The Slender Sickness

Chapter 3: The Masked Figure...

It was now the 19th of July, and I had woken up after a night of nice, peaceful sleep. Without night terrors. I didn't expect to get such a good night's sleep with this illness going around and whatnot. Speaking of the illness. I got up and walked over to my living room, stepping over to the little stool where I'd left my phone to charge the night prior. I picked the phone up, taking it off the charger and quickly, I went to Google to see if there was any news about the disease lately.

I'm getting a bit sick of talking about this disease so much, but... I don't know. Anyway, I didn't find much new online, sadly, so I just decided to, of course, --sit down on my couch and turn on a movie. I'd been sitting on this couch so much lately, I was getting sick of it. I wanted so badly to go somewhere. Maybe some restaurant or something, but with this disease... I can't risk getting infected.

So, my movie began, and I started watching it, obviously. Ya' dummy.

That was until a knock sounded at my front door. Heavy, quick-paced knocking that startled me at first, as I didn't expect it.

I stood up and inched past my coffee table, marching over to my front door and peering out the little peephole. There, a person stood, somewhat slouching at my doorstep, their hands in their pockets firmly. I could faintly hear a soft whistling sound coming from this character. They had a very slim build with their pure-black hoodie over their head, covering the top half of their face.

What was strange about this person was that they wore a... mask. Like a Halloween mask. A dark red one, shiny-new, and mannequin-like, no expression on the mask what-so-ever. I was taken aback at their almost ominous appearance. I looked on at them for another few seconds, trying to decide what I should do...

Eventually, I settled that I was just going to wait for them to leave, so I did. Every second or so the masked figure glanced behind them as if there was someone there. So I got even more worried, thinking that they were trying to break in or something.

I sat there for around 5 seconds, just waiting for them to leave my front door... Them just standing there in silence. I could tell they were growing more and more impatient with every passing second, as they finally took their hands out of their pockets, clad in grey gloves, --and promptly walked away, and I was left there, a bit confused and bothered by this occurrence.

But the biggest reason I was bothered wasn't because of that red-masked figure... But, more-so... the fact that I did indeed see something behind them. I don't know if I was just seeing things or not, but I swear as they waited there on my porch, I saw a tall, thin shadow of a man on the grass of my front yard behind them.

The shadow... It gave me a menacing vibe... So, as soon as the person wearing the red mask left my property, the shadow did, too, and... I stopped peeking at them. Stepping back, bewildered, I quickly checked to ensure my door was locked tight, and a good thing for me, it was.

I know there's a window right next to the front door, but I didn't want them to notice the curtains moving or anything. I hesitantly walked over to my kitchen, as I was pretty hungry after just waking up. I decided just to heat up some soup to eat right now. I set the microwave to 3:00 Minutes, and walked back to my living room, pulling my phone out and scrolling to my apps.

I opened my texting app and quickly informed Matthew about the figure in the red mask. Soon, about a minute later, he replied back, telling me that, surprisingly, --the same thing happened to him, too. Just an hour and a half ago.

Matthew does live about 30 minutes away from my house, so it was entirely possible. I asked him if the person at his door was wearing a red mask, and sure as shit, they were. A shiny red mask with a black hoodie over their head. Hands in pockets, it was... eerie, to say the least.