Chapter 1
There he was again. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I stood momentarily frozen as chills enveloped me. It appeared he was staring directly at me. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes before looking back. It happened again! He seemed to vanish into thin air.
That was the third time I had seen him this week. Each time, he seemed to vanish the second I looked away. At this point, I don’t know if I’m going crazy or if the stress and sleeplessness from moving into the new house is getting to me.
If by some slim chance I’m not crazy or fatigued and he is in fact real, why does he keep lingering outside my house and what does he want?
Once in the house, I quickly became distracted by the seemingly endless task of unpacking. Byron, my best friend, was supposed to be here helping me with the heavy stuff, however, “something important” came up with one of his friends and he wouldn’t be able to be by until dinner time. ‘Convenient,’ I had thought to myself with a laugh upon receiving his text.
The sun was starting to go down, so, I decided it was time to put dinner on. I was startled by Bella who excitedly began sniffing by the front door and wagging her tail, like dogs do when someone they recognize arrives. I figured Byron had arrived early and made my way to the door. As I looked through the peephole, I was surprised to find no one there. I figured somebody walking another dog must have gone by or something of the sort and continued making dinner not thinking much of it. That was until it happened again a moment later.
Starting to feel a little unsure of the situation, I text Byron asking him if he was on his way yet. He responded with: “Hey, let me call you in a minute.”
Well, there was my answer to that question. It definitely wasn’t Byron out there messing around.
I took a deep breath to try and shake the wave of nervousness that was enveloping me.
Again, I walked over to the door and looked out the peephole. This time I was looking directly at the back of a man’s head! I knew I had locked the screen door when I came in earlier, so I felt a little sense of security when opening the front door slightly.
“Yes?” I said, opening the door a crack.
I was shocked to find my front stoop empty. I was about to shut the front door again when a shadow by my porch swing caught my attention.
Not sure if it was fear or frustration I was now feeling, I called out: “Can I help you?”
The shadowed figure slowly turned to reveal a hooded man. I could not make out his face as he spoke: “He needs you now. Find him.”
“Who does?”
Just as I began to ask, he vanished.
I blinked! I couldn’t believe my eyes! A wave of panic crashed over me, and I could feel my hands trembling. Mindlessly, I slammed the door shut, locked it and ran upstairs. Shaking, I text Byron: “911- I need you now!!!!”
Close to 15 minutes had gone by and I was still under the blankets in my room contemplating if I had just seen a ghost, which I did not believe in, or if I was utterly out of my mind, when I heard a car pull up. I peeked out my window. It was Byron! I ran downstairs to let him in. He was looking around with a strange look on his face when I opened the door.
“What’s wrong?” He questioned.
“What’s wrong with you?” I questioned back, studying his face.
“I don’t want to freak you out, but there was some guy out here staring at your house when I pulled up. I didn’t see where he went. He managed to disappear as I got out of the car,” he explained.
I grabbed his arm and pulled him into the house locking the door behind us.
“What’s going on?” He asked again- this time with a sense of urgency.
I opened my mouth to speak yet couldn’t figure out what to say. I knew how it was going to sound. Then it hit me, it appeared he had seen him too. Still trembling, I sat down with him on the couch and explained everything that had happened throughout the day leading up to my texting him. I couldn’t tell by the look on his face if he thought I was crazy or if he actually believed me.
It was a moment before he spoke: “We need to get you some security around here.”
“I agree, but I think you are missing the main point- the man seemed to vanish into thin air as I was looking straight at him!” I replied feeling both a bit foolish and upset.
“Okay, we’ll look into a priest too!” He said in an attempt to make light of the situation.
I gave him a little playful nudge: “Shut up.”
After thinking about it for a moment I muttered under my breath: “Maybe that isn’t such a bad idea”.
He cocked his head to the side. He was studying my face. I think he was trying to figure out if I had been serious about the priest as he knew I didn’t believe in all that stuff. At least I didn’t used to… However, I knew what I had witnessed on the porch earlier and it was like nothing I had ever seen before!
I was shocked when he wrapped his arm around me. “I’ll sleep here tonight, and we will figure out what we are going to do in the morning!”
I agreed without hesitation and thanked him. That at least gave me a little sense of security for the night.
Things seemed normal for the remainder of the evening as we ate dinner and unpacked some more of the boxes.
Finally, we went to sleep. It felt like it took forever for me to stop my mind from racing enough to doze off around 2 am.
I was startled awake by a noise in the room. As I nervously glanced around, I noticed that the clock now read 3:03 a.m. Just then I almost screamed as the figure appeared at the end of my bed.
“Please don’t do that. He needs you!” It said in a weak voice.
I felt paralyzed. Mustering up all of my courage, I asked: “Who does?”
The figure lingered silently for a moment before responding: “It’s time you forgave him.”
“Who?” I questioned again.
And with that, just as before, he vanished! This was getting stranger and stranger, yet after this encounter, I felt less fearful for some reason. It was clear, whatever or whoever it was didn’t want to hurt me, it wanted my help. But, how was I to help if it didn’t tell me who needed it?
Just then, Byron came barging in: “I heard voices- is someone here?” He questioned with a sense of urgency.
I sat up and shook my head. “You’ll never believe me!”
Just then he cut me off. “I’m your best friend, of course I’ll believe you. Plus, I very clearly heard a man’s voice in here! Tell me what’s going on!”
I told him what had transpired and that I had absolutely no clue what or who it had been talking about. It was at this point that we both decided it would be best if he slept in my room the remainder of the night. Needless to say, neither one of us got much sleep. The little bit I did sleep, my dreams were plagued by this man begging for my help. Although I never saw his face, I couldn’t shake the feeling of familiarity.
