I had just moved in with my boyfriend of one year in March 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic. We were living with his parents, the basement space they let us use was more than accommodating with how spacious and finished it was.
We were planning to eventually save up enough money and move out on our own, but with the pandemic ramping up things were practically at a stand still for a while.
I was happy but was still acclimating to my new environment. Being from the south I was now in New England territory in a small town that was fairly secluded.
Weeks quickly turned to passing months and we settled into a routine. Every night before I went to bed I would take a quick smoke from my bowl to help me sleep, open up the sliding glass door to the back of the basement and blow it outside. Waving my arm in the process to trigger the motion light, because otherwise it’s pitch black out there. Less creepy.
I remember it was a Friday in October, around 1:45am. I was getting ready for bed and was doing my last dance with mary jane. My boyfriend was already asleep as he always is out before me. I am a night owl.
The thing about the other end of the basement from where you enter inside the house, is its secluded to one end of the property. The basement is meant to be liveable and has a separate side entrance exclusive from the rest of the house.
A decending path curves along the yard, starting from the driveway at the front of the house and connects around to the bottom level. This is where I vent my silly leaf before hitting the hay almost every night for the past 6 months or so.
I was ready to smoke, the house silent save for the soft hum of the fridge nearby. I crept over and pushed the curtain aside, ready to raise the door bar that was keeping it secured shut…but I noticed something off.
My familiar reflection in the glass door looking back at me, the pitch ichor-black of the night like peering into still dark water. It wasn’t just my reflection though, to the left definitely out of the angle of my own body was a silhouette made obvious by a back porch light on in the neighbors yard.
A silhouette of a person.
The neighbors light was a couple hundred yards away and through trees surrounding our property. But it was just enough light to realize there was a void, a tall figure standing within arms reach through the glass of my sliding door.
The sliding door I almost just opened. I remember a pulse like shock going through me, I let out a raspy primal inhale, my hair standing up on end while backing away. The curtain returned to its closed position, as I grabbed for my phone ready to call 911.
There was a second set of windows that faced the side of the entrance I was just at. I crept over quickly and noticed the motion light had been triggered. Light casting around the edges of the curtains. Now was my chance to check it out. I told myself to look before calling the authorities or waking my bf up over nothing.
So I slowly peeled back the curtain edge so as not to attract attention. My heart was racing in my chest, so loud to my own ears in the silence of the night. Only to see nothing there. Nothing at all.
To say I was relieved was an understatement. But that only raised more questions in me. My mind now racing and unable to sleep I was haunted by what just happened. What could have happened.
The light was off but someone was there… meaning they waited completely motionless for it to go off again which takes a few minutes. If I had opened the door and waved on the lights, oblivious, then what? Was he going to break in? Kill us?
The most spooky of all is they saw me, because seconds after, the motion light was triggered and no one was there after looking again.
Needless to say I replayed all this in great detail to my bf and we got a camera installed as well as motion sensor so I can always check it before I go to smoke now. He told me it was probably just a bear as they have those a lot up here as a regular occurrence.
I’m not so sure, I distinctly remember seeing shoulders and the roundness of a human head.
We will be moving out soon luckily, I can stop thinking about what could have happened if I hadn’t noticed them standing there. Completely still. Watching me.