I’m 15 and I was home alone one night with my sister, who’s 7.
Our parents were out at some wedding and they’d left us home. Honestly, I liked that. Who doesn’t like having the house to themselves? My sister was little enough to not bother me that much.
So I had the job of watching her, you know, making sure she ate, took her meds, went to sleep at a reasonable hour.
Except, well, I didn’t really care about putting her to sleep. I’d promised her that she could stay up as late as she wanted. She’s a kid, it’s a Saturday night, it’s not the end of the world, plus she’ll probably only resist up until 1AM and then fall asleep on the couch or something.
Mom and dad left around 7. ‘Remember, no staying up late, eat what we left you on the counter, there’s some macaroni, if you want more there’s more in the fridge.’ said dad.
‘Leah, if you want to eat yoghurt, take it out of the fridge and leave it out for a bit to warm up, don’t eat it cold! You’ll get a sore throat-‘
‘Yeah, mom, I know,’ I replied.
‘If Dina wants to, you can give her some Pepsi, but please don’t let her exaggerate with it! She’ll never fall asleep.’
‘Ok.’
‘Make sure the windows are closed, maybe leave the bathroom one open…’
‘All right, I know…’
‘Okay. Love you. Bye.’
As soon as they left, I turned to Dina and said ‘Well, what do you want to do?’
She was pretty excited that we were alone. The first thing she wanted to do was watch TV in the big bedroom and eat popcorn. Mom would have commented on the smell, but mom wasn’t home.
After, we played some video games on my older brother’s console, who’d left it here after he moved out. He didn’t have many, so we played Need for Speed for a while and kept crashing into walls and trees and each other because of how bad we were at this.
We ate dinner, then some ice cream. I tried to make a milkshake but it didn’t really taste that good, and I ended up having to spend ages to clean the blender.
I left her upstairs and watched some YouTube in the living room, then went up to my parents’ bedroom and started looking through my mom’s closet. I found some bag she literally never wore, and I stole it.
I was trying out some clothes, when Dina came into the room. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Just looking at stuff.’
‘Mom’s? Does it fit you?’
‘Well, not everything. But some things work.’
‘Do you like fashion?’ she asked, throwing herself on the bed.
‘Yeah. She has some pretty cool stuff. Vintage.’
I picked up one of her scarfs. ‘Just don’t go around saying I’m going through her stuff when I’m alone.’
‘Why, doesn’t she let you do that?’
‘She doesn’t mind, but still.’
‘Okay.’
It was around midnight.
‘It’s getting pretty late. Aren’t you tired?’
‘No, not really,’ she responded, her eyes glimmering.
After a bit, she tilted her head and, watching me fold back mom’s clothes, asked me something that seemed pretty ordinary.
‘Do you think he knows we’re awake?’
‘Who, dad? I mean, he told us not to stay up late, especially you, but I think he knows we weren’t gonna listen. He doesn’t mind, though, don’t worry.’
She paused, again.
I closed the closet door.
‘Not dad.’
I stopped. ‘Then who?’
She didn’t answer. I turned to face her. ‘Who were you talking about?’
Dina seemed to hesitate. I had watched too many movies about kids saying freaky things, and I remember thinking I swear to God, if she says some weird shit like The Hat Man or the man in the hallway I’m packing our bags and getting the fuck out. I was already starting to feel uneasy, and I didn’t need her building into that fear.
‘I don’t know.’
‘What do you mean? Who knows we’re awake?’
‘I saw him at the window. When we were eating.’
My blood ran cold. ‘Who did you see? What the fuck?’
‘Hey, don’t say that.’
‘Who did you see?’
‘I don’t know,’ she started playing with her sleeves, ‘someone was out there. I saw their face in the glass. They were pretty close to the window, and they seemed to watch us.’
‘Why didn’t you say anything, Dina?’
‘I didn’t think it was a big deal.’
‘Was it a he?’
‘I think, yeah. He looked very tired. And he had no brows.’
I was literally paralyzed. ‘Ok, we’re going downstairs, and you’re gonna show me where you saw this thing.’
‘Oh, I didn’t see him downstairs.’
‘What do you even mean? You said he was watching us eat.’
‘Yeah, eat popcorn. Upstairs.’
Eat popcorn. In our parents’ bedroom. Upstairs.
Dina wouldn’t make this up. She wasn’t like that. My eyes darted to the window. No one was there.
