Helly Light, a 23 years old pretty and cunning young lady, stood on her doorstep watching the truck unload standing across the road. Today was the day when finally someone decided to move into that old fashioned house. Hundreds of people took a tour of that house wondering why it came so cheap and easily affordable and while returning back home, they had the answer.

The house was strong and standing but very old and creepy to live in. Nobody even felt comfortable enough to sit and have lunch and definitely not dinner. It was separated from the rest of the houses by a great distance. The house could catch anybody’s undivided attention who was passing by but couldn’t hold it for long. The colony was situated on the outskirts of London, a place which wasn’t visited regularly by a lot of people but it came cheap upon comparison.

Helly was curious to know how that person finally thought that the house was worth living in, before she set for her office. If she was given a choice to sleep on the street or to sleep in that house, then street it was.

A metallic black Land Rover arrived and stopped beside the truck. A man wearing a black vest and a maroon tie on a full-sleeved white shirt, came out of the car. He had long back boots on and had a stick in his hand. He looked strange but also rich. 

Helly couldn’t think of one good reason somebody so organised and rich would buy a house like this and that also to stay. She couldn’t waste her time any longer so she set for her office which was 6 km away from here, a long ride. She worked as a junior editor of the newspaper ‘The Times’. She had been living here in London for almost 2 years now. She was in love with this city, who couldn’t?

She followed the same routine like all other days. Finally she was going to have a break for the weekend once she returned.

She arrived home just in time, which was pretty unusual as she had loads and loads of work on her head everyday, which was quite lessened today. It was 8 o’clock. She had already taken her dinner before coming home with her colleagues. She changed into a comfy t-shirt and a pair of fluffy trousers. Those trousers were her favorite.

She jumped on the bed on her stomach just when her phone chimed. She picked it up and sighed when she saw what the message was about. It was her boss assigning her a project which she had to submit on Tuesday, meaning she had to work on even the weekends now.

She walked to the window of her bedroom and removed the curtain. That old house was exactly opposite to hers, on the other side of the road. What she saw shocked her. 

She saw the new neighbor standing still on the gable roof, on a single foot. It was dark outside, from his silhouette she could recognize that he was wearing a suit. He held the cane towards the sky and he was looking up. 

Strange, she thought. She was so shocked and a little scared as if she had seen a ghost. She never saw someone sane doing this before. 

What is he even doing here? She thought. How can he even balance himself there? She was in a loss for what to do. So she turned the light off in her room and pulled the curtains. Though the small gap between the curtains she peeped out. She was nosy, extremely nosy. She had the habit of always interfering in other people’s business, but she hated it when someone else tried to do the same, especially to her.

The man’s posture remained the same throughout an entire hour. Helly was now bored and drowsy. So, she pulled the curtains completely, lay on her bed and drifted off to sleep almost immediately. 

Next morning she couldn’t help but keep wondering about the man, so she decided to find out more about him. He seemed rich and rich people are always known in a way or another. She decided to hit the market as her groceries came to an end and also she loved walking down the streets, as long as the streets belonged to London. 

She got ready, picked her purse and pushed the door open. She locked the door from outside and when she turned around she gasped. 

There stood her creepy neighbor right in front of her. She hadn’t seen him standing here or heading this way. She stepped back like any other person would and this was the first time she noticed that he was wearing leather gloves. He appeared to be around her age but older. The black coat, a cane in his hand, black gloves and a suspiciously neutral expression: all features of a criminal, including his last night activities, she thought. She knew that there was a chance that that’s what he was and there was also a slim chance that he knew that she was watching him last night.

“Hello, miss Light. I was thinking that perhaps we could talk,” the man spoke.

Helly cleared her throat and asked, “Sure, Mr. …?”

“Mr. Rolkrein,” he answered, a name she had never heard before.

“Hello Mr. Rolkrein. I saw you move in here yesterday. Everything good?” she asked. 

“Everything is fantastic. That house really fits me, I don’t understand why no one ever bought it before. I guess I am pretty lucky that it was my fate,” he said. That was when she decided that there was something very unusual about this man, other than his appearance.

“Good to know that you feel comfortable in your new house sir, but you see I must get going,” she said, excusing herself. 

“Of course,” he said but he didn’t move even a little from his position. Helly slipped out from his side and headed to the market, walking very fast.

She took a single look back to see the man still standing on her doorstep, looking right at her. She snapped her gaze away and continued walking. What a strange man he is! She thought irritatedly. 

She returned home just a few minutes ago, totally exhausted. She sat down on her couch with her laptop on her lap. She started browsing about Mr. Rolkrein. After a few 10 minutes or so she finally got fed up and accepted that nobody with such a name existed on social media. 

For some reason she was extremely curious to know about him.

