ALL ALONE

Sarah and I had been texting each other for a week now. I was just watching my phone on my bed at quarter to nine when she sent me a picture of her sitting on a chair without a caption. I didn’t bother to examine the picture and answered the message saying, “What’s up?”

  Sarah sent another similar image with a caption that read: “Nothing much. You?”  

  I wasn’t actually doing anything and didn’t feel like faking something, so I took my time to examine the identical picture.  I looked at Sarah’s bedroom in the background and the murky sketch of a guy standing by her window.

  I stood up startled and quickly texted her back saying, “Is that your brother by the window?”

  Sarah sent another identical image captioned, “What?”

  The man in the black hoodie was even closer in this picture, one of his hands pressed against the glass. I almost fumbled my phone down from my eyes and quickly replied, “There’s somebody at your window. Look around!”

  The blue ticks appeared for the message the very second and the ‘online’ mark went off. No reply came from Sarah. My stress increased minute by minute until I grew disquiet. I sent a few messages asking her what happened, but she didn’t respond. I tried calling her a few times, but she still didn’t answer. I had no clue on what was going on there!

  After almost half an hour of no response, I thought of going to Sarah’s house. Just as I thought so, I wandered off my ween as I had no transport to go there, and her house was ten kilometers away. After almost an hour, I got a message from her that held all the unveiled things.

  She explained that when she turned around, the stalker met her eyes and she yelled, terrified. The man, who was approximately thirty, trashed open Sarah’s room window and jumped onto her bed. She ran down her stairs and woke up her dad from the bed. And when they came to look into her room, the man was gone.

  I felt revived back to life. I texted her back saying I would come to her house the next morning, but she replied I’d better not. I did think of asking her why, but I knew she was stressed, so I didn’t poke her with any more questions.

  The next day, I explained the previous night’s incident to my parents. They knew Sarah’s parents, and just as I finished, they said they’d meet with their parents today.

  I didn’t argue.

  Although Sarah had insisted not to, I was actually concerned about how she was and felt a little guilty for not comforting her last night. My parents said they will meet after dusk because Sarah’s parents were usually busy in the mornings and were rather welcoming in the evenings.

  The time passed by. I had my project on due today, so I stayed at home.

Things began as a normal evening. I adjusted myself with some leftovers and started watching some YouTube videos, while partly working with my work. A few hours went by, and my family didn’t still come home, even though they promised they’d be back by 9 p.m.

  The time was now 9.20, and I thought to overcome my boredom by watching from one of my favourite channels: MrBeast. 

  Twenty minutes into the videos, I heard a light tapping sound at the sliding glass window. Now, before I move on, it’s necessary to mention that outside the door is the balcony. Anyone watching from the window outside would clearly be able to see the whole living room. 

  I still didn’t pay much attention to the noise. The electronics in our house were old, so they occasionally made little knocking sounds.

  Nevertheless, the sound came again, this time a little louder. I turned around and stared at the window for a few seconds, but there was nothing there.

  Five minutes passed, and the house was silent. I casually looked outside from the window. The rain two days ago was still showing the effect on the ground. But that was not all I saw, there were footprints in the wetland.

  Recall that my parents still hadn’t returned from their visit to Sarah’s house. And even if it were my parents’ footprints before leaving the house, I would have known it because the foot size was pretty big . . . probably 13 or 14.

  The footprints started from the road and up the stairs of my balcony. But it looked as if the person had turned around. From there, the footprints ran across to our garage, and they stopped.

  Honestly, I was getting a bit freaked out. Just the thought of a random person showing up in my balcony, clearly able to see what I was doing and who knows for how much time he was doing that snooping work.

  Now, all that mattered was that the person was in our shed. I wasn’t sure of what to do. I thought to call my parents but didn’t. With a lot of guts, I decided to walk around and see who that person actually is.

  I walked down towards the shed but stopped halfway. Do I really care to check this out? I thought. All my senses told me not to and nevertheless, I continued.

  As soon as I reached for the door handle, I paused. Small but deep breathings were being taken by whoever was inside. I stepped back and realized I could still call from a distance.

  “Hey! The police are on their way, so you better leave, stranger!” I held my breath and cursed myself for telling ‘stranger’. There was a moment and hesitation from inside and slowly, very slowly, the door began to inch open.

  Elevating me stood a big man, maybe 6 feet 8 inches tall. One of his eyes was bandaged. And still, the worst part of him was that he had an axe, a big axe, which could possibly cut me into two.

  He gave me the creepiest smile I’d ever seen, sending continuous shudders down my spine. I yelled straightaway, so loud, with a small hope that the neighbour would hear me.

  Sprinting back up the steps and into the house, I bolted the door safely and ran into my room, my mobile in hand.

  I didn’t care to sit down and immediately called the police, blaspheming myself a million times for not doing so before. The police picked up the phone and I instantly began, “Hello! There’s a man chasing me with an axe. I need your help, now!”

  “Where are you?”

  “In my room.”

  “Good. Stay hidden while we get your location.”

Bang. The glass shattered and the pounding of angry footsteps started.

  “The man broke into the house!” I yelled, although the voice came out as a whisper. “He’s in the house!”

  “Stay calm and hidden. Don’t make a noise.”

  I looked around the room. My large closet was the only place to hide. I closed myself in and silence filled around me.

  The call ended without another word from the police. I didn’t care to call back but instead texted my mom that someone just broke into the house.

  “I’m coming in 5 minutes,” was the simple reply. My heart rate augmented. I could hear the man moving and breaking stuff around. The next thing I realized, he was coming towards my room.

(To be continued…)

PART #2

I looked through the closet door and was freaked out of my skin when the doorknob twisted slowly. I closed the closet door and looked about. There was my ‘only once worn’ suit, which was in one piece. It was large, and I had a sudden idea. I stepped behind it and hid.

  The closet door opened almost right after I made my move. The big man growled. I could clearly hear him brushing through all the clothes. My breath remained tight as I heard him sigh in frustration. I thought he was going to brush aside my suit, but the siren of the police interrupted his search.

  The man growled again and sprinted out of the room.

  Just as he did, I made a beeline to the front door and saw three policemen, who were striving to get details. “Where’s the stalker?” a commanding voiced man questioned.

  “He must be hiding somewhere in the backyard,” I said, gasping for breath. Two of the officers left to catch him, while the other stayed with me.

  A few seconds later, the other officer was too called for backup. Just as he left, my parents’ car arrived.

It was a few hours after the incident happened. Sarah and her parents arrived at my house, very much to my surprise. After a few hours of debating between the police and my parents (and me), the final theory was made up. The big man who almost killed me turned out to be the same man who ‘kidnapped’ Sarah.

  The last night when the stalker showed up at Sarah’s bedroom, he in reality got her. After abducting her without their parents’ notice, the man bought her to our shed and hid her there. For more safety, he texted me back from Sarah’s phone that she is safe and denied it when I told I’d come to see her.

  This evening was when he realized I was the one behind the text as well as the person staying in the house. And that caused him to attack me.

  All I can say for now is that everyone is safe and sound, with the stalker put behind the bars. My parents didn’t inform me that Sarah was kidnapped for I’d be freaked out, but I don’t think they should have. Who knows what the prowler must have done to her if that happened . . .


I tried my best not to exaggerate anything in this story. Hope you liked it!

Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of my imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or persons is entirely coincidental. || Contents of this story should not be reproduced in any manner without permission.