I still lived with my parents in a pretty remote area outside of town. Our house has 2 stories with an attic. Me and my older sister’s rooms are on the 2nd, while my parents are downstairs.
My room has a small balcony with a sliding glass door connecting it to my room. The door is opposite to my bed, and I’ve always hated the looming darkness that overtakes it at night. The balcony overlooks a very dense forest, and to the right, you can see the unpaved road leading from our house into town.
This all started when my sister left for some extracurricular program or camp so she could get into a good college. It was a big goodbye, considering she was leaving for a month and she had never done that sort of thing before. It was about sunset as well, and I knew my dad wouldn’t be back for at least an hour.
I watched her get in the passanger car door as my dad climbed in the driver’s side, and the car began to pull out of the driveway. I went back upstairs to my room, and pulled out my phone. I sat on my bed and started scrolling through tiktok, when a flash of headlights outside my balcony window caught my attention. The sun was dtifting down the horizon at this point, flooding my room with a red glow.
I walked over to the balcony and slid open the door. The air was cold and thin, and the hairs on my arms stood up due to the temperature change. As I glanced around, I noticed our car driving down the road. I leaned against the balcony to see them for as long as I could, when I suddenly darted my gaze over to the left.
My heart sank as I saw something, a shadow, shrink into the bushes lining the forest edge. It was most likely a wild animal, but still, it felt wrong. The figure looked too human.
I quickly stepped back inside and rushed downstairs. I worryingly knocked on my mom’s door, and she opened it and asked what my problem was.
“I saw someone run into the bushes outside.” I said.
I don’t know what I thought she was going to do, but she said “Probably an animal, just leave me alone.” and shut the door abruptly.
I stared at the door for a good 15 seconds before deciding to return to my room. I wanted to distract myself with my phone, but as the day turned to night and as rain started to pour I couldn’t help but glance at the balcony door a few times. Finally, I saw the familiar lights from my dad’s car returning from the road it left on. It made me feel a bit safer.
Later that night, I had put my phone down and decided to rest. My eyes were heavy and stung a little from staring at my phone’s blue light screen. The sound of heavy rain filled my ears. As I drifted off to sleep, a different sound jolted me awake. The sound of light tapping on glass, and of course it was on the balcony door.
I threw my covers off and flicked the light on, staring at the void on my balcony in terror. Nothing was there.
“DAD!” I yelled. “COME UP HERE PLEASE!” There was no answer, so I stormed my way downstairs and pounded on my parent’s bedroom door. My mom opened the door once again with a look of frustration. “It’s fucking 1 am. What’s your problem?” She said.
“My problem is someone was fucking tapping on my balcony window.” I half-shouted back.
“Fine.” She glared with tired eyes and made her way upstairs. I followed close behind her, and finally we made it to my bedroom. My door was wide open just as I had left it, but so was my balcony door.
“Did you open that?” She asked, and suddenly she seemed a bit more awake.
“No!” I said, completely terrified.
“Lock yourself in the bathroom and call the police. Don’t come out unless I say.” She ordered.
I did as she said, and I was crying at this point. My shaky hands locked the door and dialed the buttons on my phone.
“911, what’s your emergency?” The oporator said.
Completely panicked, I replied with my adress and then “Someone’s broken into our house, the balcony door was fucking open!”
As I answered the operators questions, I noticed my volume and brought my voice down to a whisper. It was too quiet.
Suddenly I heard my mom scream in terror, and a door slammed.
“Are you coming?!” I said.
“I’ve dispatched police and they are on their way. Stay on the line.” The operator replied.
I was in that bathroom for 10 minutes until I heard the sound of sirens in the distance. I was visibly shaking in fear when they found me, and they escorted me out of the house. Thankfully, I saw my mom alive outside. From there I was told what happened to my her.
My mom ran downstairs and grabbed a kitchen knife, then ran around to lock all the doors. Then, she locked herself in her room again.
As she sat on the bed, something under the bed grabbed her foot. She screamed and ran out of the room, slamming the door and running outside.
My dad didn’t come back home from his drive that night. He stayed at a motel because of a rain storm that made it too hard to drive back home. I don’t know who I saw driving back, but it wasn’t my dad. Somehow though, I knew it was our car. It looked the exact same.
The next day, we decided to move in with my grandparents who lived a few towns away, and on the way we picked up my sister from her program. The police had found evidence for everything we had explained, but they had also found something truly disturbing.
Several hearts were drawn on the outside of my balcony door with presumably someones finger, and the police detailed that some of them were weeks old. No fingerprints were found.
I’m writing this in my grandparents house, and I’m afraid to sleep again. There’s a window in this room too, and I have the shutters closed. Still, it doesn’t make me feel any better.