After a few hours of sleep, she finally woke up to the sound of someone’s footsteps downstairs. She was immediately alerted. She was always a light sleeper. She picked up a vase, putting the flowers in it aside and tiptoed down the stairs cautiously. 

She didn’t quite expect who she saw standing there, but also wasn’t surprised much.

“There you are Miss Light. I found the door unlocked and I knocked a few times but you didn’t answer. Well, I have to say your home is quite decorated,” said none other than Mr. Rolkrein.

She was 100 percent sure that she didn’t leave the door unopened. Till now she thought he was weird but now he seemed awfully suspicious or maybe dangerous. Even so, she relaxed a bit and put the vase on the wooden table to her right.

“Please call me Helly. I was just sleeping so maybe I didn’t hear you knocking,” she replied, however she knew that was not the case. How did he get in? She wondered. Maybe he had the exceptional skills to pick a lock, who knew? But these things didn’t surprise or scare her a bit.

“Helly, of course. I am hosting a party at my house tonight and I would like you to join me, considering you and the man next door are the only neighbors I have. A few of my very special friends will join us. I hope you accept my invitation,” he said in a low fluent British accent. As much as Helly would love to decline, she couldn’t because curiosity was getting the best of her. She could know more about him. She felt like she needed to know. Even her next door decent neighbor, Jimmy, was going too. She had known him for as long as she lived here.

“Sure. When does the party start?” she asked. It’s just a party. I haven’t been to a party in months. I will give myself a break, she thought.

“Sharp at 10 on the rise of the full moon,” he answered. He was proving to be more and more mysterious by the second. It even reflected on the phrases he used.

“I will be right on time, I promise,” she said with a fake smile. The man smiled in return too and strode out of the door in a flash of seconds. 

She sighed with relief when he was long gone and this time she closed the door and locked the door extremely cautiously. 

She got ready in a casual knee length white dress. She wore her favorite watch which had a hidden spike, just in case. She had designed it herself for self-defense. She was skilled in a lot of unusual fields for a normal young lady. 

Walking towards that old house gave her a negative vibe and goosebumps all over her body. From outside it didn’t look to her as if a party was going on inside it. 

She rang the doorbell twice before Mr. Rolkrein opened the door. A big smile was plastered on his face already.

“Thank you for coming, Miss Li- Helly.”

He guided her to a well lit room with a big and primitive dining table and eight chairs, through a temporary darkness.

“So has the party started?”

“Not yet, just waiting for you,” an old man, who had already taken his seat, replied. All the seats were full. All were men, except one gorgeous lady, most probably younger than her. Jimmy was present too. Everyone was now staring at her. Helly didn’t quite like the special attention all to herself.

She took the only empty seat available between Jimmy and the lady. 

The lady offered her hand and introduced herself, “Cassandra.”

Helly shook her hand and politely replied, “And my name is Helly Light. Please call me Helly.” Cassandra gave her a quick smile before turning to a man sitting beside her. They started conversing in a totally different language which she suspected to be Russian, though she knew not a single word of it.

“How is work going?” Jimmy asked in a low but thick voice.

“The usual. Lots of assignments to complete. What about you? Is Keelin back yet?” she asked.

“No. She is going to spend a few more days in Los Angeles. Honesty, it’s quite a relief actually, to not hear her constant bickering and nonsensical comments on everything,” he replied with a laugh. Helly joined too. Keelin and Jimmy were twins and stayed together and even worked at the same hotel, before Keelin joined a music club. She had quite a sweet voice actually but she could use that voice to make people a lot irritated.

“So, what do you make of Mr. Rolkrein?” he asked. 

“I don’t know. He seems… different.”

“Suspiciously different.” So, she was not the only person with the same opinion.

“Actually, I feel the same.”

The conversation was interrupted by the sound of coughing which came from Mr. Rolkrein in an attempt to gather attention.

“Before we begin with the dinner, we will play an interesting game,” he announced.

“What game?” Cassandra asked in a voice full of excitement. 

Helly was hungry but didn’t say anything.

“There are small pieces of paper and pen for each one of us. You have to write something about your past that cannot be very easily guessed but I can tell them without even seeing the paper,” Mr. Rolkrein answered very smugly.

Helly didn’t like the man at all and considered it a challenge to prove him wrong. She was going to write something nobody could ever know by a guess. Everyone picked a paper and started scribbling. 

Helly wrote what she wanted to and folded the paper in her fist. Everyone else too completed writing within a few seconds.

It began with the man on Mr. Rolkrein’s right. Mr. Rolkrein stared at the man for some time and closed his eyes and said, “You have once been to a jail, locked up.”

The man at his side was genuinely surprised. He exclaimed, “Oh my… how did you guess?” Helly suspected that they had already planned on this.

“I can’t tell you my secrets,” Mr. Rolkrein replied. 

“Okay, now my turn. So tell me what have I written?” asked Cassandra excitedly.

