"Oh" Andrew said, standing at his favourite coffee shop's entrance. It was raining and he can't go back to his home in this weather. ' I guess, I have to wait inside for the rain to stop. ' he thought and went inside the shop. He walked towards the counter and ask a cup of coffee, "One cup of-" Before he could finish his sentence, the barista spoke up," Mocha, right?" He asked him. "Yes please." He said to the barista, smiling at him. "Sure, one cup of Mocha coming right up." The barista said and went to prepare. Andrew went and sat down at his favourite spot, the window side. He kept his sketchbook and sketching pencils on the table, looking outside at the people walking by. "Here's your order, sir." The server said and he thanked her. ' Maybe I can do some sketches while waiting for the rain to stop. ' he thought and opened his sketchbook. While having his Mocha, he started looking for something that he could draw and his eyes caught on the designs of the café. It was a simple tree design with some flowers, carved out from Rosewood, maybe? He wasn't good at guessing wood types but was good at sketching. He started to draw the tree and flowers first, slowly and gently and after that, he started to sketch his drawing, slowly-slowly, he sketched until it was ready.
"Ah...." He said, holding up his sketchbook next to the design inside the café. "It's beautiful." Someone said, which startled him. Andrew looked behind and saw a girl, who was also holding a sketchbook in her hands. "Your sketch looks great!!" She complimented him. "Thank you for the compliment, miss...." "Ella, Ella Stankerfield." She said with a smile. "Andrew Perens, nice to meet you." He said, offering a handshake which Ella accepted it. "It's wonderful to meet someone who has the same hobby of sketching." She said, sipping her cup of Cappuccino. " Oh, so your hobby is sketching too?" He asked her, knowing that she also loves to sketch just like him. "Oh yes, by the way if you don't mind, can I see your sketches?" She asked him. It was a bit awkward for Andrew to show her his sketches but he agreed and gave her his sketchbook. Ella turned the pages, looking at the beautiful sketches. After looking all the sketches, she gave the book back to Andrew, "Your sketches are beautiful indeed. You must be a great joy to your parents." She said, with a gentle smile. The mention of his 'parents' made him silent for a while. ' They never looked at my drawings. ' he murmured, "Eh, did you say anything?" Ella asked him. "Not really, but thank you for your compliment. Can I see your sketches too?" He asked her. Without any hesitation, she gave him her sketchbook. He opened the book and saw a sketch of a girl, who was posing with a bunch of flowers. ' Ella is also good at sketching. ' Andrew thought and turned to the next page, only to be horrified seeing the girl, whom he saw in the first page, being stabbed at her stomach. "Um, Ella about this drawing, where did you get inspiration from?" He asked her. She looked at the book and said,"I thought of doing a horror comic so, I drew it by myself. How is it?" "Oh, I think it's great but instead of sketching it with pencil, you can sketch it with colour pencils." He said, without any suspicions towards Ella. He turned the pages to see girls, boys, old people, children and even puppies and kittens drawn on the first page but on the next page, they were dead. Andrew thought that she might be a great horror comic artist one day. He gave her the sketchbook,"I'm sure that you'll be a great horror comic artist one day" he said, "Thank you so much Andrew" she said.
After a long talk, both of them parted ways to go to their own homes. Andrew, who went to buy some groceries and was going back, saw Ella walking towards his way home. ' Huh? I didn't knew that Ella lives in this neighborhood. ' He thought and went towards her, "Hey!! Ella!!!" Andrew called out. She turned around and was surprised to see him,"Andrew? What are you doing here?" "I live in this neighborhood." He said,"but no, I'm not stalking you, I swear!!". Saying this, Andrew slapped his face in embarrassment but Ella laughed out heartily,"you're so cute!" She said while laughing. Seeing this, he thought to shrug off the embarrassing moment. "If you don't mind, where do you live Ella?" Andrew asked after Ella had stopped laughing. "In that house." She said, pointing towards a white coloured house with an egyptian bule roof colour. ' And my house is just a few houses behind hers. ', "Andrew, you are there buddy?" She asked him, waving her hand at his face. He popped out from his mind and came into his senses,"oh, yeah I'm okay." He said with an awkward smile in his face. He had a strong urge to go but something was telling him to talk with Ella. "Would you mind if you have a cup of tea?" She asked him with a smile; Andrew wasn't sure about that but he agreed to stay for sometime.
"Have a seat." She said after closing the door. He looked around and saw that all the furnitures were all of minimalist design but arranged wonderfully. The centre table even had a vase of homemade flowers made from crepe paper. "Did you made this flowers Ella?" He asked her curiously, crouching down and looked at the flowers. "Yeah, I made the flowers by myself." She said, crouching down beside him,"it's beautiful, isn't it?" She asked him, but looking at the flowers made him think that he had seen it somewhere but he wasn't sure of it so he just shrugged it off and sat down on the couch. "I'll bring the cup of tea." Ella said, and went inside the kitchen. Andrew looked around the living room, it was filled with mysteries. He could see the things that he saw before but couldn't remember where he saw them. He looked at the flowers again, this time he knew that he had seen it in one of Ella's sketches. Just when he was about to call her out, he felt something pressed to his nose and he felt dizzy and everything was blacked out. In the basement room, he opened his eyes only to see Ella, who was playing with a knife,"So you woke up?" She asked, he tried to say something but there was a tape in his mouth. He struggled to get free from the ropes which was tied together with the pillar, he could pick up the stench of blood and dead bodies. "Aww, you were so cute when you were sleeping." She said, and showed him her sketchbook where she had drawn a sketch of him; she got up from the chair with the knife and gripped his hair and whispered,"I like to draw dead people more so can I do your sketch?~"
THE END
