Her first day at work went well despite her struggle to forget about the dream she had last night.

The day went by fast, she met the principal investigator (the professor who headed the lab) as well as members of the research lab to which she would be research scholar, she gave a short introduction on a lab meeting, and she organized her newly-assigned desk. Then she took a walk to the IT Office where they set up her digital account along with the access and passwords needed.

It was a long day, and after work, she went for drinks with some lab colleagues. They talked about research most of the time, possible collaborations, interesting new findings, and best bars in town. Her new collagues seemed nice, they talked freely and laughed at jokes, letting Charlotte in on some of the lab's inside jokes as well.

When she got back to her still-incompletely-furnished apartment late that night, she was just exhausted.

That was when she realized something strange.

She was making herself a cup of chamomile tea when she saw from her kitchen window, down there, next to one of the oak trees.

Someone stood in the shadow of the tree.

The darkness of the night and the fact that that person stood slightly behind the massive tree made it hard for her to see for sure who it was.

But she was sure someone was there—standing still.

She tried not to think much of it.

She finished her tea and went back to the kitchen to put the cup in the sink.

That person was still there.

This time she was sure that person was also looking at her. The head was slightly cocked up, right to her direction in the third floor.

Charlotte focused her eyes more on that person. The darkness made it impossible for her to discern who it was, and one more thing that she realized: That person was wearing a kind of black oversized hood over his/her head.

Cold sweats broke on the back of Charlotte's neck. Her heart raced, and her hands began to tremble in fear. Who is that?

She tiptoed away from the window, and stood next to it, watching the person down there.

That person was still. When autumn rain fell, that person was drenched in the rain, yet still stood in silence. It was obvious the rain did not bother that person at all.

Charlotte jumped in surprise when her phone vibrated and rang, and she rushed to pick up the videocall. Dad and Ellie. This time on colour choices for the napkins for the wedding reception.

Charlotte tried hard to focus and gave her thoughts on napkins' color but it was obvious to Dad and Ellie that she was distracted.

"Look, Charlie, we will call you again tomorrow. You seem tired and distracted now. Is that good?" Dad nodded, followed by Ellie. They had heard all about her first day at work earlier, before she went for drinks with her new colleagues.

"Dad, I—" Charlotte decided not to tell Dad and Ellie about a stranger outside her kitchen window, down there among the oak trees. "Yes, Dad. It has been a long day. Tomorrow is better," she nodded and smiled at Dad and Ellie.

The smile convinced Dad and Ellie, and they hung up soon after.

Charlotte went back to the kitchen window, and took a breath of relief when she did not see that person anymore.

She had been tired, and had been feeling uneasy about the strange dream she had, it could very well be that was just someone who just happened to stand there to wait for his/her pickup, or a homeless, or ...

Charlotte shook her head, exhaled loudly, and went to take a shower.

After shower, she laid on the bed, pulling the blanket all the way to her chin, and listening to the drizzle outside.

She felt it again. The feeling like she was being watched.

"Damn it!" she huffed, threw her blanket to the floor, and tiptoed to the kitchen.

She stood next to the kitchen window, peeking from the curtain.

Noone down there by the oak tree.

A breeze of cold air from behind her startled her.

She was not alone in this kitchen. Someone else was here.

Her breath raced, her hands turned cold. She locked her doors and windows! How could someone be in here with her?

She could feel it! Like someone breathing just a few steps behind her.

She shut her eyes tight, opened it again, let out a shout, and turned around.

Noone was there.

Her breath slowed down a bit, though her hands were still cold. The kitchen was dark, and she rushed to turn on all the lights, also in her living room.

"I am going nuts," she muttered.

She stood, frozen for some time in the middle of her kitchen. When she finally decided she needed to go back to bed, she also decided none of the lights in her apartment would be turned off that night.

She did not sleep that night. Everytime she closed her eyes, she felt like her room contracting, moving closer to her, and someone was there with her. She would open her eyes again, and watch the room. All was normal.

The next day she functioned like a zombie. She drank mugs of black coffee, attended meetings, presentations, all seemed to just slowly crawl away from her without her getting much out of it. By the end of the day, her head was pounding and she had to cancel her last meeting of the day.

She went to sit by the campus park, and just stared at the people busy with their lives. Some were leaving campus, some just came for evening classes, there were also some kids who had just got picked up from the campus daycare. The antics of those kids made her smile, and in her tired brain, she started planning on how to restart MissCharLee again.

MissCharLee perked her up a bit.

Maybe she could start by offering her service to her colleagues' kids' birthday parties. If she did a good job, they would recommend her to others. This was a business that thrived on word-of-mouth, so she would have to make some plans as to how to get new clients, and possibly extras she could include in her acts for the kids. Before Mom passed away, she had started learning how to do balloon art—making plant and animal shapes from colorful balloons—from online videos. She could do that for the kids too. That and her usual magic show would make her more interesting for the kids and hopefully the parents. That would be a nice start for MissCharLee here.

Her daydreaming of plans for MissCharlee helped her feel more at ease, and she stood up to get some salad dinner at the cafeteria.

After dinner, she walked back to her apartment.

The walk back was fine, she did not feel like she was being watched or followed or anything strange. She even stopped to chat with a new colleague who lived nearby, and the chat ended with a plan for a meeting for a possible research collaboration. The colleague was herself also a new Ph.D graduate, so they had a lot to chat about.

After the chat, Charlotte continued walking to her apartment.

Two neighbors said hello to her on their way downstairs, and she said hello back.

She got to her apartment, took her key, and opened the door.

Her apartment was dark, and she turned off the light switch.

The soft glow of the light shone on the room.

There was someone there, standing next to her living room window. Someone who wore all black clothes, and large black hood.

The apartment door slammed shut by itself, and Charlotte froze. She could not move any limbs, nor speaking her mind. Something seemed to have incapacitated her. That person who stood a few steps in front of her must have some sort of magic that took away her ability to move or to speak.

The person removed the large black hood that covered the head.

You. Charlotte could not say it out loud, but she felt strongly that she recognized the person who stood in front of her now. No name, let alone story of how she came to know the person, but she knew that person.

I know you.