There's a Man...
I was frozen in
fear. I couldn't move or scream for help, nothing. The television in
my room was giving me a little comfort. It made it possible for me to
see him. He stood behind the curtain that separated my room from my
bathroom. He was just feet away from me on the other side of the
curtain. I laid still, staring at him and waiting for him to lunge
at me. My fingers were beginning to cramp as I gripped the covers
tighter and tighter as the seconds grew more and more tense. “What
does he want?” I asked myself as I tried to drown out the sound of
my beating heart. “How did he get in?” I wondered. None of my
thoughts were calming me. In fact, they were making my racing heart
go even faster. Suddenly, I knew I didn't stand a chance unless I
either made a run for it or fought back. Praying and sweeping up the
shattered pieces of my bravery, I pulled myself up in bed. As I sat,
staring at my intruder, he did nothing but stare back. “What do you
want?” I asked with tears in my eyes and a shaking voice. He said
nothing. He only stared. I shook my head with confusion and anger,
but my legs were still stuck. Suddenly my heart nearly stopped. The
man slowly stepped forward. The curtains raised slightly up as he
closed in. The air got caught in my throat. My mouth dried out as I
realized I was about to die. However, more frightening than my
impending doom and more disturbing than the fact that a maniac stood
in my room, was the fact that he had no legs. As my eyes darted
across his body, they stopped just below the curtain. I could clearly
make out his square shaped face, broad shoulders and long torso
pressing against the curtain, but he had no legs or feet. His upper
body was just hovering menacingly. His hand raised up slowly and I
saw his bony fingers grip the curtain. Taking his time, he slowly
began to pull the curtain away from his body. The fabric painfully
dragged across the rod it hung from. His body came into view first.
His ribs and hip bones were visible even through the dark. A loud,
soul shattering groan escaped his throat as his face became more
evident. His eyes, though sunken in his head glowed bright and his
mouth dropped open. Just then, the television in my room clicked off.
I was surround by darkness. Finally, my body moved from its petrified
state. I screamed as loud as I could and rolled out of my bed and
onto my floor. Crawling on all fours and crying and screaming the
entire time, I made my way to my light and quickly switched it on.
Aside from my traumatized self, my now completely illuminated room
was empty. My light switch sat right beside my door. If he had ran
out, I would have seen him and the only window in my room was still
locked. “But...I saw him!” I cried to the police when they came
after receiving calls of loud screaming. They thought I had taken
drugs. They checked my entire apartment, but found nothing. There was
no sign of a break in and besides me, there was no one there. But I
knew that wasn't true. “There was a man...”
Copyright
© 2016 by April Thompson
All
rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be
reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express
written permission of the publisher
except
for the use of brief quotations in a book review.