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CHAPTER 5: WHO IS THERE?

Gina POV

"Okay that was weird." I say as I get off the phone with Pavlo. "I guess I'm going to LA sooner than I'd expected too." I say.

Going back to LA after all of these years is the last thing that I want to do but I know that Pavlo might need my help with this new case. Tatiana comes walking out of the bathroom wearing her robe. "I'll give you some privacy so that you can get dressed okay." I say and she nods.

"I'm going to the kitchen. Would you like for me to bring you something?" I ask her. "A sandwich would be nice. Also, could you bring me a cup of tea as well?" She asks me. "Coming right up." I say as I look at her with a smile on my face.

I walk out of her room and I close the door just as Dax comes walking up the stairs. "The guys are here so I'm going to take my leave. I will be back in the morning." He says. "Thank you and I hope you have a good night's rest. Tell Sylvia I'm sorry that we kept you busy the whole night." I say.

"No worries boss. She knows how grueling this job can be. Goodnight." Dax says as he walks back down the stairs. I walk behind him on the way to the kitchen.

As we get downstairs I see Joey and Sam in the living room assembling some guns. "Hey, guys. Listen the girl you are going to be protecting for the next few days is upstairs. I'll introduce her to you in a few minutes. So please pack these guns away as soon as you can because I don't want her to be scared when she sees it." I tell them. "Got it boss." They reply.

I head into the kitchen to make the sandwich and the tea for Tatiana. As I'm making the sandwich for her, I feel this cold breeze coming over me, and then I feel someone coming to stand right behind me. But when I look there is no one else. I notice that the windows and the backdoor are closed and I know that Dax closed the front door behind him. No one has opened the front door because I look out of the kitchen and I see that the front door is still closed.

That is when I realize that we are not alone. "You can show yourself to me. I won't bite you." I say to whoever is visiting me in the kitchen. I then switch the kettle on to make the tea for Tatiana and coffee for me. As I walk to the cupboard to get the cups out, the cold breeze goes past me again. "Come on. Show yourself." I say and again there is silence. I look through the kitchen's service window that goes directly into the lounge where Sam and Joey are and I see that they've packed away the guns. Sometimes ghosts would do that to me. They would move things around in my house or stand behind me so that I would feel that cold breeze. They would do all sorts of other things as well before they show themselves to me.

I wait for a few more minutes to see if this ghost would show his or her face but nothing happens. "You will have to come back later because I can't help you now." I whisper to whoever is in the kitchen with me just as Joey and Sam walk into the kitchen.

"Hey, boss we are just coming to get something to eat." Joey says. "No worries. I'll bring Tatiana down in a minute so that you two could meet her." I say as I put our cups and Tatiana's sandwich on a tray.

I take it upstairs to Tatiana's room. As I walk in I see that she is already sitting on the bed crying. I leave the tray on the bedside table and then I go and sit next to her. "Hey look at me." I tell her. She looks up at me with tears in her eyes.

"How could I have been so stupid Gina? How could I have let that man destroy me so much? He ruined my life!" She says to me. "Sometimes a person's true personalities will show up once they have you right where they wanted you to be. He was manipulating you from the start and that is wrong. He never deserved you anyway." I tell her as I put my arms around her shoulders.

"I know that but I am not so sure that I'll be able to recover from this." She says. I take a tissue from the box on the nightstand. "Listen to me, I know that you can get through this. You're one of the strongest people that I know." I say as I wipe her tears away.

She looks up at me and smiles. "Thank you Gina. For everything." She says. "Don't thank me yet." I tell her as I get up to go and fetch the tray that is on the table. "Why not?" She asks me. "Thank me when you get that job." I tell her as I hand her the sandwich and her tea.

"You sure that I'll get the job?" She asks. "Of course I am. You were always good at advertising stuff when we were younger so I know that you are perfect for this job." I tell her as I go and sit next to her.

She starts laughing at me. "What?" I ask her. "Remember the time you and I went to steal Mr. Wilkinson's oranges off the tree in his backyard and then sell it to people for a profit so that I could get some money for food for me and my grandma. Marcus went with us and he kept telling us that this was wrong." She says laughing.

