slipped my mind that you guys must be preparing for this. But wait, don't you think it's a bit unfair to Mary? She deserves a congratulatory party too."

"Oh, no, not at all. In fact, I was the one who planned all this. I am a happy-go-lucky girl, but you're the silent, mysterious 'I hate this world' type of girl, and when finally you get happiness in your life so then why not give you some more happiness?" Mary said with a smile.

"Wait a minute, didn't I just tell the whole book publishing thing to Lily and told her to keep it a secret from everyone?" I uttered while playfully narrowing my eyes at Lily.

"You know how I am. I couldn't control my excitement!" she spoke while grinning.

The rest of the time we enjoyed like anything. Lily said that her parents were out of town and the whole house is hers for the next two days.

Lily's house is not as big as Alice's, but still it gives me a nice warm feeling. As soon as we enter the door, there comes the living room with two couches opposite to each other. There is a table in between the couches. Behind one of the couches starts the staircase, which leads to the corridor where all the rooms are.

I might not be her dad's most favorite but her mother likes me as if I'm her own daughter. Her dad considers me a gloomy cloud bound to pour anytime in Lily's life which is full of sunshine. I can't blame him though. Everyone considered me bad luck. It's why they blamed me for Hailey's death, even though they had no right.

Oh-kay Hannah, 'Gotta catch up with Hannah's past' moment can wait. Now is the time for thinking about the fulfillment of my dream, of cherishing the fact that my book is going to be published.

We sang, we danced, they ate (well, that was the thing which they did most of the time), we played and in the end we all sat down for a movie.

We decided to watch Frozen. John, being the cry baby he was, cried at the end. We all teased him and he just ignored all of us. His sensitive behavior is one of the things which make us adore him so much.

"Aw, my poor baby. Hey! Stop troubling my son like this!" Sherry said as he put his arms around John's shoulder and gave him a side hug and we all laughed while John glared at him.

He pushed Sherry away and then said, "You all know very well that I'm sensitive and I cry easily, then why did you pick an emotional movie?"

It's not really an emotional movie to begin with, but let's be real, the sisters bonding spread warmth in all of our hearts.

To be honest, I wanted to cry too. Wait, correct that, I'm almost nearing to cry, but I didn't. Then all of them would ask me that why in world is Hannah, the girl who hardly cries (in front of people. They don't know the amount of tears I shed behind doors) is crying on an animated movie? And then I would be left with no excuse except to tell them about Hailey.

Lily looked at me and then nodded, before quickly changing the topic. "So, time to go home, kids! And you, Hannah, are staying with me. Don't you want rest too from that old, messy apartment?"

I opened my mouth to protest but everyone got busy in 'goodbyes' that I didn't get a chance to do so.

After about 15 minutes, everyone left and the house became quiet.

It was dinner time so Lily insisted we order pizza. I couldn't say no because I was dying to eat a pizza. It had been more than six months since I last ate one.

"So, are you excited? Your book is getting published!" Lily exclaimed with a grin.

"Obviously I am. My dream is coming true," I said while smiling at her.

Lily's face seemed to soften as she asked hesitantly, "To whom did you dedicate the book?"

My happy mood went down as I replied flatly, "To Hailey, of course. Is that something to ask?"

"No, I meant, then you would have to tell everyone about it."

"Yeah, so? I'll tell them, 'I had a sister, Hailey, who died years ago in an accident.' Well, it'll not be a lie anyways."

"Of course it won't be a lie. I mean, Hailey died in a car accident only, didn't she?"

Oops. Why does Lily catch hold of such things so easily?

I tried my best to maintain a blank face as I said, "Yeah, she did. So what?"

"Um... nothing," Lily murmured.

After a while the pizza came and we sat down in front of the t.v. watching 'The Hobbit'.

We enjoyed watching the movie eating pizza. I really missed the taste of that saucy and cheesy pizza.

Lily showed me the guest room and told me to sleep there afterwards. Though I have come to her house many times in these years, I might have only slept here once or twice and that too in her room. As I mentioned, her dad didn't like the idea of me hanging around Lily much, though he never stopped Lily from seeing me.

Lily insisted that we spend tonight chatting and watching movies, but I was way too tired and she was convinced with the fact.

The guest room is a small room, but has everything a room needs. A medium sized bed, dark green and purple walls, a small table and a window.

I don't know why but I couldn't sleep that night. It was 1:07 a.m. and I still didn't sleep.

I started counting sheep. I went till 1,358 sheep and still couldn't sleep.

I had a bad feeling in me, like, something bad would happen anytime now. You may think I'm crazy but I'm very sure of this feeling. I had one when Hailey died.

I finally managed to sleep at 3:30 a.m, and hoped that the next day would be just fine.

The next day I woke up around 11 a.m. I lazily got up from the bed and then went out of the guest room.

I climbed down the stairs and saw Lily sitting on the couch with her back turned towards me.

I entered the living room and went around to face Lily. I was about to smile and wish her a good morning when something caught my eye at which I froze.

Explains why I had a bad feeling.

---

Hello there! Did you like this chapter? My holidays are slowly coming to an end and I have a goal of publishing at least 4 chapters before I go back to prison, that is, school.

And please don't forget to vote this chapter if you like it. Also, don't be a silent reader and comment your opinions and suggestions on this story. If you want to encourage me in writing more stories, don't forget to follow me.

See you soon!

And chapter left again at a cliffhanger? Don't worry, I'll make sure I publish the next chapter soon ;)

Pen pineapple apple pen, (xD)

~Apple.