Never Fall For Mr. Irresistible

India Jones I woke up with a throbbing headache that just wouldn’t go away. It’s a week now I have been tossing and turning, waking up crying. I had nightmares about the lady I saw in the wide-rim black hat last weekend. She had her face covered with a sheer black veil. I told myself the mysterious woman couldn’t be my mother because she had passed away over 15 years ago. I lost my parents in a plane crash, and their bodies were never found. But the nightmares didn’t stop I kept dreaming about my grandmother, who had just recently lost in death. . I locked myself away in the house with the curtains drawn, afraid to go to sleep. The constant memories of Nan were everywhere I turned. Many nights I thought I heard my grandmother calling my name. Only to get out of bed, look down the hallway, and find it was dark and empty. I couldn't take it anymore. So, I called a real estate agent and put the small two-bedroom, one-bath house I had grown up in and put it on the market. Then, I began packing up everything. I took a few antique pieces to the pawn shop and stored the rest of my grandmother's precious valuables until I could figure out my path. To my surprise, the house sold sooner than I thought it would. The house sale gave me a nice sum of cash in my bank account. I needed a break desperately to gather my emotions that were all over the place. But where will I go? I knew I had to get away from here and go as far away as possible. I could only think about those summer days when I was young. During the summer, Nan would take me to the beach on the Pacific coast. I warmly reflected on how alive and peaceful I felt at the beach with Nana. That's when I knew where I needed to go to settle my mind and heart. I spent one last night in the place I once called home. The following day I took one final look at my Nana's home as I fought back tears, then drove away. ~~~~~ It was around eight that evening, and I got tired of driving, so I pulled up to this place with a sign—cabins for rent. I went inside the lobby and rented myself one of their cabins. All I needed was a room with a clean bed. The area around here seemed nice enough. It offered all the things I needed for a great vacation by the ocean. There were plenty of eateries, malls, and even an amusement park. There were a few nightclubs for going out dancing, but most of all, it had a view of that gorgeous blue ocean and white sandy beach across the road. I got out of the car and went to the front desk of the 'Ocean Blue Cottages,' The sign read; rent cottages by the week. That sounded perfect since I wasn't in a big rush and no longer had a home. So, I went inside and was fortunate to book their last available cottage. When I opened the door, I entered the cabin. The first thing I did was look around the cute little cottage. It had a sitting room surrounded by windows with a loveseat and two chairs. It's an open-concept design. You can see right into a small kitchenette with all the necessary kitchen appliances for cooking. Something I had no intention of doing any time soon. I had cooked for over two hundred people for the funeral and was too exhausted to think about it. My goal was to relax and eat room service by calling door dash. I continued to walk around the place, and there was a small bathroom right across from a cozy bedroom with a nightstand and lamp on one side of the bed and a chair on the other. I unpacked my clothes, looking forward to taking a hot bubble bath and getting some real rest. After my bath, I stared at the bed for a second. There was nothing extra special about it, but a bed never looked so tempting and inviting. Tired in every way possible, I crawled under the covers. Usually, it takes me a while to adjust to a new and unfamiliar environment. But not this time. It was just what I needed to rest peacefully. So, I happily fluffed the pillow, turned off the lights, closed my tired eyes, and went straight to sleep. I aimed to sleep for as many days as my body would allow. All I wanted to avoid was the pain I felt in my chest cavity and the pit of my stomach, which came from knowing from here on out, I would be alone since Nana died. My sleep came swiftly, and just when I entered a state of sound rest, unbeknownst to me, it had only been a little longer than an hour when I began to stir because I thought I heard something. I could barely open my eyes. I was so sleepy but confused by the noise I knew I was hearing. Whatever it was that had awakened me from my first night of sound sleep, I wanted to kill it for interrupting the first solid rest I'd had in weeks. There was a fatal flaw with this logic, of course. Because most likely, that hadn't been it but someone. I realized that I wasn't alone. My thoughts immediately returned to my grandmother's funeral. I wondered, had the lady in the black hat followed me all the way out here? Not prone to hysterics or drama, I told myself to remain calm because I didn't believe in ghosts, and whatever it was, I needed to prepare myself to face it head-on. So, I slowly open my eyes in the dark bedroom, trying to focus, mumbling while wiping my eyes. 'I know I locked the door.' It was never my habit to leave any doors unlocked. I grew up in a household with only two females and a baseball bat to protect us. So even though I wasn't in the heart of Los Angeles anymore, I was sure I locked the door before getting into bed. I didn't know what adventures were ahead of me, but I wasn't expecting this when I left almost 7 hours ago. Earlier at the funeral, I saw things that no one else saw, and now I'm hearing noises in this tourist area in this quaint little cottage. The sounds I heard only seconds ago suddenly stopped. But then, within those same seconds, I see a shadowy outline appear at my partially open bedroom door. Like the newly brave woman I was, I threw the covers over my head and hoped who or whatever it was didn't see me. "Hey!" A male's deep voice said, blowing that hope out of the roof. I jumped up in a seated position on the bed, reaching out for the lamp on the nightstand. Remembering I had mapped this out when I first arrived at the cottage, what I would do if someone broke in on me. I got a good grip on the lamp and yelled out. "Don't come any closer! I have a weapon! And I'm not afraid to use it!"