The Man Next Door (Book 1)-BEING UPDATED & EDITED-

Chapter Nine: The Stranger

"For truth is always strange; stranger than fiction." -Unknown

Melody's POV:

    The blinds are open, I feel it on my face, the sun. I sit up from the couch. I'm in the front room alone. I get up and look around. My dad wasn't sleeping in the recliner, and my brother wasn't on the couch, like they were last night. I didn't feel like sleeping in my own room last night. I walk to the sliding glass door, and close the blinds.

     "Too bright." I murmur under my breath. As I'm about to close the blinds, my wandering eyes catch Shaphganz. He is watering his grass, with his eyebrows cringed together.

    He looks quite mad. He looks around, behind him, to the sides, then his eyes meet mine. I can't look away, for some reason. He gazes back at me. His eyebrows uncrossed. A smile came upon his face, showing his teeth. They were bright, white and straight. He looks away. I swallow. I wonder if he can sense my fear. He walks up to the nozzle and turns the water off, he opens his sliding glass door, and disappears within the house. I sit there staring at where his shoes left prints in the grass. I don't close the blinds.

    "Mom?" I called out. " Dad?"

    There is no answer, I run up the stairs. I run to my brother's room, empty. I run to my sister's, empty. I stand by my parents door, it's closed. That's when my childish mind comes in. Oh God, there all dead. 

    I put my hand on the knob, and slowly turn it. Empty. I was confused now. If there not dead, and there is no zombies running at me, where the hell is everyone? 

    I run back down stairs and pick up the phone. As I was about to dial my dad's cell phone number, I catch my family in Shaphganz backyard. My eyes go towards Shaphganz, who is staring at my mother with a smile on his face. He knows I'm watching him. How could he? His eyes go directly towards mine. I open the door, and step outside. He follows my eyes as I walk to the fence. My brother Adam turns around. 

    "Hey, zombie." He jokes, probably how I was walking and how I looked.. How ironic. 

    My mom and dad turn around, so does Annise. Shaphganz closes his eyes, and looks down at the ground. I put my arms on the fence.

    "So uh, what you guys doing over there?"

    Shaphganz looks up at me and rubs his jaw.. His strong, masculine, defined jaw, now seen since his beard is gone. 

    My parents nor my sister spoke, but as Adam was about to speak, Shaphganz did instead.

    "They where talking about the trip they'd be doing this summer."

    I nodded. I had nothing to say. They told him? Why? Why would they tell him?

    "They told me you're not going."

    My eyes wandered off to the white baby German shepherd, that was no bigger that a cat. The dog was staring at me with friendly eyes. Shaphganz stared at me, his eyes tried to catch what I was gazing at, he turned around.

    He turned back around.

    "That's Sam. She's me little pure bred." For a brief second I swear he sounded Irish. He cleared his throat, looked around and pressed his lips together revealing dimples. His high cheek bones were spot on. 

    The dog stood up quickly and ran to me. She put her paws on the fence, and I petted the dog's head. She kept on licking my hands. Shaphganz smiled.

    "She likes you." Devin said. 

    "She didn't like us." My dad said and laughed, so with my mom, and Adam.