Expecting the Unexpected

The vigorous shake turned into a sudden halt, leaving Dean's scream hanging in mid-air. Still clutching to his bedpost, Dean looked around his room - perhaps expecting some changes to take place. But all he saw were just his fallen furnitures and slight cracks at the ceiling.

Suddenly, came a knock on the door. Dean paused. "Was it my imagination yet again or is there really a knock on my door at such wee hour," Dean thought. He waited for a while. The knock came again. This time it was a continuous rupture of knocks. "C-co-coming!" Dean stuttered and stumbled his way towards the door.

Grabbing the doorknob, he pushed the door-latch away and slowly opened the door, just enough gap for him to peer out. "Y-yes?" Dean questioned the figure standing at the door, still struggling to figure out who the person is through the small gap he created.

Even before the stranger answered, he felt a powerful push at the door and the gap widened, allowing the stranger to enter into his premise. Surprised by the sudden movement, Dean just stood behind the now-opened door, hand still clutching to the doorknob.

"Hey!" was all Dean could voice out. The figure turned.

A girl, perhaps a few years younger than him, with shoulder length, cropped, red hair tied into two short plaits, wearing a huge aviation goggles, a construction helmet, an over-sized jacket and a pair of torn jeans, hideously blotched with striking-coloured paints. And not forgetting a huge military boots.

Dean gasped. Could not believe what his eyes has just registered into his mind, he gave himself a second thorough look at the strange "creature" before him. Plaits, goggles, helmet, jacket, pants and boots. Check, check and check.

"Are you alright?" the weird girl asked.

"Huh?"

"I say... Are you alright?" she repeated.

Dean could have sworn she was talking in a really strong accent, perhaps from some unknown country he had never heard before. Swedish? Irish? Polish? Seemed like a mixture of everything but he was sure she has some really heavy accent in her speech.

"O' dear, he must have something hit his head real hard. Poor boy. Hey, chap! Ya' know what just happened? We've been hit by earthquake. Ya' know? The whole shaking thing? Although it's kinda rare having it in UK but well... We're just checkin' 'round making sure ya'll people are A-Ok... Ok? Are you OK?" the girl mouthed out the 'O' and the 'K' exaggeratedly.

"Fine... Fine... I'm fine," Dean answered, slightly annoyed having a younger girl treating him like some demented dude. "Who are you anyway? I have never seen you around this residence before."

"Ah... Forgive my rudeness. I'm Danyl, with a 'y'. Just moved here with my gang last week. We're stayin' just three doors away from yours. Was plannin' to, ya' know, knock door to door... Give out some baked cookies and introduce ourselves to the new neighbours but, erm... Rick-Rick burnt those cookies to bits and well, we haven't had the time to fix the poor overheated oven... So yeah, we kinda delayed the whole intro thingy," Danyl explained with some vigorous hand gestures and a shrug.

The more she talked, the more intriguing details Dean noticed from her. From the vague freckles on her face to her short fingernails polished in vibrant rainbow colours.

"R... right," Dean registered the main points of the whole story in his head. "Weird girl with weird outfit and a really confused accent. Burnt cookies and a toasted oven. Who is Rick-Rick?" Dean was already immersing himself in his own conversation with his mind. Either that or he had really lost his mind.

Then, suddenly he heard a loud crash coming from the other end of the building.

"O' dear... Those lads better not destroy the whole place before I get back," Danyl muttered and left Dean's place. Without even himself realizing it, Dean followed her.

Outside the pavement of his residence, he noticed lots of cracks at the wall and broken pieces lying everywhere. His neighbours were all busy cleaning up the mess. Then, he saw Danyl turning to, where he presume to be, her new home.

Slowly peeking into her house, what Dean was about to see was even more ghastly than her horrible outfit.