The street I live on is in a considerably big area, and somehow, a tall, thin, elderly man manages to clean most of the windows on the houses of this neighbourhood.
He’s always wearing a dark blue cap, and carrying a large metal ladder around with a smile on his face no matter the weather. My mom and I do wonder how he carries the ladder around all day considering his age, but we brushed it off.
One of the strange things about him is that he doesn’t make appointments or discuss times with clients, he just shows up at somepoint in the daytime, washes all the windows, sets a paper in the mailbox asking for payment, and continues on his merry way.
You would think that this is impractical considering homes are meant to be private, but usually he can be heard noisily setting up his ladder, or he’ll call out alerting residents that he’s arrived, allowing them to close the curtains. He hasn’t showed up in a while, but everyone assumes that it’s because it’s winter, he’ll get ill if he continues in these conditions, especially at his age. He deserves a break anyway. He seems like a nice man.
Until last night that is.
I was up late at night in my room, 1:50 something A.M, watching a load on nonsense on my television as usual. The headboard of my bed is against the window to the backyard and I always sleep with one curtain open to allow a comfortable amount of sunlight inside in the morning.
Big mistake.
As I scrolled through the channels I slowly begin to feel like something was wrong. Trying hard to ignore it. But the feeling that someone was watching me began to overcome me, like a heavy blanket.
I froze.
“Sht.” I thought as my eyes widened. “I can’t just ignore this.”
I slowly, slowly, sat up. My heart rate increasing with every movement and the hairs on the back of my neck stood tall.
“I can either turn slow, dreading each second, or turn quick and get it over with.” I chose the former.
I closed my eyes tight and clenched my sheets hard.
“On the count of three. I’ll do it.”
“One… Two…”
Deep breath.
“Three.”
I whipped my head back as quick as possible and there it was. A silhouette. But it wasn’t just a shadow, it was a heavy, overwhelming darkness. For a fraction of a second he was there, but he ducked away in an unnatural and erratic manner.
“What the fck.”
My mind began to race and my body shook violently as I tried to process what I had just seen. I needed to know if it was real or if i just desperately needed sleep.
I looked at my jittering hands and tried to gather myself. I cautiously leant towards the headboard, peeking over it into the backyard.
There he was. Just standing on the grass. Motionless. I could just make out the coarse silhouette of his head looking right up at my face. I felt sick.
He walked backwards slowly. He didn’t turn around, he just… Walked backwards. Like some kind of demon. And with that, my neighbour’s backyard security light turned on, and in that instant. he was gone.
Absolutely not.
Without a thought, i ran straight to my mom’s room, hot tears streaming from my face. I told her everything. And she comforted me all through the night.
Once daytime came I was able to finally relax. While enjoying a cup of hot cocoa, my mom staggered into the kitchen to show me a letter sent from the neighbourhood news.
“Local window cleaner passed away a week ago due to an unknown accident.”
I stared at it. Nothing more. My head was full but empty all at once. Useless thoughts stumbling in my mind. Though one stood out to me…
There was no ladder.