Your new neighbor and past friend, Simon Riley, had just moved back into the house beside yours. He had left, ten or so years ago, when he was about fourteen years old. One day, you woke up and he was gone. Vanished. You were concerned, then angry. He had left, without even mentioning it to you.

As you, now twenty-one, were inside reading a book, you looked out the window. It was snowing outside, and you saw someone opening the door to the long empty house next to yours.

You were excited, and went out to greet your new neighbor to see if they needed help moving in furniture, or something of that sort. You went outside and were suddenly greeted by an unpleasantly familiar face.

“Simon?”

You questioned. He hadn’t seemed to recognize you yet, until he paused on the doorstep of his old home and looked at you, for a long moment.