Day 719

As she came home from work, she noticed something off about her house. The door looked locked so that wasn't it, the gate was closed lime she'd left it, the windows were shut and the curtains were open which struck something odd. It took her exhausted mind a few minutes to work it out but when she did she felt her blood run cold.

The curtains.

She'd left them closed when she went to work the previous evening like she always did. It made the house look occupied and therefore helped prevent any would-be burglars except that they were wide open now and there was a strange shadow in her living roo - no, a person. They were standing right in front of the window with their back to her.

Moving slowly and quietly through the gate, careful not to let it slam shut in the cold breeze, she crept up to the window. Keeping low and steady she tried to see who it was, after all her sister was due to visit some time during the week and she had her own house key but the figure wasn't her sister. The figure wasn't anyone she recognised and they appeared to be naked too.

Tiptoeing back out of the gate she headed round the street corner to call the police and report the intruder. Insuring they knew she was a lone female and that they were on their way she knocked at her neighbour's house and waited with them.

When the police came, two tired and slow moving officers by the name of Marplane and Swaithe, their first question was where she'd spotted the intruder. Glancing at the living room window she could clearly see their dark outline through the glass, naked back facing them. Apparently the officers couldn't see them and proceeded to ask if she'd been drinking.

She grew annoyed, had they been drinking? Could they not see the person so blatantly standing there? It was enough to make her snap at them and enough for them to decide she was being abusive, likely drunk and leave the area without so much as a cursory run of the house.

Now she wasn't just annoyed - she was annoyed and alone with a strange figure in her living room that nobody else could see for some reason. Gathering up her nerve she approached the window and tapped on the glass, holding her breath and waiting for the figure to turn.

They didn't.

Not so much as as a flinch when her hand rapped sharply against the cold surface. She wondered if her sister had decided to prank her with a mannequin of some kind until she noticed their ribcage moving in and out slowly and shallowly as they breathed. Perhaps they were unconscious or having a seizure?

She didn't dare call the police or anyone else in case Marplane and Swaithe had told them that she'd wasted their time, been "abusive" and asked that she be avoided for the time being by other officers. It was a risk she wasn't willing to take and so she went inside.

The first thing she did upon opening the door as quietly as possible was to grab her tall umbrella from the stand by the coat rack and grip it like a baseball bat as she headed for the living room and the unwanted figure within.

Deep breath after deep breath, she stalled for time as she approached the entryway, throwing scenario after scenario out until there was nothing left. What if they leapt out at her? How quickly could she swing the umbrella? What if she missed and they attacked her? What if she didn't and she killed them? Would it be murder, manslaughter or self defence? What would her prison sentence be? Do prisons have shared cells and open bars? Are they cold?

Shaking her head she took one final deep breath and jumped around the corner, yelling and winging the umbrella wildly until she realised she was alone. the curtains were still wide open and there was no figure in sight. Before she could further ponder anything she saw movement at the window - one of her small china ornaments began to float and twist in the air as if it was being examined by hands that she couldn't see...

Hand that she couldn't see from inside but saw from outside.

She ran for the front door, slamming it behind her before turning to look at the window. the figure was moving now, holding her knick-knack in an inhumanly long hand. Their face was utterly featureless, a smooth dark grey mass of flesh interrupted only by bulbous eyes that snapped over to where she was standing.

Its face began to split, starting from the left side and gradually meandering to the right as it smiled from where an ear should be to where the other ear should be. As she watched in horror, unable to bring herself to move further forward or away from the window its arm began to bend backwards.

With slow deliberation it hurled the statue at the window, shattering it and the only way she'd been able to see it.