There’s always that odd person in a neighborhood, whether it’s someone who just stands behind bushes to scare little kids to the one birdwatcher who takes their hobby a bit too seriously, but there’s this one person in my neighborhood who takes the cake. There’s this man who just stands on my street corner every night, and that’s all he does. He stands on the corner of my street about two houses down from mine. I walk home from work and I find him just standing there doing nothing. Well, until one night.
I’d lived in Ohio for my whole life, grew up there and got my own house in the suburbs when I was able to. I lived in a fairly nice neighborhood with little to no crime and pretty nice people. I worked at a gas station about three blocks away which was in walking distance, I had a car but I figured I could just walk to work to save gas. I had a neighbor who I’d frequently talked to, an older woman named Christine. She came by all the time to offer me brownies or something like that pretty often so I knew her pretty well.
I was coming home from work one day and as I turned down the street leading to my house I saw him under one of the street lights, a man who was at least six feet tall but pretty lanky wearing a brown suit jacket with a white undershirt and grey tie, black slacks, grey dress shoes, and a brown fedora. He was just looking down at the ground and because he was I couldn’t get a good look at his face. Seeing someone dressed the way he was and just standing on the street corner unnerved me for some reason. Without interacting with him I just walked past him and headed home, shivering as I did. That night I had a lot of trouble sleeping as I constantly looked at my window that was beside my bed.
The next day I was heading to work when Christine caught me, “Good morning Jamie, off to work are you?” Christine asked me as she held a bag of cookies. “Yeah, I’ve got a long day ahead of me. Working from now to 12.” I replied. Christine handed the bag to me, “Sounds like you’ll need some extra energy.” Christine smiled. I took the bag and put it in my jacket, I then looked around before looking back at Christine. “Has somebody new moved here?” I asked the older woman. “Oh I don’t think so, why do you ask?” I shook my head, “No reason, I better head to work. Thank you for the cookies.” I thanked Christine before heading to work.
While at work one of my coworkers waved goodbye as they left which left me all alone at the gas station in the middle of the night. As I was cleaning the floors I heard a knock at the doors, but when I looked up I didn’t see anybody. I quickly finished up my chores before looking at my watch and seeing it was closing time. I grabbed the store keys and headed outside to lock the doors then start walking home. As I walked home I saw the street lights starting to flicker, making me pick up the pace. I got on my street and there he was, but instead of looking at the ground he was looking at me.
I decided to get on the other side of the street and walked down it while keeping my eyes on the man. I was just a house away from mine when I saw something that made my body freeze, across the street I saw Christine’s door broken down. I ran over to her house and went inside to see blood smeared down the halls so I followed the trail before reaching Christine’s bedroom where I saw the most disturbing sight I’d ever seen. Christine was laying in her bed with her arms and legs torn off her body, her chest split open with her organs hanging from the sides, and her face peeled off to expose muscle and veins. I panted heavily as adrenaline flooded my body and I quickly ran out of the hall and outside.
I was about to run towards my house when I saw him blocking my way, he stood under one of the flickering lights to show blood covering his sleeves and chest. I stumbled back before falling to the ground but I rushed to my feet and ran in the opposite direction. I was almost off the street when something grabbed my leg and brought me down to the ground before pulling me backwards, I tried grabbing onto anything I could but I couldn’t get a grip on anything. I turned around as I stopped being dragged and saw the man standing over me and as the light flickered I could see his face. Mandible like appendages were stabbed through the edges of his jaw while his eyes were pure red, the man’s arms audibly snapped outwards to extend while his hands turned into curved blades almost like a praying mantis.
The man tried to stab down into my body but I rolled out of the way and crawled through his legs before getting up and running to my house, hearing the man let out a loud angry cry behind me. I rushed to my house and got inside to lock the door behind me and run into my bedroom. I heard the man thing trying to break down my door as I searched through my closet, finally finding the aluminum bat I kept in there. I left my room and stood in the middle of the living room with shaking hands and sweat dripping down my face. The man finally broke through my door and made his way into my house, letting out another terrifying cry. The man sprinted at me and swiped his bladed hands at me but I blocked them with my bat. The man then managed to stab through my stomach and lift me in the air, but as he did I swung my bat across his head.
The man freak dropped me as he fell to the ground and as he was stunned I pulled the blade out of my stomach. The man went to get up but I swung my bat down into his skull, splattering a thick green liquid. I repeatedly smashed my bat into the thing’s head and splattered the disgusting substance all over my face and bat. I stopped once the thing wasn’t moving anymore and I fell to the ground, sobbing as I coughed up blood. Once I was able to I called 911 telling them that someone killed my neighbor and tried to kill me but of course not mentioning the killer was some kind of praying Mantis. The police arrived and once they did they found the killer, all of them not knowing what to make of it. I ended up moving out of that neighborhood and I’m sure you would too. Just be sure you know who you’re living around, you never know what kind of person they could be.