I finally got out of bed and went to my office. There was no green light on the camera, and the computer was off. I switched it on and then went and made myself a coffee.
Luckily there were no deadlines for me this week, so I didn’t have anything important going on. I still wanted to spend some time looking for other writing opportunities, but first, I had to run my virus scan.
This was probably the only time I hoped there would be a virus or malware on my computer. When the scan ended, and there were no problems, I was disappointed. The day was mostly uneventful. I fell asleep at my desk, though, and when I woke up, my computer was on that website again. It was on the page with the blank black screen and a skull in the background that I hadn’t noticed before. It was similar to the face I saw on my screen and at my door the night before.
I clicked the ‘x’ in the corner to close the window and got up from my desk. Fresh air sounded good, so I went outside for a walk. These warm sunny days in the fall were great. I knew it would be only a matter of time before I would be shoveling the snow off my driveway. I walked through my street and into the wooded trail that connected some of the roads in the neighborhood. The leaves were starting to change color, and it was a nice peaceful walk. Until I heard the crunching of a stick off the trail.
It was probably just a groundhog or a different small animal, but I was still a little on edge from what happened last night, so it made me a little nervous. I kept going around a curve and further away from the houses. I heard the crunching sound again, and it sounded like someone was walking through the bushes not too far from me. I couldn’t see who was out there, but I could tell they were getting closer.
I didn’t see whatever was out there, but I took a picture of where the noises were coming from so I could see if anything was there when I got back home. I picked up the pace and started running through the trail. The noises also got louder and stayed close behind me. Finally, I made it out of the pathway and onto the next street. It felt safer being in the open in front of all the houses. Someone was likely to be home if I had to scream for help.
When I had walked far enough away from the trail entrance, I turned around to look back into the woods. I didn’t see anything but felt like I was being watched.
When I returned home, the door to my house was open part way. I know that I had closed it and locked it before leaving on my walk. I didn’t know whether to call and wait for the police or go in and check it out myself. I leaned in through the door. “Hello?” I yelled. There was no response, and I didn’t hear any noises inside, but I knew I’d feel better if the police checked it out first.
After calling the non-emergency number, I went to the bottom of my driveway to wait. I watched the house until the police car arrived. Two officers got out, and I told them the front door was open, but I knew it was closed and locked when I left.
They went inside, and after a few minutes, they returned. There was no one inside, and they didn’t see any signs of forced entry. They told me to look around, and I could have a police report filled out if anything was missing. They said it was probably a faulty latch or wasn’t closed right.
As they were pulling out of the driveway, one of the officers said, “You might want to clean up your office. It looked pretty messy in there.”
I thanked them and went inside. My front door only has a deadbolt, so it has to be unlocked inside or with a key. The only ones with a spare key are my parents, and they would’ve let me know if they were stopping over.
My chair was knocked over, and the papers that had been on my desk were on the floor. The monitor was also covered in fingerprints and smudges. It isn’t a touch screen, and I don’t remember it being that dirty.
Nothing else in the house was out of order, so I went to work cleaning up my office. I picked up my chair and put the papers on the desk. There were crumbles of dirt on the desk and keyboard. My hands felt dusty and had black smudges after handling the documents. I also noticed a small trail of dirt from my office getting smaller as it went to the front door. I guess I had wanted things to be more interesting, but this stuff isn’t what I had in mind.
After finding my screen cleaning spray, I scrubbed off the monitor. I got some of the smudges off, but no matter how hard I cleaned it, some of the fingerprints just wouldn’t come off.
I felt uneasy the rest of the night, especially with what happened in my office. Where did all the dirt come from, and why was so much in the office instead of by the front door? And how did someone get into my house?
I double and then triple-checked all the locks on the doors and windows before going to bed. Even though I was anxious, my exhaustion took over, and I fell asleep fast.
I awoke to the buzzing of my phone as it vibrated around on the nightstand. It stopped for a few moments. I was almost back to sleep when it started buzzing again. My phone was pretty much always on vibrate, and I wanted it on in case my parents had an emergency at night. I picked it up, worried that it might be them. The screen showed that it was an incoming video call from a number I didn’t recognize. I swiped down to decline it and saw that it was just after midnight before I set it back down.
It began vibrating again almost as soon as I set it down. After swiping down a second time, I turned off my phone and set it on the nightstand. I almost fell asleep when I heard a loud thud coming from outside my room. Now I was wide awake and grabbing the bat before I stood up.
I made my way cautiously to my bedroom door and looked out into the hallway. I had thought I closed that door before going to bed, but in my sleep-deprived state, I wasn’t sure.
I saw the dim glow coming out of my office, which meant the monitor had to be on. Taking some deep breaths and gripping tightly onto the baseball bat, I slowly walked toward the light.
I stopped right before the open door and leaned against the wall. It was quiet, but I could hear the faint sound of someone talking. It was like when you’re in a loud restaurant, and you hear all the voices at once, but you can’t make out any words. This was in a whisper, though.
While I was building the courage to enter the room, the voice stopped, and the dim light went off. The light switch was just inside the doorway. I reached my arm around and flipped on the switch. I was positive that something was going to grab onto my arm, but luckily nothing happened. It took me a minute to get accustomed to the light before I could step into the room.
The chair had been knocked over again, and the keyboard was on the floor. Everything else looked normal. I searched around the rest of my house but didn’t find anything.
While I was walking back to my room, I heard my phone buzzing again. There’s no question that the power was off when I left the room. The buzzing stopped before I made it back. When I walked through the doorway, I could see that the screen was on, and there was someone’s face on there.
I backed out of the room and closed the door. I went into the other bedroom next to the office and closed the door. This room was barely used and only had a mattress on the floor covered with sheets and a blanket. I sat down on it and listened for other noises in the house.
Then it seemed like all of a sudden, the sun was shining in through the window. I slowly got out of bed and walked over to my bedroom. I picked up my phone from the nightstand and saw that I had a voicemail from the number I didn’t recognize last night. I’ve included it here if you’d like to hear it. I also remembered the picture I took yesterday when I was on the trail. There wasn’t anyone in the picture, but when I looked closer, I thought I could see something in the picture. I’m hoping it is just my imagination, and someone will tell me there is nothing weird on there. I’m not quite sure what to do next.
