When i was a little kid, i often saw an eerie woman cycling around our neighborhood. She looked like any other middle-aged woman, dark brown long hair, adult-like face and about 35-50 years old. But she was really short. Approximately 4’9 to 4’10, about the same height as me when i was like ten years old.
She didn’t look like she suffered from dwarfism, or any kind of medical condition, just very short and slim. What made her creepy, was that she also behaved like a child. She always wore pink, floral patterned cycling helmet, and rode a children’s bicycle. Like a really, really small kid’s bicycle.
She looked way too big for that bike, even though she was the size of a ten-year old. Best way describe her appearance, is that she was a ten-year old girl who had adult woman’s head and voice. It was quite disturbing, especially as a young child. I was never really scared of her, but seeing her always gave me goosebumbs.
She never communicated with anyone and she was alone, every time i saw her. She was always softly crying and looked desperate. It wasn’t child-like crying, more like adult’s quiet grieving. It seemed like she was ashamed about crying and wanted to hide it. I felt sorry for her but never had the courage to say anything.
One day when i was about eleven years old, i was walking home from school, along a little shortcut path i used to take through the woods. Suddenly, i saw her cycling towards me fast. She always cycled around fast, as if she was in a hurry, but this time she looked even more distressed than usually.
I heard intensifying crying as she was getting closer. It looked like she didn’t even notice me, so i stepped further to avoid a collision with her. When she was only a few feet away from me, i opened my mouth to finally ask what’s wrong, but before i could say anything, she screamed at me.
She didn’t say anything, it was only a short, loud, high-pitched scream, as if she was trying to scare me away from her. It worked. I jumped and felt chills go down my spine. What the heck was that? As i was walking home, thinking about the scream, it started to annoy me. I was just being polite.
After that incident, everything went on like before. I saw her maybe twice a week and never tried to talk to her again. She became a joke in my friend group, just a creepy weirdo who screamed at me when i was eleven. Years went by and i moved to another town to study. I didn’t see her anymore and memories about her faded.
Recently, i finished my studies, graduated and moved back to my hometown. I had been in town for about three weeks, before my mom recommended me a new, good restaurant that located near my childhood home. One evening, i was driving around with my old friend, and suggested if he wants to try the new restaurant with me.
He had never been there and accepted the suggestion. At about 10pm, after eating and having a drinks, we got out of the restaurant. Weather had gotten bad, it was pitch-black, windy and raining heavily. As we were getting in to my car, i saw someone approaching in the corner of my eye.
A woman, riding a kids bicycle, crying very quietly. I recognized her immediately. I hadn’t thought about her even once, in years. She looked exactly the same as she did a decade ago. Literally hadn’t aged a day. Even the same clothes, same helmet, and same bike. Riding around, in the middle of the night in a storm.
I got chills seeing her. It was a dream-like feeling, i wasn’t even sure if my memories of her actually existed. She passed us by, crossed the empty parking lot and disappeared in to dark, stormy night. I slowly got into car and turned to see my friend’s reaction. I was sure he remembered her too.
He was scrolling through his phone and didn’t say anything. I asked: ”Did you see the woman?” He slowly raised his head in confusion and answered: ”Yeah, i saw her, what?” Turned out he had no memories of her, which was odd, because i clearly remember our jokes about the weirdo screamer woman.
I dropped my friend to his apartment and went home. I sent messages to my other childhood friends, asking if they remember the woman that screamed at me. No one remembered, except one, who only remembered me talking about a woman, but claimed to have never seen her.
It made sense to me, because none of them got screamed at by her, and it had been almost ten years since the event. Still, i couldn’t understand how people are not interested in that mystery. She was even creepier sight as an adult. Very weird. Why is she always crying? What is she doing? Who is she?
Next day, i asked if one of my old friends wants to come and observe her with me. That friend didn’t remember anything about the woman, but was a hardcore horror fan, who had already made up all kinds of theories about the woman. We drove to a parking lot, close to our old primary school.
A place where she could be seen. We sat in the car and waited for only like ten minutes until i saw her. My friend got excited and frightened about her actually looking like a fifty year old woman, because at first sight, she looked like any little girl. She cycled past us, pretty close to my car, and quickly glanced at me.
It was first time ever when i had eye contact with her. Usually she was looking down, hiding her sadness and avoiding eye contact with everyone. As she looked at me, for a fraction of a second, i could already in that time sense her weird, dead appearance. Her watery eyes had nothing behind them.
She looked at me without any emotion or reaction. I was shocked and i quickly looked down. My friend didn’t get eye contact with her, he was just super excited that we found her. He said we should follow her and see where she lives. I refused to do that. I got way too bad feeling about her.
It almost looked like she instantly realized we were stalking at her. I just wanted to forget that and continue life. But my friend convinced me to follow her. Curiosity won. She was cycling fast and had already gone pretty far. I caught her though, and we started following her, slowly and pretty far from her, hoping she doesn’t notice us.
Part two tomorrow.