Horror Stories In The Dark

The Night Walker

It was a foggy autumn night when I first encountered him. As I was driving home from my late shift at the hospital, I came across a rather unusual person. As I turned onto the street into my neighborhood, I saw a tall man dressed in a dark-colored hoodie, walking on the right side of the street. Given the area I lived in, he seemed out of place.

As I passed him, I attempted to get a better look at his face, but with his hood being up, and it being dark out, I was unable to. I tried hard not to be too judgmental, after all, for all I knew he was just one of my neighbors whom I hadn’t met yet, just out for a stroll, due to being unable to sleep. We’ve all been there, right? However, unbeknownst to me, that was only my first of several encounters I would have with this guy.

I had the following day off, and I barely thought about him. That was until I turned on the news that evening and saw that a house in one of the nearby neighborhoods had been broken into, and the homeowner had been assaulted. How awful, I thought. Who could do such a thing? The thoughts of my encounter with the man the previous night then came rushing back. Could he have done this? I certainly didn’t have any proof, but I can say that that man definitely seemed to stand out.

As the story concluded, a “1-800” number was displayed at the bottom of the screen, asking for any tips or information that may lead to an arrest. Figuring it couldn’t hurt to call, I called the number, waited on hold for several minutes, before a woman picked up on the other end, and asked me what information I had. I told her that the night previous I saw a suspicious man in the area in which the crime happened. She asked me for further information about the man. I told her that he looked to be about 6’0” tall and wearing a dark hoodie. She asked what he looked like, to which I told her that I unfortunately had not seen his face.

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone before the woman spoke again. She asked me what the man was doing. I told her that he was just out walking. I was met with yet another pause before she asked me a very pertinent question. She asked if the man appeared to be disheveled, flustered, hurried, or in any way distressed. I told her that I didn’t really get a good enough look at him, but that he didn’t seem to be too bothered. In fact, he seemed rather calm. I could hear her typing on a keyboard on her end, before she thanked me for the tip, and abruptly hung up. I suppose it wasn’t the most helpful of tips but seeing as how any bit of information could help put a violent offender away, it seemed as though it would have been wrong not to report it.

Given the recent events, the next morning before school, I gave my boys a quick refresher course on stranger danger. I reminded them not to talk to strangers, or to get into anybody’s car. They assured me they knew not to do those things, and off to school they went. I trusted them to stay safe, they were smart kids, after all.

The next so many days went by without incident, but again, one night on my way home, I would encounter him. This time, however, I did get a look at his face. Just like last time, I was driving home from work, and as I turned into my neighborhood, I saw him walking. This time he was towards me, at a similarly average pace, like last time. He definitely wasn’t someone I recognized from around the neighborhood. He had long, dark hair, a goatee, and big brown eyes, wearing the same dark-colored hoodie as last time. He had a somewhat vacant look in his eyes. However, the only thing I could think was that I was possibly looking into the eyes of a violent criminal.

I only saw him for a few seconds before I turned down my street and arrived home. As I got out of my car, and was collecting my things, I glanced down the road to see a tall, dark figure off in the distance, at the far end of my street. Only this time, I could see that the figure was walking towards me. I quickly gathered up the rest of my things and headed inside. Once inside I looked out my front window to see if he would walk by, but I didn’t see him again, that night.