 Neighbor laughs at man's house, but when she looked inside she was lost for words. Carol could feel her stomach tying into a tight knot as she looked at the house of her new neighbor. How could this happen? This was supposed to be a nice neighborhood where it's safe for kids to play on the street while mothers make small talk over coffee. This had never happened before. She peered at her neighbor's house again. She didn't know what to think. She just felt the need to act. She had to do something before her neighbor got home. Carol Smith was proud of her neighborhood. After moving in here 10 years ago she'd seen many people come and go. She was a permanent resident and she loved the safe suburban feeling the neighborhood gave her. She wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Then out of nowhere, something appeared in this perfect neighborhood that would change the way it felt. And it would change Carol's life forever. It was around midnight when Carol shot awake at the sound of a van speeding down the road. Normally there wasn't any traffic on the road at this hour, let alone any noise. She didn't like being woken up. She yawned and rubbed her eyes. She looked out her bedroom window at the street beyond. What she saw made her heart jump in her chest. Looking through the window she could see the field near her house. On the field was a small house that sat there in the darkness. There had been rumors about this house for many years. Between the residents, they said it was either haunted or something terrible had happened in it many years ago. One thing that was for certain was that the house had been abandoned for a very long time as long as anyone could remember. That was, until one day. Carol still stared out the window, her heart beating as if she just ran a marathon. She could see and through the window of the small house that there was movement. Something was in there, but what? Who would move into that creepy old place, especially in the dead of night? Carol had a bad feeling and struggled to fall back to sleep. The next morning Carol went to the old house to introduce herself to whoever was there. She had even baked her famous muffins. She was determined to find out who was living in this house and why. As she got closer to the house she started seeing features she hadn't noticed before. This was no regular house. It was something very different. Once she was 20 feet from the house she couldn't help but laugh. The sinister looking house in the darkness was a small pathetic house during the day. Who would ever want to live here? Maybe they didn't have a choice, she thought. Her laugh however, was cut short when she noticed a man had been watching her from the small porch of the house. Her mirth turned to dread. The new neighbor introduced himself as Derek. Carol had so many questions for the man that she had thought about all night. The man seemed unfazed by her questions but still didn't tell her much of what she wanted to know. And when Carol spoke to him, he retreated behind the front door. Was there something inside that he didn't want her to find? He must have been hiding something. After their short conversation finished, Carol started walking away from the small house. There was something wrong, she could feel it in the pit of her stomach. Even though she didn't know what he was hiding, she was still convinced there was something to find inside that house. Carol needed to figure out a way of finding out. She was more determined than ever to solve this mystery. A few weeks had passed and Carol had spoken to all of her neighbors. They stood outside chit-chatting and laughing about the tiny house. It was a joke, the man couldn't be serious. Carol was still where she started, with no information. Her new neighbor had been very secretive since they spoke. But she was still just as determined as before to find out his secrets. She would stop at nothing to figure it out. From what she could tell, Derek didn't have a job, or if he did he must have been working from home. He was never out on his morning commute, and he never seemed to leave his house past 5 p.m. Then one dark night Carol saw something. Something she never thought she'd ever see in her perfect neighborhood. Carol got up at 11.30 p.m. to let her cat out, and before making her way to bed she peered out her window. Her eyes fixated on Darren's house. Then, just as she was about to get back into bed she heard a loud thud. She ran over to the window, and to her surprise, Derek pulled up in his car to his house. But he wasn't alone. What was he doing this time of the night? Where had he been? And more importantly why was he out at this time? He got out of the car, and made his way to the trunk. And what he got out the trunk left an uneasy feeling in Carol's stomach. It was a long and large bag. It sort of looked like a trash bag. She couldn't make out what it was exactly, but something was inside the bag. It looked heavy and Derek had to drag it across his front lawn to his house. Carol's heart drops. It couldn't be what she thought could it. She felt sick to her stomach. The following morning Carol told her husband what she saw, but he just thought she was crazy. But Carol knew she wasn't. What she saw would forever be ingrained in her mind. She needed to do something, and she needed to be quick. There was only one way to find out the truth. As Carol stood in her kitchen, clutching a cup of tea, she pondered what she could do. She couldn't go to the cops as she needed more evidence, and there was no way her husband was going to help her out. But as she took a sip from her cup, she saw Derek leaving his house. With a flustered expression on his face, he hopped into his car and sped off. And right there and then, Carol knew what to do. She wasn't proud of it, but it was the only way to get the truth. As Carol watched Derek speed off into the distance she grabbed her keys and left her house. She had no idea where Derek was going or how long he was going to be, so she knew she needed to be quick. Speeding out her front door she ran across to his house before blending within the shrubbery. She made her way over to his back door. But Carol was running out of time. She had to be quick. Carol sneaked into Derek's garden and to her surprise the garden was pretty immaculate. Perfectly trimmed shrubbery and colorful flowers were dotted around. She walked through the garden and made her to the back window. She peered inside and what she saw left her lost for words. Inside it must have been only around 172 square feet. The entire space of the tiny house was divided into four sections on different levels of the floor. It looked like the area under the floor of the kitchen was used to store a washing machine, and there was a sleeping area on the upper level. How could Derek live like this? Carol thought to herself. Then suddenly her thoughts were shattered by the sound of her name being called. She swiftly turned around and saw Derek staring at her. After a frank discussion which lasted around an hour, finally Carol had the truth. It turned out that Derek had been living here while he waited for his new house to finish construction, it just on the other side of town. He did everything in this tiny house himself from the interior to the exterior. Carol was amazed.