Series by: donutboy456781
Last night started off pretty normal. Most of the downstairs lights were off when I got home, but that was to be expected. Mary doesn’t mean to do it, but she always seems to forget that her husband works the graveyard shift, meaning he will be coming home most nights when both she and the sun are fast asleep. It was nothing to be angry about though. I simply planned to bust her for her constant forgetfulness the next morning and nothing more.
Anyways, I hadn’t eaten anything in the last few hours, so rather than going straight up to bed like I always do I decided to pop a frozen pizza into the microwave, just to silence my growling stomach. That break of routine, as meaningless as it seemed at the time, is probably the only reason I am writing this post.
Once I opened the beeping microwave I saw that its clock read 2:49 AM. I almost regretted staying up to eat this pizza, and I truly could feel my eyelids getting heavier with each second. Rather than move to the table to eat, I ate right in front of the microwave. I or Mary could clean up any mess in the morning, I just wanted to get some food in me and get some rest before I had to follow the same tiring schedule all over again the next day.
From where I was eating, my front door was roughly 90 degrees to my left and only about 15 feet away. I could see my front door and the small window beside it if I was looking that way, but at that point I wasn’t focused on anything other than devouring my pizza.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the motion lights had just unexpectedly turned out. Other than being surprised, I didn’t pay much attention to it at that time. We live in a pretty wooded area and get animals moving around through our yard all the time. I was sure that whatever was out there was nothing of note, maybe a badger or something of the like. After a minute, the lights clicked back off. I assumed that whatever had triggered them must have been scared off immediately by the lights. I returned my focus to my pizza.
Once I was done eating, I dragged myself to the stairs with what little energy I had left in my body. To get to the stairs, you have to walk into the front entryway and pass by the front windows.
Without thinking, I took a look out of my front window and was immediately jolted awake as my heart pounded like it was going to leap out of my chest. Standing in my yard about 20 feet away from my door was a man. Well, the outline of what seemed to be a man. There are no streetlights on our street, so the only lights in our yard were the motion lights we installed when we moved in (which as I mentioned were off) and the dim light we keep on in the entryway radiating out the front windows to the yard. All I could see was this outline, with head craned upwards as if they were looking to the stars or something.
I didn’t really know what to do... it was a freaky sight to see, but we live in a small and secluded community. We know literally everyone that lives around us, and our neighbors are all very trustworthy people. I figured that this person was someone I knew...
...so I tapped on the window to get the person’s attention. Foolish, I know. Wasn’t really thinking clearly I guess. But anyway, I didn’t want to wake Mary so I tried to stay as quiet as possible. He didn’t budge. No reaction at all. I figured that whoever it was out there couldn’t hear me... so... I opened the door. Don’t get it twisted, I was scared beyond belief. But at the end of the day, I try to see the best in people. The figure in my yard hadn’t really done anything to warrant a phone call to the police, plus they usually take a good 10 minutes to answer a call out here. I hoped to resolve this quickly and cleanly.
As the door creaked open, I realized that the figure had changed slightly: he was now staring right at me. It was jarring, two seconds prior when looking out the window, he’d still been staring upwards. I couldn’t make out the finer points of his features yet, as the light from the house barely reached him, and I thought that made him all the more creepy.
The figure just slowly started to walk backwards towards the road while still facing me. As the person sped up slightly, the motion lights finally came back on. He wasn’t anyone I had ever seen before. He was relatively tall (6’4 maybe?) and crazy skinny, borderline emaciated really. He truly looked like he had never eaten anything a day in his life. And he was completely hairless. No eyebrows, no facial hair, and bald. I was speechless as this seemingly mute and sickly person just silently observed me, and I quickly realized that he was less terrifying when he was obscured by shadows...
He turned and ran away from me through my yard, across the road and into the woods on the other side of the road. I was frozen in fear. Neither fight nor flight kicked in for me. Had this person wanted to hurt me or Mary, he had his chance.... but he didn’t take it...
I locked the door and went upstairs not really sure of what to do... I couldn’t really have called the police once he was gone, could I? I mean this guy didn’t really do anything. Sure he was on private property, but I’m sure the police wouldn’t take it seriously. I figured it was useless, and that I’d rather keep my guard up in case this man came back tonight and worry about possibly phoning the police.
I got very little sleep. I was sure that every rustle of the leaves or every gust of wind was the trespasser returning. I finally shut my eyes at 6 AM when the sun started to rise but was up when I heard Mary shuffling to the shower at 8ish.
“Oh, good morning! Didn’t expect you to be up, aren’t you sleepy?”
“Yeah, but I couldn’t really sleep... tough night of work and all that... since I’m up, why don’t I make you some breakfast before you go to work?”
She smiled and nodded in appreciation. I wanted to tell her about the events from a few hours prior, but I knew it would freak her the fuck out. And why wouldn’t it? It was a terrifying turn of events. I don’t know. I thought maybe her favorite dish of bacon and eggs would make the news easier for her. Really dumb logic in hindsight, but I guess I was still experiencing a fear-induced shock...
