That Night

Crap… power’s out again, that’s the third time this week. Damn Western Power, shouldn’t they have found the source of the problem by now. Well, better go find a torch. I sat up from lying on the couch. It’s night as usual, that seems to be the only time black outs happen. Stumbling through the dark I finally found the house torch, it was by the front door hidden beneath the small table next to the door. I turn it on and flash it behind me quickly like I’m expecting someone to behind me.

No one, what an odd feeling… I seriously thought someone was behind me but that’s a ridiculous idea. After all, I’m home alone, my mum and brother are out at a parent teacher interview. Knowing I’m a responsible year 9, mum let me stay home alone. If someone was in the house I would’ve heard them break a window or force their way through by breaking the locks of the doors. I know what it sounds like because I once caught people trying to break into our house a few years ago when I got home from school. So there’s no way anyone else could be in here… right?

Ok, what to do? I can’t start reading or turn on the TV… I guess I’ll just have to ring Western Power and find out how long it’s going to take to get the power back on. I’ll use the phone in the front room… for some reason it’s always functioning, even in black outs. Dial the number hear the little voice recorded message play, find out the power’s going to be out for a few hours. Then the message clicked and all I could hear was static… like a TV that lost transmission. That’s kinda weird… it’s never happened like this before. Usually after the phone message has played there’s just this silence.

Put down the phone, I hear a creaking sound in the other room. A very familiar sound, when you walk over certain pieces of carpet in my house sometimes a creaking sound can be heard because of what’s beneath the carpet. Mostly occurs when you walk through door frames. Sounded close, like the doorway of my mum’s room. I flash the torch to my left allowing me to see through the front room, past the hallway and into my mum’s bedroom. I saw a shadow move it was tall… I froze, no way… no one could be here unless I heard them enter. I can even hear my mum pull up in the driveway, how could my hearing fail me now.

I quickly but silently move towards the hallway and look around. The entrance hallway of my house is adjacent to the front lounge room and my mum’s bedroom. The hallway then twists around leading further into the back rooms of the house. Just to be sure I walk into my mum’s room and look around to make sure no one’s there. Then again, now I think about it, that’s a stupid thing to do, if someone was in there I was completely defenceless and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be afraid of a torch. But there wasn’t anyone in there.

The clinking of beads echoed from down the hall. I knew I had those bead curtains hanging in front of my door. Quickly I moved again and made my way down the hall to the first door I came to… my room… I usually tie the beaded curtain up into two separate parts on either side of the doorway. Half of the beaded strands now swayed horizontally in front of me. I guess one of the ribbons I tied them up with came loose.

No problem, I look at the side of the door for the ribbon only to find it on the floor… this only meant one thing… someone actually knocked into the beads and made the ribbon fall off. I know because to annoy me my brother knocks the ribbon off at every opportunity. I tie the beads up again, it was then I noticed something odd about my room. My torch’s light had been directed into it by accident, it was then I saw that my bed, even though it was made, it looked like someone had lied on it and looked at my ceiling for a while leaving an imprint of their body on my bedspread. That’s very peculiar… I haven’t been in my room since this morning when I made my bed and it definitely didn’t have any creases in it…

I hear a door open and slam shut clearly in my ears. It came from the back of the house. I know now that I’m not hallucinating, there is someone in the house! Holy shit, what am I going to do!? I’m completely alone and I know I’m not skilled in the fight department… sure I’ve fought with my brother but nothing like this. If I go into the back of the house this intruder could just lash out and knock me unconscious and god knows what’ll happen to me next.

Calm down! Use your head and think smartly about this… I have the advantage of knowing where I am in the dark without a torch because I live here… I also know where I can hide and the escape points… I also know where I can find weapons or household items I can use as weapons… so don’t panic, keep calm…

I make my way through the hall into the main back room where the TV and couches are. I look to my right and shine the torch there… the door is closed… when the power went out it was open. I hear more sounds coming from the second floor, like someone is walking around up there. I look around for a weapon… something… kitchen has the meat cleaver but I could easily hurt myself if I drop it from clumsiness.

My best weapon option is to find a blunt, lightweight club I could hit a person with. I look over near the ergo, the rowing machine, that my brother uses to train for his reason to live, rowing. Nearby is a broken backstay from an eight… for those who don’t know a backstay is part of a rigger in rowing or the metal thing the oar is locked into. It is a cylindrical rod about the length of an adult’s arm. It’s made of carbon fibre, a lightweight material that is exceedingly strong and quite powerful as a weapon.

I seized the broken backstay and turned off my torch. Holding the backstay with my right and the torch in my left I felt empowered. I silently opened the door that led to the bathroom, my brother’s room and the stairs leading to the second floor. Trouble with the stairs is that they’re hollow meaning that you have to step lightly to make minimal sound. I moved up the stairs silently, my heart pounding like crazy… I was absolutely terrified but I still went up… what was I thinking?

Silence was all around me as I crept upstairs. I then saw him… the curtains upstairs were open letting the full moonlight shine within the second storey main room. Casting shadows across the walls. Before me I could see a shadow… a tall man, he looked strong as well… I began to doubt that I could knock him out with the backstay. But he wasn’t stealing anything… he was just looking out the window… looking out into our backyard, the freeway and the Canning River… all of which can be seen from the upstairs back windows. He was just standing there looking out the window. Surely he can’t be a bad guy…

I thought for a moment, luckily he hadn’t noticed me at all. I then decided that instead of attacking… I would just shine the torch on him… if he got violent, I’d have no hope, I’d never be able to take on a guy his size… Here goes, I take a few steps up into the room… I raise my torch and click it on…

But he wasn’t there… I shone it right where he was and he just disappeared… like he wasn’t even there. He was gone! That’s impossible! How can someone just be there then vanish as soon as you turn on the light? It was then the power came back on, the electronic appliances beeping like crazy, the downstairs light was back on… But I didn’t move I just stayed where I was, frozen with fear. What just happened?

I felt something near me… I felt someone hold me as I stood there with fear surging through my body. The feeling then left me as I felt the presence vanish downstairs. Ever since that night I’ve been curious as to who that man was… sometimes I sit upstairs in the dark when no one is home just in case he comes back… I miss him… I want to know what he was, what he was doing here… ever since that night, nothing has ever been the same…