Beware of the Neighborhood.

3 - Things that stare back at night

That night I could not get sleep in my new room. Maybe it was the new bed or the legend Kevin told me or maybe I ate extra fries during dinner. I don't know, but I was getting a weird feeling and it wasn't indigestion.

I twisted and turned in my bed, trying to peek at my bedside watch. It was almost two am. It had started raining just after midnight and the constant pattering of rain on my windowpane made it impossible for me to fall asleep.

From the way I was laying on my bed I could just about make out the black clouds which sprawled across the sky. The dark and heady scent of rain was suffocating. I pulled up my blanket all the way up to my chin just as the wind picked up, howling and baying like a wolf into the night and almost immediately the first crack of lightening lit up the sky, followed by the rolling boom of thunder which reverberated overhead. The rain was pounding on the windowpanes as if demanding entrance.

Unable to bear it any longer I hastily got up, tiptoeing to my window meaning to close the curtains.

As I reached the windowsill, I peered out. The sight of the deserted street greeted me, but this time, the mist and rain made it impossible to see farther ahead. The rain seemed to have drained all the colour from surroundings and the only thing clearly visible was the dark haunted house tinted bronze in the faltering light. For a few seconds I just stared at it. Wondering if what Kevin had said was true. The house surely looked uninhabited.

Just then lightning stuck - a brilliant shock of white in the graphite sky, almost ripping the inky black sky in half- it was followed by the thunderous boom which called its warning, but it was too late.

The bolt of lightning had broken the utter blackness of the night and just for that briefest moment, in that violent illumination I saw it...

I had been staring at the house when it happened and just for a fraction of second, when the sky had illuminated I had seen someone; someone standing there, wearing a white coat...Standing at the dirty grimy window of the first floor of the haunted house.

And that someone had been staring right back at me.

I gasped as I hurriedly took a step back, stumbling and falling on the thick rug. I opened my mouth to scream but no sound came out. Scared and panicked, I scrambled out my room, running towards Jason's.

Despite the rain and the thunder, I found him sound asleep.

"Wake up! Jason! Hey! Wake up!" I whispered desperately as I vigorously shook him, I could hear panic in my voice.

"Is it breakfast already?" he muttered sleepily, waking up.

"No...I saw it...I...he was...he stared back...he...he saw...I..." I tried to get the sentence out as Jason sat up straight, rubbing his eyes. "Come to my room" I said at last grabbing his hand and dragging him out of his bed "Oh c'mon, If you are pulling a prank, you will be sorry, I will make you sorry, the battle has begun Ashley, The battle has begun" he mumbled in a daze as he followed me to my room.

I practically dragged him towards my window and stood behind him, placing my hands on his shoulder, using him like a human shield. We both stared at the house. Well not both, he was staring at the girl in the poster of a car which was just a few paces away from the house.

"Jace...do you see it?" I asked.

"Yeah, the girl is really the same from that soap ad..." he began.

"Not the Girl!" I yelled. "The house! Do you see it?" I asked desperately but he just shrugged

"of course, I can see the house, its two floors tall, really hard to miss."

I pursed by lips. Sometimes I forgot that talking to Jason was like interacting with a pigeon, you can explain all you want, but it will just shit around and fly off eventually.

"I am in no mood for jokes, Jason. I came here to close the curtains and I saw the doctor just standing there, staring back at me from the first-floor window. You believe me, right?" I pleaded.

"So, you really think that the legend is true?" he asked raising his eyebrow.

"I don't know. But what if it is? I mean, how else would you explain what I just saw?"

"Look Ash, let me be very honest with you. Firstly, I don't think what that guy Kevin said is true. We just met him; he could be just messing with us. Secondly, you were already unhappy with moving here. Moreover, we have been busy the whole day moving things. Maybe you're just tired and imagined the whole thing. It's so hard to see out anyway. And thirdly, I don't know what exactly you saw out there, but next time you see something, don't wake me up." and with that he turned, leaving me all alone in the darkness.

Slowly I closed the curtains and returned to bed. I knew what I had seen. The legend was true. I was not going to leave it at that.

This was something I was sure about.