Chapter 1- Love and Sorrow

Before approaching the house, Claire's car's engine began to howl a few blocks away. Until everything was pitch black, even the headlights had stopped working. Claire smacked the wheel. She's been struck by her car so frequently. She has been driving the exact old vehicle since her college days and wants to get rid of it, but she can't, not because she lacks the money to purchase a new one but because it's one of her father's left memory. When her father passed away, she left a sizable trust fund as well.

Additionally, she benefited greatly from the enormous sum her father paid for forty years' insurance premiums. She had the money to buy a house and a new car if she wanted. But she cannot do that because only those items give Claire the impression that she is still with her father. When she started taking a medical course in college, her father gave her the car. Claire wants to leave the house and live alone, but how is she going to leave the house and despise her mother? If that's the only request made by her father in his final hours. 'Look after your mother. She needs a bit more time, so be patient and don't ever leave her, no matter what. Stay with her.'

It appeared that Claire had only recently heard her father's words. That has always been the case. She had always carried out her father's dying wish. She didn't despise her dad but hated her father's intense love for her mother, which her mother didn't deserve.

Claire's father knows that her mother had an affair with another man. So, Claire can't understand why her father still accepted her mother's egregious hypocrisy. Claire's father lavished her mom with all the comforts, hoping that, with any luck, her mom might love him again. However, she isn't. Her mother grew giddier. And things worsened when she was in an accident with her recently deceased ex-boyfriend.

Claire observed that her mother was on the verge of crying over the loss of her ex-boyfriend. However, her father? He swallowed his pride and accepted his wife all over again.

Claire's father was a great cardiac surgeon. However, he can't cure his own heart. Even Claire was unaware of her father's illness. She had no idea that her dad had already been heart attacked twice. A year before she received her medical degree, the last and most serious attack resulted in her father's death.

When Claire's father passed away, she had no emotions because she was furious with her mother. To think that her mother is still worry about her ex-boyfriend.

Her father's last will didn't mention any provisions for his wife. Claire receives everything from her father. However, she can only have them if she keeps her mom with her. Until Claire gets married, at least, she still has a long time to get married. She still prioritizes her career. She aspires to become a professional dermatologist as her promise to her father.

Claire sobbed as she held the wheel tightly. She passed both the oath and the physician licensing examination. She was asked to go to the party at her friends' house from medical school, but she declined. She simply celebrated and drank herself to death at the bar.

"Dad... You are so unfair!" Claire was unable to control the cracking of her voice or the reluctance of her aching throat. "Just one year! It's only a year, and I'm about to graduate. Why didn't you wait for me, dad? I will now re-celebrate by myself at home. Although your house is large, I'm unsteady. Mom is not always at home."

Claire sobbed like a child who laments to her father that he could do nothing even if he heard her. "Tell me, Dad! Dad, how much longer? How much longer will, mom put up with it until she finally changes? How much longer must I wait for her to understand me? Why doesn't she act like a mom why? Dad! Dad! I hope you're here. I hope I can be heard. I hope—"

When Claire heard a thump on the roof of her car, she was taken aback. She felt anxious. She can't see any trees, so what may fall there? She was standing next to an empty lot. There used to be a park, but it has been relocated close to the clubhouse. There are only rusting toys there.

Again, she heard noises coming from above.

Claire exited the vehicle to investigate what had transpired. But the car door slammed shut when she jumped back into the vehicle.

"Stay there and stop the show!" One man said who had been standing in front of the dark area.

Claire didn't have a fear of the dark. Her future with her mother is what she fears the most. What horror does she now perceive? The man's voice was still audible to her brain.

Claire was drunk, but not enough to suggest that her perception was deceiving her. There are two beings engaged in dark combat who move too quickly. Claire was unsure of why the two were fighting.

“But hold on, what else did the man say? Stop the show?” Claire's eyes expanded. The one man undoubtedly overheard her sobbing in her car. She didn't notice that the car window was open.

After few minutes, the two fighters are permanently gone. Since she was already in the subdivision, she could easily walk to get home. She was about to go when someone suddenly grabbed her and flew her.

Claire was shocked because the man leaped and moved relatively quickly on trees and roofs. She was shocked when the guy dropped her off in front of her house.

Her eyes became more expansive as Claire fixed her gaze on the man. She had a lot of questions in her head now.

"Who are you?” Claire enquired about the strange man. But why she couldn't flee from the stranger despite the horror and fear? She was unable to perceive the threat.