.
Just like the previous
nights, sharp at the same hour, I startled in my bed
on hearing sliding the screen door. I turned my head
toward the bedroom's door. He turned the knob and he
pushed the door open, and he entered the room
silently. He shuffled very quietly to the door. When he
came out of the bedroom, I shut my eyes and listened.
He opened the door of the apartment smoothly and then
closed it smoothly behind him. I pushed the blanket
fast and came out of the bed. I pushed the curtain aside
and waited. Even if he opened the door carefully, but I heard.
I could recognized his muscled silhouette, just under
the light of the street. He wore wool
jacket with tight black paints and a heavy bag on his
shoulder. The shoes were not to be seen from that
distance. However, in the morning, just before vacuum
cleaning, I was watching their prints. They were big.
The dried mud on the carpet showed their spikes.
I didn't relate to anybody in the office. I feared
that they don't believe. Even, I thought of
calling police many times. They would come and ambush
in a place and then they would arrest him upon his trespassing on the porch.
Or maybe,
they wait for him in the neighborhoods' yard and kick the
life out of him. But, I didn't call them. I was
afraid. However, I forgot about all cautions and I told
it to my colleague, a fellow on my neighboring desk in
the office.
"I have such dreams, too" he said.
I said, "Honestly, I cross my fingers, it is not
a dream".
"You should marry. I have been a single."
Said my friend, "It is good just for the first
year. But
after some times you will be going crazy."
He was right. But, I am for sure not dreaming. Next
day,I
confess to him that it was all dreaming, to have his
trust. He said, "See! for me also such a thing happened.
One night, I saw a ghost entered my room and it was
going to suffocate me. I woke up suddenly. I didn't
sleep for a week. You should marry. That is the
only solution."
I didn't say a word after that, but he comes at night,
just half an hour after the midnight, he was coming
and going. I violated my life. The fear affected my
life. Once, I decided to get rid off this intruder. In
the same evening, I found a big bat. I exercised with
it for some hours. I would stand with my back against
the wall, raise the bat and flung it. Then, I spread my bedclothes between the sofas. It was
a habit for many years. I never slept on bed, in my
bedroom. I put the bat under my bed. I laid I and
tried to remain awake. It was a couple of hours before midnight. I took the
bat and I looked at it carefully. If, I beat him on the
middle of the head, he
would fall unconscious, then I would call the
neighbors.
I got up and I went to the bedroom. I looked through the screen door to the porch, next to
the high wall of the yard. He would come from here, I
mean, I thought that he would come that way. I went
back to my bed and I waited.
I woke up suddenly, by the opening sound of the screen
door. The bat was beside me, on the floor. I had been
sleeping. Everything went wrong. The man came in and
the he went slowly to the door. I couldn't breath
more. I decided to grab the bat and
run and hit him on the skull. But, I failed. My knees went trembling. My mouth dried
up and I couldn't blink either. He went out the door. I didn't hear his footsteps anymore. I
didn't bother to get out of bed and look at him going
out. In the morning, I felt tired. When I called my office,
The same colleague of my next desk answered and
I asked ! "please pass a leave slip
for me."
"What's up? Are you captured by ghosts?"
He
added that he would. I slept through the day until
afternoon. The bat was still there, on the floor. I
stood, took it from the floor and I decided to
exercise some more, but suddenly, I threw it against
one picture on the wall. Its glass was smashed and it fell
down on the floor, near the small card table. I put on my clothes and I went out wondering for a
long time, in the streets near my apartment. When I came
back, all the lights were off. I entered the
house and then my apartment. The bat was on the floor,
next to the broken picture. I got it and I sat out of bedroom,
leaning
against the wall. I was hungry, but I should wait. I
stand up and I walked for a while to resist sleeping.
Then, I heard his footsteps on the porch. He opened
the screen door and came in. I stand up and raised the bat, as high
as I could, to the back of my head. He closed the door
slowly and walked in. He
stopped suddenly. I thought, he was suspicious of my
presence. I decided to run toward him, but I heard the
sound of the closing his zipper, and then the sound of
his steps. I held my breath. I glimpsed his head and I
hit him with a crushing blow of bat. It is cry of
sudden pain that resolved the crushing sound of bat on
his skull. He dropped on his knees. I raised the bat
once more and I hit him again. This time, it was only
the sound of bat on skull and then a heavy thud on the
floor. I tricked the light. There was a huge man on
the floor, with blood running out of his mouth on the
floor. He was dead. I was trembling. How could I call the
neighbors! I picked up yesterday newspaper, which was
still on the dinner table, and I
put it under his head. Then, I put a plastic back on his
head and tightened it with a rope on his neck. I carried the
corpse on my shoulders with great trouble. It was heavy. I took him out
and laid it against a wall. I got my car and I put the
coarse on the back seat. I drove wondering in the streets.
Finally, I stopped
at the shoulder of a freeway going up the north of the
city. I
got the corpse out and I left it among the bushed,
under the tall pines. I turned back home fast.
The blood on the carpet, beside the door of the
bedroom, was dried. I cleaned it with piece of
cloth which was wet of cold water. Then, I dropped
asleep on an uneven bed, spread on the floor for two
days.
When I got up in the morning, there was no sign of
blood, but the bat was there, lying inside my
bedclothes. I closed up the bed and I put on my clothes and I went to
the office. My fellow had written a leave slip for me. He
asked me, " Is he coming
again?"
"I knocked him dead, yesterday night." I said.
He said, "My cousin, a daughter of..."
"Forget about it."
I turned home high spirited at the evening. No more intruder again. I
tried to revive my old habits. I had a stuffed
delicious dinner. I took a book from bookshelves and I
read it at most four pages and I dropped in a sound
sleeping.
But, at midnight, at the same time, I was awake by the sound of screen door.
I turned toward the bedroom door. The man entered and
walked very slowly toward the apartment's door. I held my breath, my mouth dried up. I
wanted to cry, but in vein. Did he had come back to revenge?
But, he opened the door slowly and he went out. Was he really himself? But, he had no
bondage on his head, but with those crushing hits...
Now, It has been coming many months after that. I have not
bothered to wake up at his sound any more in the last
nights. But, in the
morning, before leaving the house, I vacuum clean
his muddy footprints off the carpet.
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