It was a typical Saturday night, and I had just settled into my cozy apartment, ready to binge-watch my favorite show on Netflix. My roommate had gone out for the weekend, leaving me alone, but I didn’t mind; I enjoyed the solitude.
The apartment was located in a peaceful neighborhood, and I had never felt unsafe before. As the night dragged on and the show played on my laptop, I noticed a strange noise outside. At first, I attributed it to lousy insulation or maybe the wind, but it persisted. Curiosity eventually got the best of me, and I tiptoed to the window, gently pulling the curtains aside to peek outside.
I wasn’t expecting to see anything, but there it was—the bright glow of a flashlight shining into my window, hovering like a menacing eye. The heart raced in my chest, and my hands started to shake uncontrollably. For a moment, my brain couldn’t wrap around what was happening. I didn’t have any enemies or people angry with me or my roommate.
Why would someone be peeping inside our apartment at 11 pm? Quickly, my instincts kicked. I quickly moved away from the window to prevent the person from discovering I noticed them. Taking deep breaths, I tried to halt my panicky thoughts as adrenalin coursed through my veins. Who could be doing this? Was it someone I knew?
As I tried to recall if I had gotten any threat or passed through someone who I hadn’t been quite friendly with, the torch outside grew stranger. The person didn’t move, but the sound of footsteps, pacing slowly, echoed outside of my window. Now That someone was stalking me freaked me out even more. I pulled myself together, grasping for my phone to dial 911. As I fumbled for my phone, my mind went on overdrive with worst-case scenarios.
What would happen if the stalker finds a way into the apartment? Should I open my door and bolt to the next-door neighbor’s house, exposing myself to more danger? My painful thoughts were interrupted when the person outside spotted my movements, and the light was immediately turned off. Fear clenched my muscles and made it impossible to speak, I stood frozen for a moment, hoping that whoever was outside had left. But then, I heard a slow, tapping sound, like someone was testing the locks of my apartment’s front door.
My body began to shake with fear, and my mind raced with different options that would keep me relatively safe. Without much of a second thought any longer, I gathered all the courage left in me, wrapped a blanket closely around my body, grabbed my phone, and sneaked out the balcony into the chilly night. From my vantage point, I could see the shadow of a person lingering outside the front door, slowly removing something from their pocket and flexing what looked like a metallic object in their hand. I knew that my only route of escape was to climb down the fire escape, and that was what I did at lightning speed.
My heart racing, I stumbled and fell but kept pushing, barely feeling the freezing cold concrete floors as I made my way down. Just as I finally got closer to the ground floor, I noticed the dimly lit backstreet alley filled with crates, trash cans, and odd scarps that can hide any danger waiting for me.
Finally, when my feet hit the unremarkable path, I sprinted with pumps to the patrol police station nearby, explaining every bit of experience out of breath to the policemen, who kindly reassured me and dispatched some officers back to my haunted apartment. After what looked like forever, the policemen came out with news that the crazed individual had fled.
They didn’t quite believe that my home was targeted, as another apartment down the floor had been robbed the evening before. I tried to press for the matter anyway, but it occurred to me that as scared as I was, I would never know whether it was a mistake that my grounds were picked, or it was an intentional act. For days, I slept remaining vigilant, setting a bigger bolt to prevent any unauthorized access.
But the thought of an unknown, terrifying stalker out there was still holding true in my mind. Every creaking floorboard and outside noises made me jump, always leaving my over-worried mind in an anxious state.