As I laid in Nick's bed, Erik snoring softly beside me, I tried my best to go to sleep, but I couldn't. I thought about getting up and going to sit with Nick for a while but didn't feel like talking. It's sad that I could be so tired, yet unable to actually sleep. I guess being mentally exhausted was just as bad as being physically tired. Maybe worse.

I knew I'd have to get up, anyway, to go pee, so I gently pulled the covers back and started to get up, but fear hit me once again, freezing me to the edge of his bed, unable to drop my feet over the side. Fear seemed to be a losing battle that I was tired of fighting.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked from the kitchen, still watching me through the monitor.

I always forgot the cameras were there, since the only clue to their presence was the IR light, which only gave off a soft red glow. I don't know how many times they'd laughed at me on investigations because I'd done something embarrassing—like dig my panties out of my crack—and the cameras had caught me.

"Just gotta pee," I replied softly, knowing he'd still hear me. I didn't add that I was too scared to get up.

"Didn't realize that took so much thought," he teased.

I rolled my eyes at him, which he probably couldn't see, but knowing me so well, he didn't really have to see me to know I did it. "Please make sure nothing grabs me and jerks me under the bed," I said, only half-joking.

"I can come walk you to the bathroom, if you'd like." For once, he sounded sincere.

"No, I'm good," I said as I jumped off the mattress, landing a good four feet from the bed.

"Like a ninja," he said with a laugh. "Glad we got that move so I can show Erik later." I flipped him off as I passed the camera, which only caused him to laugh harder.

When I walked into the bathroom, I was surprised at how clean it was. Not that Nick was a nasty person or anything, but most guys I knew didn't even keep their rooms clean, let alone their entire house and bathroom.

As I looked around, I felt the urge to look in his cabinet, just to see what all he had in there, but resisted, afraid he'd hear me somehow, since the camera was right outside the door. So, instead of snooping inside his stuff, I merely admired the things sitting around, which was mainly just typical bathroom stuff; toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash, soap, and a hunter green hand-towel hanging by the sink.

As I peed, I realized how loud it sounded in the silence and wondered if he could hear that, too. I don't know why, but I hated other people hearing me pee, even in public restrooms. I'd always wait until someone flushed before I—

A noise behind me made all my stupid thoughts come to an abrupt halt. I jerked my head around to see a window behind me that I hadn't even paid attention to when I sat down. Was it open? I hoped not. I hated being by open windows at night, even before all this craziness started. I always felt like someone was waiting to reach in and grab me, even at home, where my room was on the second floor. Nick's blinds were down and shut, so surely it wasn't open; maybe the noise I’d heard was just a bug or something.

Regardless as to whether the window was up or down, I hurried and finished using the bathroom and turned to quickly flush the toilet, but didn't get around to it, jerking my hand back. One of the slats in the blinds was raised, causing a big gap, like someone was looking in at me. I stared at the window, thinking it may be stuck that way, but then it quickly snapped shut, like someone had let them go.

"Nick! There's someone outside," I yelled as I got to my feet and flung the door open. "Nick!" I met him in the kitchen in a mere second.

"What?" He looked startled.

"Someone is outside. They just peeked in at me through the window," I explained, more out of breath than I should've been to have only run from the bathroom.

"Outside?" he asked, like he didn't understand English all of a sudden.

"Yes, outside." I formed my words more deliberately, saying them slower this time. "Someone was just outside your bathroom and looked at me through the blinds."

"Okay, I'll go check it out," he said, grabbing a large knife from one of his drawers and quickly heading out the door.

I wondered if I should go with him, not wanting to go outside with someone out there, but not wanting Nick to go alone, either. I took a deep breath, hoping it'd somehow make me braver, and grabbed a knife, which was disappointingly a lot smaller than Nick's, as well as my phone from the table, just in case I needed to call the police, and headed out behind him.

As I tip-toed through the wet grass, I wished I had grabbed my shoes, too. Even though the air was still pretty warm, the grass wasn’t. I also didn’t know how well I’d run barefooted. However, if I was being chased, I’m thinking I’d run pretty good, shoes or no shoes.

“There’s nobody out here,” Nick said from underneath the bathroom window. “And the window’s shut.”

I looked up at the window and walked over to it, smacking it with my hand, like I didn’t believe him. “There’s no way. Something reached in and moved the blinds, peeking at me through them.”

“You actually saw someone?”

“Well, not technically. But I heard something, and when I went to flush the toilet, the blinds, which had been fine seconds before, were split, like someone was looking in.” As I spoke, I felt my heart begin to race, but the fear that caused it was different. I fell to my knees, not caring about the wet grass anymore. “What if I am going crazy?” I looked up at Nick, who was still standing over me, waiting for him to tell me I wasn’t, that something very weird was going on and that we’d get to the bottom of it, but he didn’t. Maybe the thought of me being crazy had already occurred to him.

He knelt down beside me, cupping my face in his hand. “Whatever it is that’s going on, whether it’s in your head or actually something paranormal, we’ll figure it out.” It was rare to see him so serious; a nice change. When I nodded, he helped me up and hugged me to him. “I promise, Amber, we’ll figure this out.” His hand slid down my back, and I felt him gently tug on my hair like he’d wrapped his fingers in it. It was the first time I noticed how good he smelled; clean and masculine, causing my stomach to twist. I inhaled it, letting it calm me, knowing deep down that I wasn’t crazy. He had to know it, too.

I felt my butt start to vibrate, awkwardly interrupting the moment, and reached around to pull my phone out of my back pocket. When I saw who it was, I hurried and answered, hoping Nick didn’t see, but he had.

