I was only five years old, when the man outside my window first appeared. He only showed himself at night, only when pitch black curtains draped over the sky, completely engulfing my town in darkness. I was woken up from my sleep by the tapping outside my window. Tap ,tap ,tap, there he was, staring into the depths of my soul. I was completely in a trance. I couldn’t just look away from his glowing red eyes which were the only things that were visible besides his silhouette. With a chilling smile, teeth as white as the shinning moon and as sharp as knives he told me to come closer to him.

I should have been scared when he told me to come closer, but there was something about his smile that was so welcoming, it lured me towards him. He said my name in a low, bloodcurdling voice “Eeeleanor” he told me to come outside to play with him and that afterwards he’ll take me to his home.  He told me he lives in the pit, where there are eternal flames and where one can hear the ear splitting screams of those who live there. But I couldn’t go outside to play it was too late and my mom wouldn’t let me. The man outside my window just smiled at me and told me to go back to bed.  Nothing much happen afterwards we just looked at each other until my eyes got heavy and I fell asleep.  In the years that followed my first  encounter with him, the man outside my window would come and visit me every so often. As I grew older the more I knew that his welcoming smile shouldn’t be trusted, yet he never did anything to hurt me.

On the night of my eighth birthday  I looked outside my window when I fell into a complete trance looking into his red eyes.  The trance urged me to unhinged my window and I slowly climbed.  Each step I took was a step closer to him,  when  all of a sudden my mom grabbed me from my wrist and pulled me out from my trance. Perplexed she asked me what I was doing,  I told her I was going out to play with the man outside my window. She just looked at me with horror in her eyes.

It took me a while to realize why she was so frightened… I lived in the fifth floor of my apartment complex.