#1

The characters in the story are purely fictitious. Any resemblance with the characters in this story to the living or dead is purely coincidental. Written by Vinayak Iyer, Mumbai, India. September, 2014

  
"Congratulations, bro!"
"Thanks! It seems to be a good deal", John replied to his friend, Samuel.
    He was certainly happy about the house he bought and was more glad that Samuel's house was just a block away. It surely can be said as "a good deal" but the street was evidently not populated. (It can be rather described as a by lane). 
   After helping and chatting with John for about half an hour, Samuel decided to leave. As he helped himself to the door, he said something very raw to John, "This is certainly not a good deal, my friend. You shouldn't have come here!". 
   John couldn't make head and tail of it and all the more he was excessively surprised at his best friend's behavior. "Well, I have been friends with him for almost 7 years now and this is the first incident that he's behaving like that", he thought to himself.

                                                              

***

  The house- the "new" house as like in the movies was somewhat strange. The night was chilly.
John just had gone to sleep when he heard some sound. He certainly showed some bravery and went to look for the source of the sound and that's when someone just stood in front of him! 
  He had a knife but didn't seem to lunge at John. He didn't seem to make a move on John and yet John could make out from the stranger's mask that he had an expression of revenge. He said nothing and quietly slid into the kitchen. Before John could follow him, he had disappeared!