Heartbeat by Iem_Aivlis

I took some dirty dishes to the sink. I washed all the dirty dishes by myself. Earlier Christ insisted on helping wash the dishes. But I refused his help. With the excuse that he had to finish his work in the living room quickly, Christ finally gave in. Now Bie and Christ are in the living room. It seemed like their work was done, because I no longer heard any sound from the machine that Christ had brought earlier. Since my work in the kitchen was finished, I started walking to the living room. Christ was trying to hang the curtain on the pole he had installed above the window earlier.

"From now on you can cover this window." Christ said as he finished hanging the curtain.

"Yeah, thanks. But you don't really need to bother doing this. We're used to having windows uncovered." I paid attention to Christ's words.

"No! From now on you have to get used to covering this window with curtains!" Christ said the sentence in a commanding tone.

I don't understand what that means. So I just nodded my head to agree with his order. After finishing, Christ said goodbye and went home. But for some reason, Christ stared for a long time at the house next to mine. Not Aunt Jane's house, but an empty house that had just been occupied by a new resident whose face I had never seen before.

"What's wrong?" I was curious about what Christ was focusing on.

"Nothing. Have you lived in this house long?" Christ asked me while looking around my yard.

"Yes, I have lived in this house for a long time. It's been a few years. Why?" I started to get confused by Christ's behavior.

"It's okay, I just wanted to make sure this place was safe." After saying those words, Christ started walking towards his car.

Before getting into the car, Christ asked me to come into the house. And again I obeyed him. After I closed the door of my house, I heard the sound of Christ's car starting to leave this place.

 ***

AUTHOR POV

The sound of crickets chirping sounded so loud. Of course, apart from the fact that it was getting late at night, this place was located on the edge of the forest. It is rare for cars to pass by this place. Only locals frequent these streets. There is a house located not far from this street. The distance of the houses in this place is quite far from other residents' houses. Inside the room of this house it looks very quiet. Several lit candles are scattered in every corner of this room which are used as lighting. There is one room in this house that is brighter than the other 2 rooms. A larger candle burned brightly on a table in the room. There were dozens of photos scattered on the table. Each picture is taken from a different place. Starting from a picture of a road, a house building, a place that sells various kinds of vegetables, a mall building, to a picture of a crowd of people that can be seen in the photo. It looks like the photographer spends his free time taking pictures. Because besides that, there are already many photos hanging in this room.

"How are you?" A pair of hands were seen holding a photo, then he clamped the photo on a rope that was hanging in the air.

Many photos were already hanging there. Several strands of rope were deliberately hung in this room. The hanging ropes were already full of photos that were wedged between the ropes.

"You still look so beautiful, just like the first time I saw you." Said a man looking at the photo hanging there.

Photos of beautiful women are displayed on the ropes. It seems that the woman who was the object of the photo did not realize that she was being photographed. Because all the photos were taken from the side and behind the woman.

"Who is he?" The man asked the photo he had just taken from the table.

"Will he be a hindrance to us?" Again the man spoke to the photo.

Then he stuck the photo that was still in his hand onto a wall. Many photos were already attached to the wall. But again, the photo he took did not show the object's face in its entirety. All the photos were taken without the knowledge of the person being photographed. If you look closely, there are photos of an old woman, a small child, a young woman, a young man, and also a graceful looking young woman stuck to the wall. And now, the new photo he posted was of a man.

"I will not allow you to be by his side." The mysterious man began to scratch the newly attached photo using a small knife that he took from his trouser pocket.

Then the man walked towards the table, he opened the drawer of the table. There was a face that resembled the photo of the beautiful woman when she was young in the photo stored in the drawer. He grabbed the photo and closed the drawer again.

"I'll see you soon," he said to the photo.

The mysterious man started blowing out the candles on the table until they went out. Then he walked towards the exit of this room. After he finished locking the room, he started walking towards every corner of the room. Suddenly the house became pitch black. The man gracefully stepped out of the house without any difficulty. It seems like he already knows every corner of this house by heart.

"I can't wait to meet you face to face. You've been waiting for me for too long. The three of us will definitely get together again soon. " The man said while looking at the moon that was shining tonight.

 ***

The sound of a cell phone ringing rang in a room. There was only one man in the room.

"Ah, so he left his cell phone behind." A man is standing in a room holding his cell phone to his ear.

This man is looking for his friend. So he came into this room. Earlier his friend said that he would go downstairs. But after several minutes, his friend still hadn't returned. He called to ask where his friend was, but it turned out that his friend's cell phone was left in this room. Maybe his friend wants to go shopping for vegetables. He knew very well that his friend was someone who cared about healthy food. So, it's likely that the stock of vegetables in the refrigerator has run out. He decided to look for his friend at the place he mentioned earlier while taking his friend's cell phone with him. He started walking towards the elevator, that was because he was on the top floor of this building. It turned out that the lift that could only be used by employees was undergoing repairs. So he had to go down via the public elevator. Once in the elevator he pressed the button for the floor he was going to. 

"Excuse me, if I want to go to the boutique, which floor is it on?" the old woman asked him.

This woman first set foot in the city. He dared to enter this place because he wanted to meet his grandson. Coincidentally, his grandson works in a boutique located in this building. Earlier, because he was embarrassed to ask, he entered the elevator with the other visitors. He knew that this moving square room could take him to the upper floor. That's what he saw in every movie this old woman watched. But after going upstairs, he looked around and didn't find a single shop selling clothes, so he decided to get back in the elevator.

"If you want to go to the boutique, it's on the fifth floor," the man said politely.

"Then how do I get to that floor? Sorry, I don't know how to use it." The old woman wanted the young man to help her.

The man then pressed the number five on the button located on the right side of the elevator door.

"You have to see that. If it says the number five when the elevator door opens, then you must exit the elevator. Before the door opens, a sound will be heard indicating that the elevator is stopping. " The man explained while pointing towards the top of the elevator door.

Ting! The two people in the elevator heard the sound. Automatically the old woman looked up at the elevator doors. The number seven was displayed on the monitor screen above the elevator door. Not long after that the elevator doors opened.

"Still the seventh floor," the woman said to the man.

The man just nodded. It turns out that the elevator door opened because someone pressed it from outside. There were about five people already standing in front of the open elevator doors. The five people started to enter this iron box. Some of them pressed the buttons on the right and left sides of the elevator door. Then the elevator stopped on the fifth floor. The old woman started to come out and thanked the man. After the old woman came out, a woman also entered the elevator. The man recognized the woman. 'Emily' he said in his heart. He wasn't ready to meet the woman in this condition. So he tried to hide his face so that Emily wouldn't see him.

*Continued*