The Day I Met Death

I was woken from glass shattering. As my eyes shot open, they were met with a pitch-black bedroom. All I could make out from my room were the shaded outlines of my desk and my dresser. I laid in my bed in complete silence, listening for any sound or movement that would give me a reason to get out of bed.

That’s when I heard it, they were faint but I could definitely make out footsteps. I was confused because my roommate was not supposed to be home until Saturday afternoon and it was late Wednesday night. I made my way out of my bed and stepped through my room careful to not disrupt the mounds of clothes that had began to gather. Living alone these past couple of days had brought back old habits of telling myself that I would clean my room when I got home from work, but of course, filled with exhaustion from the work day I would crawl into my bed and succumb to a deep sleep instantly. I opened my bedroom door slowly and silently, making my way to the stairs I could see the faint glow from the kitchen lights at the bottom. I almost called out for my roommate but something felt off, the way this person was moving was slow, quiet, and precise. It confused me, because someone so in control of their movements could not have possibly broken a glass. I slowly descended the stairs and turned the corner, practically holding my breath as I did.

There, standing in the middle of my kitchen was a strange man, a person I had never seen before. He leisurely turned to face me, as if he had known I was coming down the stairs this entire time, not surprised by my presence at all. That’s when our eyes met, black pits of despair stared right into me, devoid of all emotion, as if he was filled with pure evil intent. His lips started to curl up into a sinister grin, I felt all the life drain from my body. The way his face had contorted didn’t look real, his eyes, his smile, didn't belong to any human, he was death incarnate. Out of his mouth came a gruff voice, it's as if he whispered the words over to me but I could hear them clear as day. He said “sorry about breaking that glass, I didn't want to wake you till later when I was ready. I checked on you earlier and saw that you were in a deep sleep. It was amusing to me that I could be so close to you standing in your room and have you not stir” I shuddered, my mind was buzzing. I couldn’t figure out how this crazed man had broken into my house and made his way into my bedroom without me waking up. A million thoughts were shooting through my mind. The man took this as an opportunity to step out from behind the counter and step into the dining room, always keeping eye contact with me, and never blinking.

Again his lips parted for only a second, this time the words came out almost gentle and friendly, waving his hand he said “come here” but the look in his eyes told me he was ready and willing to kill. Paralyzed by fear, he took this opportunity and lunged at me, two long strides and he had already cleared half the distance between us. My body acted on its own my legs propelling me to the stairs, my muscles burning and screaming to life. My body could not wait another second for commands from my brain, it had to act now to keep me alive. Before I realized it, I was dashing up the stairs as fast as my trembling legs would carry me. I felt a sick chill crawl down my spine, as if this murderous man was breathing down my neck and was about the grab me. That’s when I felt his cool fingers slip around my ankle pulling me with shocking force. Forcing me to trip on the stairs. I flipped over on to my back to see this wild man, with a grin spread across his face, and his eyes dancing with amusement, the moonlight slipping through the window danced off the crude silver blade he held in his hand, as he brought the blade down to slash at me, I instinctively brought my foot up and kicked him in the chest as hard as my trembling legs would allow. This sent him tumbling backwards down the stairs, but not before he was able to slice open my leg with his knife. My sweatpants were quickly greeted by the warm blood flowing out of my leg. Creating a sizeable damp spot on my pants.

I pushed myself up onto my feet and kept running up the stairs, throwing myself into my room locking the door behind me. At this point my mind was numb and the only objective was to get out of my house alive. I walked across my room to my window, kicking the clothes out of my way. At this point my body was begging me to sit down and rest. My muscles were tired and cramping. The adrenaline was leaving my body and exhaustion was creeping in. That’s when I heard it, a playful knock at the door, as if this crazed man was sarcastically asking if I would open the door for him. I pushed myself to the window and quickly ripped the screen off to open it, I felt the cool autumn air touch my face, where it lingered for a second before it crept over the rest of my body, the hot beads of sweat that ran down my face soon became cool to the touch in the night. The fresh air reinvigorated me, giving me new life. Just as I was halfway through the window, I heard the harsh screeching of my wood door finally giving in to the stranger’s relentless kicks. I looked back to see him walking into my room, that grin still on his face, as if this was all just a game to him. He made his way towards me, before I knew it I shoved myself through the rest of the window tumbling on the roof of the first floor. I had so much momentum that I just kept rolling. The shingles abusing my body as I tumbled, scratching and scraping my arms. Before I could stop myself, the roof disappeared from underneath me.

For a brief moment it felt like I was frozen in time, and floating. Then in a blink the whole world came roaring back to life. I felt the merciless pull of gravity dragging me to the hard frost-bitten grass below. With moments to prepare for the impact I landed awkwardly with a loud thud. Air rushing from my lungs leaving me on the ground dizzy and gasping for air. My mind was hazy, but I knew I needed to get up and get away from my house. I looked down at my leg as I crawled to my feet, the blood soaked spot on my sweatpants had doubled in size. I felt faint just looking at it.

I turned and started to run towards my front gate, the cool air whipping through my hair, my lungs burning in agony, begging me for fresh oxygen to feed my body. The freedom that was just beyond that gate had my heart racing, I reached out and grabbed it with my hand, almost sighing with relief. Bringing my other hand up to open the latch. In an instant, I felt the life begin to leave my body as I felt the cool fingers of the man wrap around my wrist. His blade slid across my neck and i felt the warm disgusting breath of this man against my ear. I couldn’t believe it, how had he caught up to me, how did he make up so much time and meet me at the gate. It felt inhuman. He whispered in my ear “thanks for making this so much fun” tears started to well up in my eyes as I realized that I had lost, the blade retreated from my neck, as blood began to trickle down to my collarbone. Tears running down my cheeks I brought my hand up to my neck only to feel my blood rushing though my fingers, as if it wanted to escape all the fear that was inside my body. Trembling, I turned to look at the man, but all I saw was his silhouette in the night as he walked away from me, finished with the game that excited him. I stumbled to the side hitting the fence, I could barely feel the harsh wood against my numb body. I slumped down, head leaning against the fence as my life faded away, my vision began to tunnel until there was nothing left, my consciousness fading into black. All I could hear in the night was the wind blowing through the leaves, and the strangers steady and constant footsteps as he walked away, disappearing into the darkness just like me.