"Happiness does not depend on what you have or who you are. It solely relies on what you think." -- Anonymous.

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Early the next morning, Anne came back home. Sam was awake at that time, not being able to sleep. Ian, however, was fast asleep in his room.

Anne had sat for a while and spoke to Sam, only about the incident, how she was feeling about it all, what she's being doing and those kind of stuff.

Anne didn't know about her little trip and the message, and Sam wanted to keep it that way. Sam then steered their conversation to Anne when it got too much.

A few hours later, Anne went upstairs to sleep since she was tired. Sam remained downstairs, staring at the black TV screen.

She refused to think about anything, knowing that her thoughts would wander back to Sally, her funeral she missed, the message and the sign, and Sam didn't want that.

Yesterday, she had gotten a message on the group that all the friends should meet up under the tree. Sam wished she could go, but knew that she couldn't. She didn't reply to the message and had ignored her phone the rest of the day.

To pass time, Sam picked up a book and started reading. The words floated around the page and out of it, but after a while of concentrating as hard as she could, she finally got them to stay on the page.

Nothing registered in her brain, though, but she carried on reading anyway.

Time flew by without Sam noticing.

The Sun rose high into the sky and the birds stopped chirping. Sam abandoned her book, tired of reading, and picked up a paper and pencil that was laying nearby.

It was the incomplete picture of the bird she took in the forest. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

She finished the picture and by that time, Anne and Ian were coming down the stairs. Sam got up and stretched, her muscles tense from sitting for so long.

"Morning," Sam greeted them and walked into the kitchen, preparing breakfast.

Ian nodded and Anne kissed her forehead.

Silence enveloped them. Sam had a feeling they wanted to say something but they were silent the whole time.

Sam placed their plates in front of them and went back to fetch the mugs. She made her own coffee and sat opposite them, sipping slowly from the mug, the coffee still hot.

She scrolled through her social media, not finding anything else to do and trying to ignore her Aunt and Uncle's intense stare.

She accidentally took a large gulp and winced as the hot liquid scalded her tongue and formed a blister, sliding down her throat and burning her. She put the mug down.

"Sam?" she looked up at the mention of her name.

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay"? Anne asked. Sam instantly knew what she was referring to.

"Yip, I'm good."

"Are you sure? You can talk to us, you know. Ian and I are always here to listen."

"I'm sure, don't worry," Sam smiled.

She looked like she wanted to say more, but didn't.

"Chief Cross said he'll be paying a visit today. He also told me it's fine to go work again," Ian said.

"Okay, that's great. I'll see you when you get back from work then," Sam replied.

"But, Sam. Are you gonna be alright here on your own? Anne has work, too, she can't stay at home, especially with her current project," Ian said.

Sam nodded. "Don't worry about me, please. I'll be fine on my own, it'll be same as usual, without Megs, but I'll be perfectly fine alone. All I need from you is not to worry about me, okay?"

Anne sighed. "Okay."

A little while later, Ian and Anne left.

Sam cleaned the house out of boredom, even though the house was as clean as it possibly could be.

Later, the chief came. He pulled his car into the driveway and she guessed that he had been busy with some work.

Sam couldn't be happier for a distraction.

"Sam, m'girl. How you?" he greeted her.

"Afternoon, chief. Better than before, definitely," she stepped aside and him pass through.

Sam led him to the lounge and he sat down on the couch. She went to the kitchen and got out two glasses and asked him what'd he'd wanted to drink.

She filled his glass and hers and walked back to the lounge, handing it to him.

"Anything new, chief?" Sam asked.

He sighed heavily. "No. We thought we had a lead, but it lead to nothing. We're still working on it."

"Okay."

"What did you do today?" he asked.

"Oh, uh, nothing much. Keeping myself occupied is all," she didn't want to tell him exactly what she did because she knew he'd feel guilty and bad for her.

But the chief looked at her knowingly. "I'm sorry, m'girl."

"What for?"

"I know your friends had plans yesterday. I saw them going out," he said.

"Oh, okay. It's okay, chief, please don't worry about it."

Chief looked around at the lounge.

He looked as if he just remembered something. He counted his fingers and she saw his lips moving. Then he looked back at Sam.

"You wanna come to the station one day? I know you've got nothing to do here, at least you'll have something to do at the station. Lucas will be there, too," chief asked.

"Yip, that would be awesome. Thanks, chief."

"No problem. Well, I'd better get going now. I'll see you again, Sam. Just gimme a call and I'll pick you up," chief got up and left the glass on the table.

Sam smiled and walked him to the door. She opened it for him and he walked out.

Sam closed the door and resumed her position on the couch

She picked her camera up and went through her pictures and her videos.

Birds, nature, random, the sky, Sun, Moon, her friends, the station, Forest Hills, animals, the city, a farm, places she visited.

Sam sighed as she came to the last of her photos. It was the warehouse.

Once again, she found herself studying the picture she took of the mark and zoomed in to get a better look at the letters.
She still had so much more time left and spent it by texting her friends, drawing, eating junk, TV, social media and catching up on missed sleep.

By the time Ian came back, she was out of ideas and didn't know what else to do. They sat and had an early supper and played cards after that.

Anne came a little later when they were in the middle of a game. Sam felt happy and everything felt normal.

"How was work?" she asked Anne.

Anne laughed. "Work was work."

Sam nodded.

"And the studio?" she looked at Ian. 

"Busier than usual. All the staff wanna fill in for their missed days. I told them it's fine, but they insisted. The studio's cramped with people," he let out a long sigh.

"Well, hopefully it clears soon."

She was happy that today went by smoothly and nothing happened.

These people didn't try anything again and all was peaceful, like any normal day. But something reminded her of the calm before a storm and she felt uneasy.

Sam then went to her room. She took a bath, changed into pyjamas and pulled the covers of her bed open.

She propped up her pillows and sat up in bed. After a few minutes, she slid down, pulling the pillows with her, and within minutes, she was fast asleep.

Unlike the the previous night, she was restless and unsettled. Dreams flitted around her, in and out of her mind, all of them ones she didn't want to remember. The letters C.L.S. was most prominent amongst them all.

Her phone beeped with a message on her bedside table and when she didn't answer, it started to ring.

But Sam was fast asleep and did not stir. The phone eventually stopped and everything was silent. The room was dark and cast shadows around.

The trees in the forest swayed and danced in the wind. Nobody saw the shadow lurking in the forest. Nobody saw it watching the house. It gave an evil laugh that nobody heard and smiled sadistically.

"It's almost time," it whispered and disappeared into the night.

- - - - -

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