He looked the same way he had at the other man and after a short while he said, “You didn’t write anything at all.” Cassandra unfolded her paper on display and truly, it was blank. They have definitely already discussed all this before I got here and he is just playing around, thought Helly. All the other men finished their parts too.

“Now it’s your turn Mr. Cole,” Mr. Rolkrein told Jimmy. He and Helly exchanged a brief look.

Mr. Rolkrein repeated the same guessing technique and landed on the right answer. Helly wasn’t sure how he actually guessed that. Well, she was sure that Jimmy wasn’t involved in this.

“My turn now,” she declared. Mr. Rolkrein flashed her a devilish smile. He looked into her eyes in a way that made her swallow her breath. He leaned his head towards the table and said, “You are an orphan. You were brought up in an orphanage near Unalaska. You do not have a past you are proud of and like to stay away from strangers and even people who you know.”

Helly was flabbergasted. She had written where she was brought up in but she never mentioned that she always pushed people away, nor did she ever talk about in person and this man was very new to notice that. 

“How can you possibly know that?” she asked in shock. 

“As I said before, I am not going to reveal my secrets,” he replied. Now, she was completely sure that this man did have a thing about him. A lot of questions bombarded her mind at once: How did he know? Did he follow me? Did he stalk me or did he spy on me? But why would he do that? He is a stranger, what can he possibly gain?

All she wanted to do now was finish the dinner as fast as possible and get out of there. She had lost most of her curiosity to find out about him now. Safety first.

Mr. Rolkrein and two other men excused themselves and went to bring the food. They returned in a while with trays and trays of food which looked very delicious but Helly had lost all her hunger at once. So she just picked up a hamburger and bit into it. It was quite delicious actually, and suddenly she found her hunger back.

Within a few minutes she started feeling a bit different, nauseous. She stood up from her chair immediately and muttered, “Excuse me,” to the confused looks on the table. She put her hands on Jimmy’s shoulder for support.

“The washroom is that way.” Mr. Rolkrein showed her way to the washroom. She ran at once to the sink and threw up. It followed a couple of times more. 

She didn’t know what suddenly happened but she did have her suspicions. It took her some time to wash up and clean the mess. She felt fine now. She looked at her watch, she wasted a full 10 minutes in the bathroom. 

She went out of the washroom and walked to the dining room but what she saw shocked her beyond extent. There lay Jimmy on the table with a knife on his chest. She gasped. That was not the only thing that had changed; the light had dimmed, everybody had vanished along with all the plates, food, chairs and everything. Nobody now could tell that this house was even being used. A while ago this was a perfect dining room and now it looked more of an unused storage room. She recognized the knife very well, because it was hers. 

Without wasting another moment she ran to her house and slammed the door hard in order to close it. She was breathing very heavily now. She didn’t know what to do.

Just then, the doorbell rang, making her jump. Her heart was racing very fast. 

She forced herself to calm down somehow and unlocked the door warily and pulled it open, revealing a small envelope on the doorstep. To her great relief, no one was standing nearby.

Helly was not used to getting posts via mail in this age of technology and nor did she have anybody who would send her anything. The timing was not very convincing after all.

She picked the envelope. ‘To Helen’ it said. She stopped moving at once when she read it. Helen, nobody called her that anymore. That took her to a trip down the memory lane, a lane she preferred to forget. Shockingly the letter was written in her own handwriting. As she read it, pieces of everything that just happened clicked together filling her with fright. This was well-connected to her past. A past she wasn’t proud of. And when she noticed the sender's name, more fear and regret flooded her. The letter said: 

Dear Helen,

I hope you are feeling helpless and scared, and that is what I wanted to make you feel. You probably don’t remember me anymore. Nobody remembers the damage after they cause it, you are no exception. But maybe you’ll start remembering once you read my name. 

I was your partner in crime in old times. We both did everything together. I even ran away with you from the orphanage, without even asking a single question and you stabbed me in the back. I stayed beside you when you took your first step into being a criminal. I even helped you to rob that old geezer and kill him after, but when the time came, you sold me out and acted all innocent. You dumped all your crimes on me and it is time that you get a taste of your own medicine. There is no running away from this. 

You will never be able to prove the existence of Mr. Rolkrein and the party never took place. You are the last person who touched that fool, Jimmy and you know what fingerprints on the victim’s body means and this time you won't have me to clean up your mess.

Enjoy the cell you are soon going to get locked up in,

Anders 

Nobody would believe Helly if she mentioned the letter as the writer had efficiently copied her handwriting and even if anyone did, she would fail to explain about the old crimes mentioned and her link with a criminal.

When she heard the siren, she was sweating from top to bottom. She grabbed the handle of the door and swung it open and that was when she saw the cops that had gathered all around pointing their guns exactly at her.

There was no way out now...