"Yeah, Marcus dropped the basket right when Mr. Wilkinson caught us. We took off running down the street with Mr. Wilkinson running right behind us shouting 'you damn kids! Those oranges weren't even ready to be plucked from the trees yet. I will get you for this!' How could I forget that day?" I tell her while trying to mimic Mr. Wilkinson's facial expression.

Tatiana lies down on the bed as she laughs. "That was also the day that Marcus had asked me to be his girlfriend and right after I said yes, he kissed me." I tell her as the memories from that day run through my head. I felt like I was on top of the world, that nothing could hurt me because I had Marcus.

But I now know that nothing lasts forever. "Do you think about him a lot?" Tatiana asks me.

"Every day. And do you know what else happens then?" I ask her. "What?" She asks me. "Every time I think about him, it only makes me miss him more." I reply.

"And do you know what?" She asks me. "What?" I reply.

"I think that you will run into him sooner than you think." She says to me.

"Ah, your psychic ability is kicking in again. How could I forget about that." I say to her a bit sarcastically.

"You know I am right. I was just saying." She says as she finishes eating her sandwich and she puts the plate back on the tray.

"I would not be so sure about that. He is probably traveling around the world with his newest fling." I say as I look at the clock. I see that it is already after 11 pm. "It's getting late and I should get home. Come on let me introduce you to the guys." I tell her.

I pick up the tray that has our empty cups and plates on and I carry it downstairs. Tatiana is walking right behind me. Joey and Sam are back in the living room. "Tatiana this is Joey and Sam. They will be staying here with you tonight. Dax and I will be back in the morning to check up on you okay." I tell her.

"Hi." Tatiana says to the guys and they greet her back. "You can trust them. They will not do anything to you. They are here to protect you in case your husband manages to find you." I say to her and she nods at me.

I walk to the kitchen to place the dirty dishes in the dishwasher bofore I switch the machine on. I know the others will take care of it tomorrow morning.

"Goodnight." I say to Tatiana as we greet each other by the door. Heading out I grab my purse and Joey locks the door behind me.

I finally get home and I get dressed in my pajamas again. I drift off into a deep sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.

During the middle of the night, I get woken up by because I heard a sound. I sit up in my bed and I look around the room but I can't see anything because it is pretty dark. I switch on the light on my nightstand and as soon as it comes on, a book falls from my bookshelf. I stand up and I walk towards it. I pick up the book and from the corner of my eye, I see that one of my vases is lying on the floor broken in pieces.

"Damn that was my favorite vase." I say. I put the book back in its place and then I walk back down the stairs towards my kitchen. I take my broom and my scoop and go back to my room. "Why does this stuff have to happen to me? You better come and show yourself to me because this is not funny at all." I say to the ghost but yet again there is no reply.

After cleaning up the mess, I head back down to the kitchen. I throw the pieces of glass in the garbage and I put the broom and the scoop back in their place.

Walking back to my room, I feel a cold breeze coming over me again. "Okay, I know that I just walked through you so I know that you are still here. If you are not going to show yourself to me right now then I'm going back to bed." I say.

Iand wait to see if anything happens but after a few minutes I decide to switch off the light. "Typical ghost. Goodnight." I say as I lie back down and close my eyes again.


An unidentifiable shadowy figure is standing at the foot of Gina's bed, looking at her sleeping. Throughout the night it had tried to communicate with Gina through talking to her but nothing came out of its mouth, so knocking things off from Gina's shelves was the only way to make its presence known.

The figure tries to reach out to her again but suddenly something pulls it back. The shadowy figure makes a screaming sound as it disappears.

The sound that the figure made wakes Gina up again. Gina sits up straight on her bed. She switches the light on her nightstand back on. "What was that?" She asks herself. Thinking that someone might be in her home, Gina gets up to go and look around for any intruders. She walks downstairs with her gun in her hands.

After making sure that there is no one else inside the house with her, Gina makes sure that every door and window is locked before she heads to bed again. "No intruders here so that means only one thing." Gina whispers to herself before she looks around the room.

"That's the first time that a ghost has woke me up like that. I can tell you that it's not funny so whoever you are can you please show yourself? Because if you don't then I'm going back to sleep okay?" Gina says.

Gina waits for at least five more minutes, hoping that the ghost would respond to her request but again nothing happens. Gina switches off the bedside lamp and crawls back into bed.

But this time she struggles to fall asleep again.

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