It Lurks Behind The Shade (2 of 3)

 

*Author's note*: This is part 2! Please click here to read part 1.

For the next week, I avoided the window like the plague. I didn't leave my room at night. If I had to go to the bathroom, I just held it until daybreak. I did some experimentation and found that the shadow didn't appear until after eleven P.M. During this time, my dad managed to find me a TV. It was an old flat screen, but I could hook up my console or laptop to it to play games, so it was good enough.

As I lay in bed, I stared at my phone. I had Lena, the apartment lady’s number dialed, but I sighed and cleared it. Next, I typed in my parents' number. I shook my head and cleared that too. I had to talk to someone; I couldn't just go on like this. Finally, I called my friend Dexter. He might have some idea of what to do. I'd talked to him a few times since I moved but hadn't ever told him about the creepy window.

"Yo!" He answered the phone.

"Hey Dex!"

"What's up? How goes the 'being out on your own' life?"

"So far, not as good as I was hoping, but I could sleep in until noon, so that was pretty dope."

"Not looking for a job yet?"

"Nah, I've got quite a bit saved from before I quit the pizza place. With how cheap the rent is, I should be okay for a while."

"Lucky. They've been running me ragged. I've been the only delivery guy since you quit."

"Yeah, that sounds like Alec. Rather run one guy into the dirt than hire a second one."

"You got that right. So, what about the 'on your own life' isn't what it's cracked up to be?"

"Well...it's a bit of a long story." I filled Dexter in on the situation with the window from the beginning, Lena's warning, the first night with the shadow on the floor, the weird shadow on the shade, all of it.

"That's...so screwed," Dexter said in thought. I sighed in relief. Dexter had known me for a long time, since we were kids, so he knew when I was being serious. "At the risk of sounding like a jerk...have you considered just opening the shade while it's there?"

"Hard no...well...yes, but I just...maybe it's the warning getting into my head...I don't know...every time I try, my whole body freezes up."

"Huh...what about calling the cops?"

"Thought about it, but don't know what I'd tell them. I 'think' someone is standing outside my window? They'd probably want me to open the shade or confirm there is something there at least."

"Hmmm...can you see what it is from the other two windows?"

"No. I don't think so. The angle is kind of awkward, but I haven't tried."

"What about going outside? Seeing if you can peer down the alley?"

"Shooting that down too. If it's some kind of murder hobo, he might go ballistic when he sees me."

"Yeah...hmmmm..." Dexter seemed lost in thought. "Oh! I got it. You could sit up. Watch it. See when whoever or whatever it is leaves, then get a look at it as it walks by the other windows."

"That's...brilliant, actually!"

"I mean, it should be safe enough. You know it leaves eventually and doesn't hang around during the day. What better time to sneak a peek? That way, if it is some nutty homeless person, you can tell him to go screw, or just call the cops next time he shows up."

"Thanks, Dex. I knew you were the right person to call. I hope you get a day off soon."

"Yeah, catch you later dude. I'll let you know when I get some time off and I'll stop by."

"Sounds great! See ya!" As I hung up the phone, I was relieved to finally have a plan of some kind at least. I turned the armchair around so that it was facing the window. Before I sat down, I grasped the shade to open it but thought better of it. I grabbed my laptop, a bag of chips, and soda from the kitchen, and prepared for a long night.

*********

base image AI generated by craiyon.com (edited)

As eleven P.M. rolled around, I looked up from my laptop screen. No shadow on the shade or any indicator that it was going to turn up that night. I got up to go to the bathroom with a faint glimmer of hope that whatever it was had stopped during the week I'd been avoiding the window.

That hope vanished as I left the bathroom. The shadow had emerged in the brief moments I was gone.

"Seriously?" I said to the window in annoyance, with an ounce of disgust in my voice. The shadow was as unmoving and uncaring as ever. I tried to see if I could make out what it was from both the window to the right and the window to the left. It only served to confirm my suspicion that the angle was too awkward to make out what it was.

I took a seat in my chair and brought my laptop up to kill time, making sure the window was visible over the top of the screen. I watched comedy videos, gaming videos, long-form content, anything I could think of to watch that would keep my nerves steady in this waiting game and help ease the tension. A thought occurred to me as I looked at the second bedroom out of the corner of my eye.

That bedroom had a window that looked out into the alley. Maybe...the angle would be good enough to afford me a look. I moved quietly to the bedroom. I could feel my heart in my throat as I stood in front of the window. I positioned my head to the best of my ability to try to see without opening the window.

Only the light from my living room windows shining onto the wall outside was visible. Whatever was standing in front of my window was well immersed in the shadows. I took a deep breath and attempted to slide open the window. It stopped at six inches. No matter how much force I put into it, it wouldn't budge.