You know how, during the night, all you see out the window is darkness? How you’re afraid, how you have this irrational fear that you might see someone else? Or something else, staring back?
Well, that’s what was playing in my head at that time.
I started asking her more about this man, this thing.
‘I don’t know. I mean, I only see him sometimes. He just watches, and doesn’t say anything, but I know he comes in when we sleep.’
‘Are you making this up?’
‘I’m not! I sometimes fall asleep to him staring at me, and when I wake up, he’s gone, but the window is open, or the things in my room are different. Sometimes I catch him off guard and wake up in the middle of the night, and he crawls out of the room, through the window, quickly. It’s funny.’
‘He comes in? And you let that happen?’
‘I don’t mind him! I think he’s just curious. Maybe he wants what us humans have. He’s like Ariel.’
Oh, shut up.
‘You’re seriously comparing this thing to the little mermaid? What the fuck, Dina?’
She was starting to feel uncomfortable. She hadn’t probably expected me to get so angry.
Then, she smiled.
‘What?’
‘I’m just joking.’
‘What?’
‘I made that up,’ she laughed. ‘To scare you.’
I raised my brows. ‘Scare me? Why?’
‘I don’t know.’
I mean, the whole thing seemed ridiculous. A ridiculous story. So it was logical that she’d made it up.
I was still a bit freaked out. ‘That wasn’t funny. I seriously got freaked out, Dina. I’m gonna check if I locked the doors and windows.’
‘Just don’t let him catch you!’ she said.
What a devious child. And I was gonna let her stay up as long as she wanted.
After I’d checked, I put her off to sleep. I decided to watch something in my bedroom, but made sure to leave the lights on in the hallways, and the porch light.
I was starting to wish my mom and dad would come home sooner.
After a while, when it was about 2AM, a thought occurred. I don’t know why.
I stood up and slowly creeped up to her room. I was about to open the door, when something made me look through the keyhole first.
I saw it. It was exactly as she’d described it, and it was inside.
Some weird, horrific skin crawler freak, I don’t even know how to describe it, but I froze and it all felt like a dream. Its limbs were long and its face was smooth, like a plastic mask. The eyes moved around a lot.
Dina was sleeping, unaware of this thing. This creature.
It turned its back to me, facing Dina. My mind was desperately looking for something to do. Go inside? Face it? I didn’t know what it wanted, or if it would let me be. Call the police? That meant leaving Dina alone in the room with it. I couldn’t do that, either.
Suddenly, it crawled on the wall. At least, I assumed it was the wall, because it had disappeared out of my range. I stopped breathing. I think even my pulse stopped.
Then, I saw its eye through the keyhole, staring back at me.
That took me off guard, and I jumped back and screamed.
I was expecting it to break through the door, but nothing happened.
Was it still looking at me through the keyhole? To even be acknowledged by that thing horrified me.
My head was spinning. I could not move, I just prayed it would go away, and I didn’t understand why everything was so silent.
After a while, I built up some courage and opened the door.
The room was empty. The thing had left, but so had Dina.
‘Dina! Dina, please, Dina…’
I knew my screaming was in vain. For a few moments that felt like hours, I could not understand what was happening to me. My desperate mind found one demented solution.
I picked up my phone, my hands shaking so bad, and called my mom.
She answered, but I couldn’t hear anything due to the loud music. After a few moments, she went outside, and I could distinguish her voice.
I was staring at the empty window, my mouth dry, my eyes stinging from tears.
‘Yeah? What’s up, Leah? Are you okay? Did anything happen? You scared me.’
I took a deep breath.
‘Hey, mom, don’t get mad, but I had a friend over, Jen, and she said she’s home alone too and asked us if we wanted to come have a sleepover with her. So we’re at hers now.’
There was a pause. ‘What? Leah, it’s 2 in the morning. Dina isn’t sleeping?’
‘Oh, no, she is asleep. We’ve actually been here for a while, since, I don’t know, 11PM or something, but I kind of put off telling you. Don’t get mad! We’re gonna come back home in the morning.’
I heard her sigh. ‘I don’t like it when you do these things. You should have asked me first. We’ll talk in the morning.’
Right. ‘I know, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. Bye.’
I hung up, then made my way to the open window and stared out. I saw some broken branches and my tired mind made out a trail.
I sat up on the window sill, then stepped out on the tree, numb.
I’m going after her. Wherever it took her, I’m going.