“What are we going to do?” Mary was trying to be calm, but I knew by the fact that she ignored her breakfast after I explained the situation that she was freaked out. I told her there wasn’t much for us to do right now. We argued a little bit, and she made it clear that she really wanted to call the police. I still didn’t think it was a good idea. We had zero evidence to prove there was anyone there in our yard the previous night. Zilch. Or so I thought...
“What about those cameras that Mrs. Maddox installed? Didn’t you link them up to your laptop when we moved in or something?”
We moved in 5 years ago because, even though it was in the middle of nowhere, this house was actually a lot closer to both our jobs. And honestly we liked the privacy the community offered. We bought the house from Jason Maddox, whose mother was an old widower living there alone for a few years. She had been petrified of the neighborhood ever since the death of her husband. Her son sold the house on her behalf so that she could live with him, hopefully living out the final years of her life in peace with Jason and his wife and kids. Before she moved out, she had Jason install a few cameras outside her house just for to provide her a peace of mind. The things were cheap pieces of junk and Jason himself said they rarely looked at them, but it turns out they actually came in more handy than any of us could have imagined.
I shrugged. “I guess you’re the brains in this relationship after all, Mare. I’ll call the boys in blue and deal with them and the cameras before I head off for work. In the meantime, do me a favor and don’t get too upset about all of this.” That was easier said than done, but I actually think she was a lot calmer once I actually started to take her police suggestion seriously. I kissed her goodbye and got right to work on figuring things out.
I poured myself a coffee and got to work. I was half expecting the bastards not to work in their hour of need because of my half-decade of neglect, but thankfully I couldn’t have been more wrong. I opened the software, and after a fifteen-ish minutes of updates I finally saw a live feed of the four different cameras of my outside. The camera in the driveway was angled poorly to the point where you could only see a small sliver of the driveway and dense foliage, while the back and side cameras showed mostly foliage and the fenced in portion of our yard. Jason Maddox had unsurprisingly done a piss poor job setting up 75% of the cameras.
The front camera was a comparative Mecca for our home surveillance. From what I could tell from watching the live feed, this camera was angled perfectly to have captured our uninvited visitor. I went into the database and found last night’s camera feeds. Sure enough, at 2:54 AM, the man crept out from the shadows and into the our front yard. There it was: concrete, undeniable proof.
I called and alerted the police, and they took me very seriously once I told them I had a video evidence of the intruder. The operator said that two officers would be sent to my home to view last night’s video and file a police report. Alas, my relief was short lived. Something that the operator said made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. A logical and seemingly-mundane question with immense ramifications. Something both horrifying and entirely possible that I simply hadn’t thought of.
“Does this individual show up on the security cameras any other nights?”
All at once, I realized how entirely possible and downright terrifying this possibility was. I mean... how many times did I lay awake in bed and see the front lights click on at odd hours of the night? Like I said, it was a pretty regular occurrence for us. I immediately checked the feed from the night before I encountered the man face to face. I wasn’t sure when he might come, so I started at 9 PM. I played it at 2x speed and made it through the night without anything of note. Momentary relief. I went back one more night prior. At 12:36 AM, he creeps into the yard and triggers the front motion lights. I was stunned...
But it got even worse. He stayed there, motionless, in complete darkness, until just about 5 AM. He was so still for almost five hours that he didn’t even trigger the motion lights again until he turned around and left for the day. Think about that. While our motion lights aren’t very sensitive, I know for a fact that something as simple as a head jerk from a sneeze would set them off. This guy was essentially a statue for almost five hours.
As I’m writing this, I am shaken. The police arrived moments after I made my discovery. I told the two officers about this new development, and they were visibly uncomfortable. Sergeant James, the veteran between the two officers, would later tell me that he never saw anything like this in his almost 23 years on the job.
We went through 33 days-worth of video logs, and found that the man came to my home on 27 of those nights. Besides the night I interrupted him, his briefest stay lasted 22 minutes and 15 seconds (five days ago). His longest stay occurred early last week. He arrived at 11:57 PM and left at 6:13 AM. He always stands in a similar spot in the front yard, about 20 feet from the front door.
I called in sick for work tonight, because I can’t begin to describe how little I want Mary to be alone at this house when night falls. I’m terrified.
So are the cops, especially since they know they don’t have this person for much. So far all the evidence shows is trespassing and loitering on private property. If they were to catch him in the act and not find any reason to charge him with a more serious crime, he’d probably just get a fine or a brief stint in jail. They claim they’ll have patrol cars scouring the area tonight and one car stationed in front of my house all night, which makes me feel somewhat better. But their lack of answers and their obvious uneasiness about all this makes me extremely nervous.
That’s all I have for now. Mary comes home in an hour, and it will be dark soon. If anyone on here knows anything about this situation, or just has a theory or spots a detail I missed, please let me know in the comments. I will update you all when (or if) we learn more about this whole situation or if something of note occurs. Until then, let’s just hope we make it through the night tonight.
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