She has such a terrible twisted smile. Her features are wrong. I get a sense of fear and despair when I look at her.
It’s like she is here to torment me.
At first glance she looks like an ordinary woman. Long black hair and what looks like some type of uniform. That’s what she looked like to me my first night.
I went out onto the balcony for some fresh air in this summer heat. It was dusk and the light of the day was beginning to recede.
I took out my folding chair with a beer in hand and sat down watching the sun go down.
I sat outside until I could no longer handle the mosquitoes biting me. I looked down and I saw her.
I waved hello but the woman did not wave back. In fact she didn’t even move. She was staring up at me. I lived on the fifth floor but somehow I knew she was giving me a piercing stare.
That stare was enough for me. I went inside and closed the door to my balcony. I made sure everything was locked at least 4 times. The woman had left me with an unsettling feeling.
I drifted off to sleep and dreamt of a fire. The fire was occurring in my apartment complex. The fire had spread so much people trying to get down the stairs couldn’t because of the raging fire below. I heard echos of screams and echoes of pain and sorrow. I woke up drenched in sweat. My night clothes stuck to me uncomfortably.
I changed clothes and tried to sleep again but all I could think about was that dream. The roaring flames I heard below me. People screaming for their lives. The dream seemed all too real.
The next day I was tired but I had to work. I arrived at the fire station sleepy but ready for my shift. This wasn’t the first time I’ve dreamt of fires.
I didn’t return home for a few days due to the fire department having a skeleton crew. I kept working because it was my duty to help as much as possible.
After I got off work and returned home I smelled like smoke. Which wasn’t abnormal due to my line of work.
I opened my balcony door. The last few shifts I had worked had made me forget all about her.
I looked down and she was now standing closer to my building. Her piercing stare looking at me. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t stop looking at her.
Her features were wrong. Distorted in a way I can’t explain. Looking at her I finally understood why people feared the Uncanny Valley. She looked human but I’m not sure if she was.
While looking at her I hadn’t noticed she had moved closer. In surprise I took a few steps back and my back was pressed against my sliding glass door.
I knew I needed to get back inside. I hurriedly opened the door and locked it shutting the blinds with a sigh of relief.
That was until I began hear a shrill scream. It sounded like a woman that needed help. At first it took me some time to locate the source of the screaming. It was coming from outside.
From right under my balcony. Despite the creepy woman I didn’t want someone to get hurt when I could help. I threw open the sliding glass door and looked down from my balcony.
The creepy woman was right below me. Staring at me.
With lightening fast speed she had began scaling the balconies. She no longer looked human with her long arms and legs that she used to climb up the balconies.
Her face was distorted in anger as she got closer I could feel the dread and despair wash over me.
I couldn’t move only stare as she finally reached me.
Long fingers took hold of my balcony railing and a face that was very close to human but something wasn’t right about the way she looked and it was even worse up close.
She swung her legs onto the railing and sat there like a gargoyle staring at me. Her long arms resting almost towards the ground.
She let out a scream that sounded like many people screaming. Behind the screaming I could hear the unmistakable sound of flames burning.
I couldn’t stand it any longer. I quickly spun and struggled to find the handle to my sliding door. I could hear creaking bones behind me.
I finally got the door open and ran inside making a beeline straight to my front door. I could hear the creaking and skittering behind me and rushed into the hallway.
She chased me in the hallways screaming that hellish scream.
As I reached the stairs so did she. I could feel the things breath on the back of my neck. Suddenly I felt a push and tumbled down the stairs.
I got back up on my feet seeming to have no major injuries and kept running down the stairs.
I was on level two when I heard a man screaming “Fire!”
I couldn’t that thing was still chasing me. I felt bad but this brief stop allowed it to catch up with me.
It had a horrible twisted grin on it’s face as it backed me into a corner in the hallways. I pressed myself against a wall as it slowly got closer.
It knew I didn’t have a way out.
I pressed myself against the wall as if I was trying to become the wall when I felt something against my back.
I felt behind me. It was a case for a fire extinguisher.
With nothing else to protect myself I reached behind my back and shattered the glass.
The fire alarm for the entire building was going off.
I went to swing the extinguisher at this hideous thing but it was now backing away from me. It crawled up the stairs backwards with it’s elongated limbs still staring at me as it retreated.
Soon it was out of sight. I heard a man screaming again. What had felt like hours was only a couple minutes.
I ran towards the screaming and yelled “Fire department!” at the door that had black smoke coming from underneath the door.
It didn’t take much force to kick the door down.
Inside I heard the man coughing from the smoke. My eyes burned and began to tear up because of the acrid smoke wafting it’s way towards me.
I grabbed the man and dragged him out of his burning apartment. Once away from the inferno that was once this man’s apartment I could hear the sirens. I screamed down to the other firefighters that it was on level two.
I stood outside as the fire was put out.
I had triggered the fire alarm when I broke the glass. Firefighters were dispatched and were already on their way when I pulled the man out of his burning apartment.
Turns out it was an oil fire and had spread fast. The fire department arrived just in time to put it out.
My nightmare didn’t come true.
As I was speaking with the other firefighters I saw a woman who’s facial features didn’t look right.
She was frowning now instead of smiling. She turned her head to look at me and smiled.
I don’t know what she is but I have a terrible feeling of despair and fear.
I think she might come back.
Everyone in my building survived but I don’t think that’s what it wanted.