Mystery Man

There's A Man Outside

The skies begin to turn grey and gloomy over the neighbourhood, and raindrops soon begin to pour. All the kids playing outside quickly disperse back into their houses, protective hands over their heads.

The television was on inside the living room, glitching very frequently now due to the disruption of signal. Brooke lay on the couch in her sweatpants and hoodie and mostly busy on her phone. She takes a second to glance up at the screen, making a face at the news reporter giving information on the day's weather forecast.

"...however, a chance of heavy rainfall is present in the  area, as you can see here on ---- ...the clouds are rolling in pretty quickly and temperatures are expected to drop to ----- pedestrians warned not to go outside due to strong winds."

She rolls her eyes and looks back at her phone, typing away on her Snapchat.

A few minutes go by, and Amy comes bobbing down the stairs.

"Brooke! Don't you hear the door?" she hurriedly walks towards the house entrance.

Brooke looks up from her phone again. "Huh?"

"The door! Someone's knocking on it." Amy reaches for the door handle.

"Wait!" Brooke exclaims, standing up tiredly. She tosses her phone on the couch and walks towards her sister. "You don't even know who it is."

Five more knocks pound on the other side of the door. Brooke looks through the peephole and sees a black figure, most likely wearing a dark brown jacket. She pulls her eye away, confused.

"Who is it?" Amy asks.

"Uh, I don't know. It looks like a male." Brooke turns back towards the living room. "Maybe the person's got the wrong house. Let's just leave it." She walks back to the couch and continues using her phone.

Amy reluctantly glances at Brooke, then back at the door. "DAD! There's a man outside!" she yells out.

After a moment, their dad comes down the stairs, wearing his night clothes. "Who is it, honey?" He makes his way over to Amy and looks through the peephole.

"...hm. I'm not sure who that is."

More knocks on the door.

"Hey! Who is it out there?" their dad calls out. No answer.

"Uhh, are you a worker? You might have gotten the wrong house, man! I haven't hired anyone for maintenance this week."

Still no answer. Dad lets out an exasperated sigh under his breath and tells Amy to step back from the door. He opens it just a crack and puts his head through.

Standing there was a man in a dark brown coat, messy brown hair, and he was looking right back at him with cold, glazed eyes. He seemed to be soaked in rainwater. Why had he been standing there for so long?

Dad takes notice for a second and glances at an unfamiliar and old-looking brown car parked right outside on the road, weirdly close to the sidewalk, behind the man. He looks back at the stranger with a raised eyebrow. "...Yes? What do you want, sir?"

The man now had a more serious expression.

"I came here to work. I'm the cameraman."

Dad scowls. "We didn't hire any cameraman. Look, I said you've got the wrong-"

Suddenly the man viscously grabs his arm and tries pushing the door open. Dad immediately reacts and lets out a curse word, using all his strength to push the door closed all while pulling back his arm. Both men grunt in anger as the struggle proceeds. The man uses his leg to push on the door but ends up falling backwards on his head. He lets out a yell of pain and Dad quickly takes the opportunity to close the door but the man gets his foot in, blocking it. Amy, behind her dad, panics and grabs her dad to try to pull him back into the house while putting her body pressure on the door to close it immediately. Brooke rushes to the scene as well and freezes in panic.

"Hey! HEY! Let him... GO!" Amy screams. The two men suddenly lose their grip on each other, and Amy immediately slams herself against the side of the door, banging it shut. Brooke quickly locks it back up.

A moment of silence goes by as the three of them all pant heavily, shocked at what just happened.

"We need to close up all the windows, curtains, and lock the back door," dad says between breaths. He suddenly stands up and walks towards  the stairs. "I'll get my Glock. This guy doesn't know who he's messing with..."

The girls scramble to do so and for about an hour, dad patrols the perimeter of the entire house, armed with his gun. When he goes outside the first time, the man and the car are suddenly gone.

.            .            .

That night, the family all turn off the lights and climb into bed. Dad climbs into the bed with mom, who had been sleeping for most of the day due to feeling ill.

"Did anything happen down there? I heard a bit of yelling, but there was rain everywhere so the sound was a bit muffled.

He proceeds to tell her all about what happened, sparking concern in the both of them. 

In the girls' room, Brooke finally turns off her phone and shifts to her side, closing her eyes and ready to go to sleep for the night.

Amy, on the bottom bunk, calls out to her sister in a whimper. 

"Brooke? I'm scared." 

Brooke sighs. "Why?"

"I think the man's still near us."

"Amy, you're literally ten. Why are you scared?"

"Can I sleep on your bunk, please?"

"Eh, okay, sure. Come up here." 

The night proceeds.

AUTHORS NOTE

Stereotypically, I hope you liked reading this first chapter! I'm a really busy person, so if you're expecting more, forgive me if I take so long to update another one! That ending part wasn't really my favourite though. I pray I won't lose the motivation/interest to continue this story.

(Also: This is a modified version of a very similar story I wrote (just like this, similar plots and everything) when I was 10 years old (I'm now 13) that I'm really excited to continue writing.

My fingers are aching now and I'm starting to get keyboard fatigue so thanks for reading <3