The Figure
Mike Hanson

 

David De Palma Sat waiting for the 3 o' clock bell to ring. He was bored out of his mind at school. He just sat and daydreamed about the party tonight. Finally, the bell rang. He was free, it was Friday. When he got home, he called his mom at work and said he was staying at his dad's house tonight. She told him that was fine, but then she told him that he had to watch his sister. He growled, but did not protest, for his mom let him off 2 months grounding.

It was 8:30 PM and twilight started to set in. David tried to do anything he could to get rid of his sister. Then his sister's friend called and she got invited to a sleep-over. David rejoiced happily, for he had the house to himself tonight, and his dad was at a concert with a girlfriend. It was dark now. David called his friend Jim to come over. David's dad lived in a tree-covered, older neighborhood. He had an alley in the back, behind the houses. David was in his bathroom washing up after he ate. He was starting to get creeped out in the old house. There was a chill down his spine when he heard a "crack!". He looked over, he saw it, and he got an idea.

The binoculars where right in front of him. He figured he could waste the 2 hours he had before his friend came over by getting interested in the art of spying. First he peered at his next door neighbors, but nothing was going on. He then went to his porch to look at the houses across the street. Still nothing going on. So then he walked up his steep stairways and looked through his top-story backyard window. He looked around and was about to get something to drink when he noticed the house exactly across the alley. Mrs. Johnson's living room light was on. But then David noticed something strange. A figure was standing in her window, silhouetted by the light.

He looked, the person just standing, staring, through Mrs. Johnson's living room window. For a whole 20 minutes David stared at the shape. So he got ready. Wearing black, a hood, binoculars, a baseball cap. He quietly went outside. He got up to her fence across the dark alley. When he arrived, he noticed the shape was no longer in the window. Then David heard a noise. It was just squirrels, but he got creeped out and ran back to his yard and jumped his fence. He came back inside through the front yard. He looked through the same window again and this time the light in the next room was on. Mrs. Johnson appeared to be staring back at David. Something very creepy was on. Then Mrs. Johnson slowly shut her shades and her light off. The only light on now was the living room window and the shape peering through it. David was spooked out of his mind. Could this person be an escaped convict? He had to find out. He took out the phone-book and called Mrs. Johnson, he got an answering machine. He started to walk down his dark hallway, when.... RING, RING. He was shocked and startled out of his mind. He realized it was his friend calling him and telling him he would be over in an hour.

David started to walk down his hallway again. He looked back outside with his binoculars again. He saw the black shape still staring into Mrs. Johnson's window. Then his finger slipped on the window sill, he got a sliver, and was bleeding. He pulled it out and got back to spying. He was out of focus for a second when he put the sights back on the shape. But then he dropped his binoculars when he saw that the figure was no longer there. He picked the binoculars back up and saw the evil-looking, horrifying, black-as-death shape walk towards his house.

David ran to call the cops. He was just one second from picking the phone up when it rang. It was his mom, she blabbed and blabbed until David hung up on her. But it was to late to call the cops now. He flew down the stairs and locked the back door. He then went to the bathroom to see the black figure just walking by at a psychotic pace. He went to lock the front door. He did. But the figure was already inside the porch. It stood quiet, and even though the doorbell was broken, David figured it would not ring it anyway. With a gasp he tip-toed up to the door, with a window on the top of the door, David slowly looked up and saw it. He saw.... Mrs. Johnson trying to ring the doorbell. He let the biggest sigh of relief ever. He unlocked the door and let her in.

She explained to David that she was reading when someone broke into her house. She climbed through the window and stood in the backyard, watching through the living room window the whole time. David thought she was a brave, curious old lady. She then cried and David promised her that she was safe, and everything would be all right. David's smile of comfort slowly evolved into a frown of fear, as he realized that the person he thought was Mrs. Johnson stood in her house and stared at David, and then closed the shade and shut the light off. At the time he thought it was Mrs. Johnson, but now he realized it wasn't and he was now in danger.

David once again went to call the police, but his phone line was dead. He and Mrs. Johnson where horrified, but they where brave. They had to take matters into their own hands. Mrs. Johnson lived by herself, her husband passed away six years earlier, but she still preferred to be called "Mrs." David had a quick thought in his mind. He thought of suspects: Could it be her husband, still alive, Could it be her cooky 20 year old neighbor, John Huston. David thought, that's who it is. The person that broke in and looked through the window was him. He then remembered he has to mow his lawn because he's out of town. Could it be his friend, Jim. David got a chill down his spine. He had to go back over there. He led himself back to Mrs. Johnson's house with a knife, leaving Mrs. Johnson back at his House with the doors locked. As he crossed the dark alley into Mrs. Johnson's front door around the house, he wondered what would happen, and he wondered if he would live to tell it.

David went inside Mrs. Johnson's house. It was pitch black and the power was out, predictably. David went from one dark room to another with his knife clenched in his trembling hand. He wondered if he should go back, but it was to late now. All of a sudden a closet burst open. It was dark. David took one step, then....

Crack! A body fell from the closet. It was a decapitated police officer, David screamed. He ran outside, and saw Mrs. Johnson's next-door 20 year old neighbor John Huston standing creepily on his porch. He never did go out of town. He stepped outside, and caught up with the sprinting David. David felt a muscular, cold hand pull him to face the 20 year old man. The man then started to talk.

After the story was revealed, David was now in complete shock. The man explained that his flight was canceled, so he went back home. He noticed how lonely Mrs. Johnson was acting lately and He figured someday she would crack up from loneliness. She called the police, claiming there was a trespasser, ran outside and hid. The cop looked around, including looking at David, then she went back inside and killed him, went to David's house and set David up. And John watched the whole time, confused. Then he called the cops right before he met up with David.

John took David inside his house and gave him a glass of water, then he went into the living room. David then realized that the old lady was still in HIS house! Then David heard a thud. David walked into John's living room and saw John on the floor, dead. Standing up with a bloody-knife in her hands was Mrs. Johnson., whose pale expression turned into a killer grin, and she started to walk towards David, whose friend Jim came to the rescue and hit the old lady, causing her to fall. They where safe, and the cops came and arrested the old lady, and David realized he had one hell of a night.

 

 

Copyright � 1999 Mike Hanson
Published on the World Wide Web by "www.storymania.com"