A knock on the door.

Linda was startled back to earth by a loud knocking on the door. As she crossed the room to open the door, she had two thoughts. First, a lot of time had passed. Her call had been mid-afternoon and it was now dark out. Second, this wasn't the handlers. They had keys, so they would let themselves in immediately after knocking.

She opened the door and had time to glimpse an attractive man in his late thirties with a bottle of wine before her brain shut down.

Derek was nervous about welcoming his new neighbor to the complex. He had seen her moving in and developed a small crush immediately. It wasn't just that she was hot, although that didn't help. Something about the way she carries herself instantly appealed to him.

Now, though, she was just staring blankly through him. He cleared his throat and held out the wine bottle. She didn't respond at all.

"Hi, I'm Derek. I'm your new neighbor."

Her face abruptly came to life and her eyes met his. It was uncanny. She smiled and offered her hand. "Linda."

Having shook his hand, the strangest thing happened. Her hand fell limply back to her side and her face went slack again. He decided to just ignore this weird tic.

"I, uh, brought you some wine. Hope you like Merlot."

Once again she reanimated and took the wine from him gratefully. "To be honest, I'm not much of a connoisseur. I like reds, though. Let me go put this in the kitchen." She turned and headed back into her apartment.

Derek took this as an invitation to come in. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him.