The Shadowy Figure

I had the scariest night of my life one Friday night in August.

That night, my aunt and I were out watching for shooting stars from the Perseid meteor shower. There was an owl or some bird that kept making screeching noises the entire time we were outside. We were standing on the front deck, looking up, when we heard music. I was not sure where it was from, but it sounded similar to a ringtone. I thought, "Maybe the neighbors are playing music." In hindsight, it did sound quite close. We stood out there for a few more minutes but, when we couldn't see any more shooting stars, we decided it was time for bed.

It was just after ten p.m. when we went inside. My aunt went to bed, but I decided I should take a shower since we had company coming over the next day. After showering, I turned on my iPad to watch something on Netflix, as per usual, when I heard something outside. I thought it was an animal just outside the window, scrabbling in the dirt and rocks. I let just blew it off.

A little while later, I heard it again, but it was a little different, so I got up to look out the window. There was nothing there. It wouldn't be the first time a small animal, like a chipmunk, rustling in the leaves, making noise right outside the window.

I sat back down on my bed, my heart beating slightly faster than normal. After a few minutes, I hear something again. It was not quite a knock, but something hitting the door, a thumping of some sort. Just a couple of times. I didn't want to get up. I sat on the edge of the bed for a while.

Then, I heard what sounded like that creature from earlier in the night, but it was different, and quite close, like it was in the road or at the end of the driveway. So, I got up to look out the window. My eyes needed to adjust, so I was looking towards the front door to the house and at the walkway before it, but I couldn't see anything. And then I looked to the right, towards the road.

I saw something ... someone. My heart just stopped, and I quickly moved away from the window. "Did they see me?" I drop to the floor and start crawling towards the door when I suddenly wonder what would happen if they looked in the window. I just froze then scrambled backwards. I crunched myself up against the wall right below the window, keeping as much of my body as possible against it. My phone was on the bed. I didn't expect this. Expecting to see nothing, like the other times I looked out the window, I didn't bring my phone with me this time around.

I was sitting there, waiting for something to happen, a door to open or a window the break. I heard voices from the neighbors as they were leaving for the night, I assume. Around the same time, I heard that thumping again, followed up by the sound of shoes on the pavement, someone running away.

How many were there? Were they playing some sort of Ding Dong Ditch? My aunt's doorbell doesn't work, so did they try knocking instead? I didn't know. I listened intently. If any of the doors opened, I would hear it. That's when I'd jump for my phone.

I sat huddled there for at least thirty minutes, waiting and hoping for my uncle to return home from work at the printing press. He was later than usual.

It's a true story I will never forget. Everything turned out fine, except that the next day, the table umbrella had been moved, taken from its stand and instead, lain on the deck. None of the neighborhood kids admitted to moving it.

The image of that shadow figure haunts me to this day, now almost four years later. My stomach gets knots when I look out my bedroom window at night, thinking I might catch another shadowy figure out by the large tree in the center of the yard, just staring back at me.

I now know ... though I've longed suspected it ... what I would do in a situation of fear. I would crouch and hide, unmoving, as the fear takes ahold of my body.

Have you been in a similar situation? Are you a scaredy-cat like me or would you be braver?