I cursed under my breath as I shut the window. I honestly wasn't sure if I was angry or relieved that this option didn't pan out. I moved back to the chair and took a seat to continue my hopefully one-sided stare down.

The seconds ticked by, turning to minutes, and minutes turning to hours. I slowly almost got used to the idea of the shadow. At the very least, this was exposure therapy. Maybe I could learn to live with it if I could eventually just get used to it enough to ignore it.

I checked the time at the bottom of my laptop. Five thirty A.M. Sunrise was in 10 minutes or so. I'd made it. Almost. I yawned as I put my laptop down to focus on the shadow. I raised my phone and switched to the camera, ready to record in case whatever it was moved too quickly for me to get a good look.

My heart drummed in my ears as the final moments passed. The first rays of the early morning sun began to creep into the alley. I watched the shadow slowly turn to look at the rising sun as I recorded. I felt my heart catch in my throat. That confirmed that it was indeed a person or animal of some kind. It turned around, and as I watched, it walked to the left, deeper into the alley.

I focused my attention on the window to the left, ready to see what had haunted my nightmares since I moved in, but nothing ever moved past the window. I don't know how long I stood there, recording, waiting, but nothing ever came. The shadow had disappeared, but there was no sign of its source. I stopped recording and buried my face in my hands.

********

"It just disappeared? Nada? Nothing?" Dexter asked.

"Nothing. Poof. Just gone. I can send you the video if you want," I replied. I'd spent the morning in a panic-driven haze, unable to fall asleep. Once noon came around and I was sure Dexter would be awake, I called him to fill him in.

"I wanna take a look. Alec is going to be breathing down my neck most of the day, so I probably won't get a chance until after I get out of work, but send me the vid. And get some sleep. You sound exhausted," Dexter replied.

"Alright, I'll try." I hung up the phone and sent the video to Dexter. It took a minute because of the size of the video. Once a little green check appeared to indicate the message had sent, I lay in bed, eventually falling into an uneasy sleep.

**************

When I woke up, my room was dark. My sleep had been full of nightmares of the window opening and everything from homicidal maniacs to monsters to crazy homeless people coming inside.

"Please, please, please," I whispered to myself as I grabbed my phone to check the time. I was relieved to see it was only eight P.M. I had time to eat and use the bathroom before whatever it was showed up at the window. I had a single text from Dexter.

"WHAT THE HELL???" was all it said.

"My thoughts exactly," I shot a quick reply back. It was only a few moments before my phone rang.

"Yo," I answered.

"Hey, so I watched the video," It was Dexter.

"I figured."

"I'm 100% of the opinion that was somebody of some sort. Are you sure that nobody walked by after you stopped looking?"

"I was awake all morning. I waited for over an hour before I gave up and used the bathroom. If they did, they were really patient or snuck by in the couple seconds I wasn't looking."

"Could they have like... crouched down? Or got on their hands and knees?" he asked. I paused in thought. I hadn't considered that.

"I don't think so, but maybe? I wasn't close enough to the windows to see if they did."

"Either way. I told Alec if I didn't get time off, I would quit. He told me to take a week if it would make me happy. I'm going to come over tomorrow and stay for a few days. I want to see this for myself."

"Alright. I'm going to try to eat something and get some sleep."

"Take care of yourself, man," Dexter said and hung up. I looked at my phone for a long moment and started to dial my mom's cell number but stopped myself. I couldn't let them know this was happening. They'd want me to call the cops... or move back. I loved them, but having them constantly breathing down my neck to figure out college or a career was driving me nuts. I was on the hook for the lease even if I left, so I might as well try to figure this out.

****************

The next day, while I waited for Dexter, I picked up my apartment a little bit. I knew he didn't care, but years of my mom scrambling to pick up the house whenever someone was coming had rubbed off on me. I also ran to the store to grab some snacks, cups of ramen, and soda. I'd burned through most of my supplies.

As I pulled back into the parking lot of the apartment complex, I remembered I needed a visitor pass for Dexter's car. Perfect excuse to call Lena. I dialed her phone number nervously.

"This is Lena," the familiar chipper voice of the red-haired apartment lady came from the other end.

"Hey Lena, it's Clark from 16A."

"Hello, how can I help you today?" Her voice sounded nervous once she realized who it was.

"I need a visitor pass for the apartment parking lot. I have a friend coming to visit and he's staying overnight."

"Oh." It was difficult not to recognize the immense relief in her voice. "One sec." I sat in silence for a moment before her voice came from the other end of the phone again. "I texted Becky, the building manager. When you first come inside, her office is immediately to the left. It's labeled 1-A. She should have a pass for you."

"Thanks..." I said, trailing off.

"Is there anything else?"

"Yeah...about the window." The silence from the other end of the phone was deafening.

"...You didn't leave it open, did you?" The relief in her voice was gone, nervous fear taking its place.

