" The Staring Man "

Becky sat in her kitchen, reading the paper. She had flipped the page when something caught her eye. A man across the street was staring into the ground-floor apartment. His clothing was stained and dirty, doing nothing to hide his blueish, sickly looking skin.



The worst part, though, were his eyes. They looked glazed over and sunken, and seemed to stare straight through her. She shivered and turned back to the paper. Eventually, an inkling of curiosity made her peek back through the window at the man. He was now leaning against a lamppost, a twisted smile on his face that didn't match his cold, unblinking eyes. She took a deep breath and stepped forward to pull the blinds down. Immediately, the man lurched forward, took a step, and fell. Becky felt too shocked to move and instead stared at the man. He now lay face down on the road. She almost felt like seeing if he was okay until he started crawling. It was a jaunty, staggering crawl, his head turning to the window as he approached. Becky uttered a small scream and shut the blinds. She drew back from the window, her heart pumping, and stood there. What the hell was all that? Whatever's going on, all she knew was that that man had been definitely watching her and that was all she needed to know. She kept most of the lights on, but eventually it came time for bed. She turned off almost all the lights, leaving the kitchen for last. As she drew near she wondered...was that man still there? Or would he be gone, stalking some other lady. She gathered up all the courage she had, and pulled the blinds. Nothing. Uttering a sigh, she turned around, turned off the lights and stared as he raised his head to the window, his mouth comically wide and his head bent at a strange angle. She screamed and fell back, scrambling to her room. Without thinking she locked the door, jumped onto the bed and called 911. Only a while later they arrived and she watched as they tore the man from the window, and watched as they draped him softly onto the ground, their faces solemn. "What's going on?" Becky asked "aren't you going to take him away?" The officer looked at her with an expression that was full of worry. "Ma'am, I hate to say this, but the story you gave us is impossible. None of us are experts, but the judging by the decomposition, this guy's been dead for a while now. Are you sure you saw him moving? My guess is someone came by propped him up at your window. Do you know anyone who would do something like that?" But she hadn't heard him. She was staring blankly as they zipped the man into a body bag. Not before she saw the corpse turn its head oh so slightly towards her. All time seemed to stop and everything seemed to go silent. Then, it winked.