"Man in the Dark" by Catherine Collins

       I froze in complete shock. I couldn’t move, my body wouldn’t allow it. I just stood there looking in those pitch black eyes of a man I have never seen before.

        One minute before, I was coming home from my friend’s house. It was about 9:30 p.m so it was dark outside. I was putting my bike in the back yard; I felt kind of scared. I’ve always been afraid of the dark. But the thing is I did not expect this coming. I turned the corner of my house next to my green garbage can, when I look up and saw a man. At first I thought it was my brother just standing there looking a little lost when I realized it wasn’t. Out of my confusion I dropped my bike. I didn’t mean to make a noise, it just… happened. I looked down at my bike and I was so scarred I couldn’t even think, move, speak, I just blanked it all. I look up at the man, I see him slowly turn towards me. He just stared at me, and I him. The man looked about 30 maybe 35 he wore all black and from the 10’ foot distance his whole entire eyes looked black, I couldn’t see the white outline of them. All I saw was dark emptiness. I stood in that same spot for about 20 seconds just looking at this man in complete shock when he finally started walking towards me. I don’t even remember thinking; I guess my adrenaline just kicked in. I ran out of my back yard with such speed it surprised even myself. When I finally made it inside my house I called out for my father. “Dad! Dad! Some guy is in our back yard!” He comes out of the hallway, I think he was sleeping because his eye lids looked heavy and when he spoke he sounded groggy. “What? What?” He said. “I said some man is in our back yard! I went to put my bike away, and he was just there!” My dad didn’t need to hear anymore, he ran into his room. At first I thought that maybe he was calling the police, but I was wrong. He comes running out with his bat! He coached base ball when he was younger so I guess he just kept his bat for all of these years. He runs out side with his bat in a position to swing. I just sat with my mom; she held me and told me I was okay.  It was then I realized I was crying. I didn’t even feel the tears coming down my face. As my mom wipes the tears from my face, my dad comes inside. He says, “Catherine honey, no one is outside.” “

        “No! Someone was there! At first I thought it was Chase, but it wasn’t!” I said.

        “Well whoever it was, is not there anymore. Nancy will you call the police and tell them what happened? And honey, you should just go get ready for bed and calm down. Everything is okay now.”