"No, I—"

"Good," she said before there was a click on the other end. I pulled the phone away from my ear in disbelief. She'd hung up on me. I tried to call her back. It just rang before it went to voicemail. She was ignoring me.

Frustrated, I walked inside and knocked on the door to 1-A.

"Come in!" a chipper voice called from inside. I pushed open the door. A short woman with black hair that I assumed to be Becky sat at a desk in the middle of what appeared to be a living room. She was playing with a stress ball. Her office looked like it was just one of the apartments being used as an office instead of being rented out.

"Hello, you must be Clark," she said, holding out a piece of paper. "Your visitor just needs to have this visible on their dash."

"Thanks," I said, taking the paper. I stood across from her desk for a long moment, trying to think of how to ask what I wanted to ask. Her gaze never broke from mine.

"You're the new guy in 16-A, right? You want to ask me about the window, don't you?" She sighed, squeezing the stress ball.

"Yes, I am, and yes, I did," I nodded. "Lena warned me about it when I first took the apartment, but when I just tried to ask her for more information, she hung up on me."

"You...haven't left it open, have you?"

"No. I've never even opened the window."

"Oh, thank God," she sounded relieved.

"I've...been seeing a shadow, like someone is standing behind the window."

"Yep. You wouldn't be the only one."

"Who...is it?"

"It's a 'What,' Clark, not a 'Who.' The 'What' in this case is Evil," she said, her gaze never breaking from mine. "Have you ever laid eyes on it apart from behind the shade?"

"No. I've kept the shade closed mostly."

"Good. Keep it that way. Lena did you a favor because she knew you couldn't afford anything else. I'd have just as soon never had that apartment rented again, but Dawn won't allow it. Legal reasons...and deterrents."

"Dawn?" I asked.

"Owner. Lena and I's boss. As long as you leave that window shut and ignore it, that thing can't do you any harm."

"Deterrents? Harm?" I asked. She looked down and went back to her paperwork, her hand tightly clamped around her stress ball. I guessed she wasn't going to touch on the matter further and turned to leave.

"Clark?" I stopped in her doorway and faced her as she called my name. "Good luck."

"Thanks," I said, closing her door behind me.

****************

Here is the revised version with consistent tense and correct grammar:

"She said it was Evil?" Dexter asked, studying the window. He had raised the shade to get a better look—an act that unsettled me more than I cared to admit. "That's ominous."

"Yeah. She sounded very serious too," I nodded. Dexter's sleeping stuff was laid out on the couch. I wasn't super happy about having him sleep in the living room, but it was the best I could do. I may have had a spare bedroom, but I did not have a spare bed.

"They definitely know more than they are telling you. It looks like a normal window, though. I want to test something."

"Shoot."

"Go out in the alley. Stand on the other side of the window. I want to see if there's any angle where I can see you."

"Alright, I'll run out." I headed out the door of my apartment into the alleyway that ran along the complex. I made my way to the center window. Dexter waved at me.

"Just stand there!" I heard him yell through the glass. He moved to the leftmost window and appeared to look out at me. He shook his head. Then he moved to the right window next. "Can you see me?"

"Yes!" I called loudly enough for him to hear me.

"I can't see you. The angle is way awkward." A chill ran down my spine. When I had been trying to see that thing, even though I couldn't see it, it could see me. Dexter darted over to the spare bedroom next. I waited a moment before he returned to the living room, shaking his head. He motioned me to come back inside, so I headed in.

"I can't see you from the bedroom window either, only the wall behind you. You wouldn't have been able to see whoever was standing here without opening it."

"That window doesn't open. I tried. It only goes about six inches, enough to put your hand out."

"Hmmm, is the apartment next to you occupied? Maybe we can check from there?"

"No. I heard Lena giving showings the other day."

"Think they'll unlock the door for us?"

"Lena hasn't returned any of my calls since this afternoon. Becky, I think, leaves at five. I doubt they would open the door for us anyway. As far as I can tell, Lena is terrified of it, and Becky told me to ignore it."

"Alright, well, I guess worst case, we can stick our phone out the window or something to see if we can record it."

"Might be too dim for that."

"Back pocket strategy. I don't think it will work either, but we have it as an option."

"Fair." I checked the time. It was after eight; the sun would be setting soon, but we had a few hours before whatever it was showed up. "What do you want to do?"

"I'm starving. Let's go grab something to eat."

"I've got stuff to cook in the fridge."

"Nah, don't worry about it. We'll grab burgers somewhere. I'll pay."

"Alright, if you're buying."

"Cool, there's a burger place further downtown I've wanted to try but haven't had an excuse to go." I threw on my shoes, and the two of us headed out, putting the window in the back of our minds for now.

To be continued

Thank you for getting this far! Click here for part 3. Follow and stay tuned.

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