I didn’t believe it at first when my teenage daughter told me about it.
“There was this creepy naked old man who was just looking at me.” My daughter said, making a face.
Her words kind of just blew past me and I unintionally ignored her, continuing on with my chores.
“Hello? Earth to mom?”
“Yeah, can you repeat that?” I responded, still not giving her my full attention.
“A naked man?” She said.
“What about a naked man?”
“He’s outside walking around the street.” It finally hit me what she was saying and I looked at her. “Where?” I turned off the water and walked over to the living room windows to peer outside, but found nothing of interest.
“Just around here, I saw him a couple blocks away, he gave me this wide eyed look.” She shuddered.
I fished out my phone. “I’ll call the police and let them know.” It was currently only 9PM, so it’s not like it was that late, meaning kids could still see this naked creep.
After a short informative call, the police informed me that they’d send a unit to look around incase he’s still around here, I thanked them and hung up.
My daughter had already went up stairs, and my husband wasn’t getting home for another hour or two, so I resumed my chores. After some unspecified amount of time, I was broken out of my thoughts by the sound of our door bell. Which was really strange, as my husband had a key, and my daughter was home. I walked over to the door and looked through the peephole.
There was a strange man standing just outside of our property. Completely naked, besides a pair of white shoes. He was really hairy, which obstructed his facial features from being recognized. I cursed under my breath and fished out my phone to call the cops.
“Hello, yes, I called some time ago about a naked creep roaming the neighbourhood. Well he just rang my doorbell and is standing outside my property, just looking at my house, still fully nude.”
“Yes, I remember, we sent a unit over and they still should be around, let me radio them in, what’s your address?”
“It’s Cloverfield 23rd.”
“They’ll be there within a minute or two, just stay on the line with me and tell me what the man is doing.”
I look through the peephole again. “He’s just standing there, his front towards me.”
“Is he armed?”
“Not that I can tell, no.”
I kept observing him. “What are you looking at?” I yelped in surprise at my daughter’s sudden appearance. “You scared me.” I told her, and then continued. “That creep.. He’s just standing at the sidewalk, looking at our house.”
My daughter made yet another face. “Maybe he followed me..”, then she said “Let me look.” She walked over to the front door and looked through the hole before I could say anything.
“There’s nobody there?” She said, confused.
“What? Let me look.” I gently pushed her aside, sure enough, the man was gone. “Excuse me, the man is gone.” I informed the operator.
“Did you see where he went?” She asked me. “No, I looked away to talk to my daughter, and during that time he disappeared.”
“Okay, police should be there any second now.”
The doorbell rang. For some reason, hearing the words police should be there, accompanied by the door bell ringing, made me assume it was the police, and I opened the door without thinking twice. And there he was, the naked man, just standing there. However what terrified me wasn’t the man, or him being naked, but the large knife he was holding in his right hand.
“Run and hide!” I screamed at my daughter, who quickly obliged and ran upstairs. I ran to the kitchen to arm myself. The man however didn’t follow neither of us.
“Hello? Are you there? Is everything okay?” I could hear the operator’s voice coming from the front door, where I dropped my phone in my haze. I slowly and silently made my way to look at the doorway, the man was still standing outside, but his back was turned to me.
I took this chance to try and get my phone. As soon as I had it in my hands the operator spoke again. “The police is there, just stay tight.” The man snapped in my direction, and began walking over. “No!” I screamed, starting to walk upstairs backwards.
“He killed them.” The man spoke in a raspy voice.
Taking a closer look, I could see all sorts of wounds on his naked body, from bruises to cuts to even stitches. I was now at the top of the stairwell, but he wasn’t taking the stairs. “So I’m gonna kill you to repay the favor.” He spoke once more, and began walking up the stairs, knife at the ready. I held my own knife with my two shaky hands right in front of me. The stairs creaked as he took them one by one very slowly, he was limping too.
“Please!” I muttered out pleas, but he wouldn’t stop, he just wouldn’t stop coming closer, step by step, and eventually he reached the last few.
That’s when I heard a voice I thought I’d never hear again. “El!” My husband screamed and tackled the man from behind, both of them tumbling down the stairs. Simultaneously, two police officers ran up to our house, their guns at the ready. “Police! Hands where I can see them!” My husband recovered first and stood up with his hands up. “I’m this houses owner!” He said and the police officer nodded, observing the man who was now laying on the ground, a pool of blood next to him. I realised he had gotten stabbed in the small wrestle with my husband. “I’m a nurse! I can treat him!” my instincts kicked it as I rushed down the stairs and to the man’s side. He was laying on his side, the knife was somewhere in the pit of his stomach.
A police officer kneeled down beside me. “We’re calling the ambulance, can you provide first aid?”
“Yes.” I responded, and then snapped commands at my husband. “Get me the first aid kit from the garrage!” He looked at me reluctantly. “What are you waiting for?” He snapped out of it and walked out of the house. The officer radioed in the accident while I stayed by the man, trying to put pressure on his stab wound.
“The devil..” The man rasped. “He’s the devil..”
“Shh, don’t speak.” I shushed him, but he kept speaking. “He killed them..” He coughed out. “He will kill again.” I realised then, that this man wouldn’t live, “Where’s the goddamn first aid kid?” I shouted loudly. I saw my daughter peering down from the top of the stairs. “Go to your room!” I screamed at her in anger, and she disappeared.
“Shush, you’re going to be alright.” I don’t know why I wanted to save this man so much, I mean he tried to kill me, he tried to hurt my daughter. I guess I was taught that all life was precious. Or maybe I was angry that he’d get away with it so easily if he died.
“He killed them..” The man kept repeating. “Who?” I asked him.
“Him.” He said and lost consciousness shortly after. “Here!” My husband finally returned, handing me the kit. I tried my best, I really did. But there’s only so much I could do.
The ambulance arrived shortly after and took him, he was still alive, barely, however I found out the next morning that he had died in the hospital. They weren’t able to figure out his identity. The autopsy showed that the man was under influence of strong drugs at the night of the accident, while the examination of the outside of his body confirmed that he was most likely being held somewhere against his will.
I have been trying to put the pieces together, why’d he follow my daughter home? Why did he say that he’d kill us to repay the favor? The picture started coming together slowly, my husband.
My husband is a family therapist, so it makes no sense for him to come home so late, and after confirming with his secretary, I was right. he only worked till 5PM, which meant he was doing something else until he returned around 10PM. In truth, I always suspected him, I thought that maybe he was cheating, which would be quite ironic for a family therapist. But now I am assuming that something much worse is going on.
All I need is proof. I took the day off tomorrow, and I plan to follow him after work and figure out what the hell he’s been up to, and I hope that’s it’s not what I think it is.