“Hotness?” He let go of me and laughed, his eyebrow raised.

“Where are you two?” Erik asked through the phone.

“Outside,” I told him. “We’ll be in in a second.” I quickly hung up before Nick had a chance to say anything to embarrass me.

“Erik is Hotness?” He made a face. “Maybe I should call your phone to see what you’ve got me listed as.”

We turned to head back inside. “I don’t have you listed as anything,” I assured him.

“That’s even worse.” He honestly sounded disappointed.

As we walked in, Erik was leaning against the counter and immediately looked down at our culinary weapons. “Why the hell are you two walking around outside with knives?”

Nick answered before I had a chance to even open my mouth. “I thought I saw someone outside,” he lied.

When I looked at him for an explanation, he barely shook his head, letting me know to drop it. I might drop it for now, but I would remember to ask him later why he lied to Erik. Maybe Erik thought I was crazy and Nick didn’t want to give him any more confirmations on his assumptions. Whatever the reason, nothing else was said about it.

“I can’t believe you didn’t wake up when I went to the bathroom,” I admitted.

“Why? Did you blow it up?” He was getting as bad as Nick.

I rolled my eyes. “No, but I had to shake the bed when I got up.” I didn’t mention the yelling that followed.

He shrugged. “I’m a heavy sleeper. But when I did wake up, it was too quiet, so I got up to investigate and you two were gone.”

“Well, we’re back now,” Nick said. “Why don’t you monitor the cameras for a bit. I want to try something.” I looked at him, unsure as to what he planned on trying. “I’m simply going to do a little provoking, that’s all.”

“Yeah, that’s all,” Erik reiterated with a smile.

“Oh, no you’re not. Not while I’m here,” I informed him.

“But it is centered around you. It won’t do any good to provoke it when you’re not here, if it’s always with you.” His words made me involuntarily shiver. Always with me.

“Yeah, but what if it pisses it off? What if it makes it worse?”

“Honestly, Amber, I don’t think it can get much worse at this point,” Erik replied.

“Do you think this is a good idea, too?” I asked, my voice cracking. He shrugged but didn’t answer. “Okay, whatever. But you better make sure you’re ready. Make sure all cameras are covering all areas. And I want to keep my knife. No—” I grabbed Nick’s knife “—I want this one.”

“What good is a knife gonna do?” Nick asked. “This thing is already dead.”

I thought about that. “True.” I laid the knife down on the table.

“Here, you can wear this.” Nick reached inside his shirt and pulled his necklace out and slipped it over his head. “I think a cross might help you more than a knife.” He undid the clasp and had me turn around so he could put it on me, having me lift up my hair.

Goosebumps radiated from his touch as his fingers brushed against the skin on the back of my neck. Why did Nick always pull out these feelings in me? I liked Erik. Didn’t I? I mean, Nick was obnoxious, not to mention a lot older than me, whether he looked it or not.

“There you go.”

He was smiling when I turned around, and I hoped he couldn’t see me blushing, which I’m sure I was. “Thanks.” I looked down at his necklace, and hanging from the gold rope that now circled my neck was a matching gold cross, probably about two inches long. As simple as it appeared, the more I looked at it, the more intricate the design around it was. “It’s beautiful,” I admitted before looking back up at him. “I’m surprised you’ve got such good taste,” I added with a smile.

“I don’t. My grandmother gave it to me.”

“Oh.” His grandmother had died last year, so now I felt bad for teasing him. “Well, thanks for letting me wear it.”

“Okay, if you two are done playing dress up, let’s get this show on the road,” Erik said, rubbing his hands together like he was excited about what was about to happen.

I shook my head. “You two must be like the kids who liked poking mean neighborhood dogs with a stick through their fence.” Except this is way worse… and there’s no fence. “You know, on second thought, I don’t think this is such a good idea.”

“What?” Nick asked, like he didn’t know what I was talking about.

“Provoking. Investigating. Anything that calls it out or tries to interact with it. I think the best thing is to try to ignore it. Pretend it’s not there.” If only I could actually do that.

He looked at me for a minute, and I tried to read his expression, but I couldn’t. “Okay, if that’s what you want.”

Wow, that was easy. “Yeah, that’s what I want. Maybe if I ignore it, it will do like people who annoy me do and leave me alone.”

“You really think that?” Nick laughed.

“Think what? That it will leave me alone?”

“Well, that… and that you can ignore it.”

Then Erik chimed in. “I don’t think she can. And even if she could, I don’t think it would matter.”

“I’m glad you two are so positive. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get at least a little sleep tonight.” I started to walk out, but once I reached the dark and empty living room, I stopped. “Um, Nick?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you still coming with me?”

“Yeah, I’m coming.” He said something to Erik, which I didn’t catch, before coming into the living room and walking past me. “I get the wall side.”

I followed him into his room, trying to ignore the fear that was creeping back into me. "There is no way you're getting the wall side."

"Suit yourself," he said, letting me lie down first so I could scoot toward the wall. "If anything happens, I guess I'll be the first one out the door, since I'm closer."

Luckily, nothing else happened the rest of the night or the next couple of days. I thought it might actually be over, but should've known better. Instead of being over, it only got worse. Apparently, Eleanor, or whatever was haunting me, had built up strength while it was away, because when it came back, it unleashed it all on me full force. And as I'd feared, I couldn't ignore it, no matter how hard I tried. You can't ignore what's inside of you.

I knew, then, that if I wasn't crazy I would be soon.