Louisa sank into her couch and went through the channels on TV. Nothing. It was one of those nights where everything’s the same and yet everything was strangely warped. Something bothered her about the atmosphere. She stopped at a music channel and reached over to the table for her hairbrush. She pulled it through her chestnut mane, and pulled everything into a neat ponytail.

She picked up the remote again to look for something else. Click, Click, Click, Click...Click. Nothing. She kept looking, without much luck. She stopped at some over dramatic, cliché soap opera. A few minutes later she tried harder to concentrate on what was on the screen. A minute, ten fifteen, a half-hour. Louisa switched off the TV, threw down the remote, and yanked her ponytail out in frustration. What was it? Something was wrong. She hadn’t felt this bad since…well, since high school.

She thought back to that dramatic and exciting time in her life. It had been the week after exams and she and her closest friends had partied hard all night for about 4 days. She had just gotten home, not completely recovered from a hangover, and had been ready to sleep for about a month straight. She had taken off her coat and sat down on her bed, and something had felt wrong. She had felt weird, scared, and almost uncomfortable in her own skin. She had tried to ignore the feeling, to just forget about it. No matter how much she had tried to think it was silly paranoia, but she couldn’t suppress the feeling that there was something in the air…-

That night, her best friend and sister in spirit, Katherine, lost her boyfriend of four years in a car crash. Kat had gone into an unnatural, eccentric, almost sadistic state of denial, and it had left its mark on her nature to this day. She hadn’t even cry. Louisa had never seen Kat cry.

Darren’s death had been unexpected. It had happened a long time ago. Kat had recovered. They had all recovered. It didn’t help that Kat had later lost her mother to cancer, and that her dad spent his days in a drunken stupor since his wife’s death, but Kat was strong. If there was anyone who could handle it and do so beautifully, it was Kat.

She had always been strong, hard, smiling and funny. Nothing could ever kill her sense of humor. It was one of the ways she had dealt with everything. She accepted it, worked hard to get through it, and in the mean time, was as funny, sweet and generous as ever. She had never sunk completely in anyone else’s mind, but Louisa could see how hurt Kat seemed to be sometimes, when reminded that she was alone. Louisa knew Kat better that she knew herself.

Kat never allowed herself to break. For her, the best way to deal with things is to accept that things changed, that the world was a hellhole, and just block as much of it out as she could. To her, denial was a wonderful thing, as it still was now, four years later.

Coming out of her flashback, Louisa walked into walked into her kitchen and poured herself a cold glass of water. As she felt it soothe her, going down her throat, she struggled against the thought that something was wrong with Kat. Kat had felt it when Louisa ever needed anything and Louisa had been the same about Kat since they were about 12 years old. It had never been this strong. Not since Darren. Not even after her father started drinking. Could it have been Kat this time?

Louisa brushed through her hair, trying to shake off the feeling. She was probably just worrying about her nightmares starting up again. No big deal, Kat was fine and so was she. She breathed deeply and slowly and made her way back to the living room. She closed the curtains on the pitch - black night outside. It was almost midnight.

Slow, hardly audible little pats sounded on the roof. It gradually got louder and faster, harder and harder till it was a drumming roar against the tiles. The wind outside howled in concert with the rain. A shiver went up Louisa’s spine as she saw lightning slice the night sky behind the flapping curtain. The deafening thunder that followed made her shriek almost as shrilly as the phone did as it screamed out to her. Recovering slowly, and swallowing hard, Louisa ran over to the phone just in time for the fourth ring.

“Helloâ€