Jeff Jones, Week 5

“In the silence of the night

How we shiver with affright

At the melancholy menace of their tone!”

Poe. “The Bells” this time rather than “The Raven”.

Contact has been good for me. Having someone to talk to has restored some sense of normalcy to my life. The day after my last post, I went out to have a drink with Roland. He seemed genuinely concerned about me, which is good, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to confide in him every strange thing that has happened to me for fear I may be thought crazy. We had good conversation nonetheless, about city life and various hobbies and what not. He’s an avid reader, which is always nice to hear. I’m not sure he’s recognized me yet, thankfully. Moments like that night remind me why I moved here in the first place.

The creature was still outside my window like clockwork when I returned, however, and this night had approached close enough to where I could view him just by turning my head from my desk. I did my best to ignore him, a task I proved much more successful at than I expected, which led to my completion of a significant amount of work – the most since I moved here, actually. I was feeling pretty on top of the world at the time.

The rest of the week continued respectably well. I conversed with Roland a fair deal when I went into town to grab some groceries. No sightings of the creature in the town. I got a lot of work done. Life was, for the first time in a month, surprisingly tenable.

Until last night.

I was sitting at my desk, having been working for the past few hours, when I observed that the sun had set. Knowing what to expect, I turned my head to look at the window – but the creature wasn’t there. I stood up and walked to the window to gaze out and see how far the creature had retreated – only to find that he wasn’t outside at all. My heart rate quickened, and for a moment I experienced the briefest elation that the creature had finally departed, that I had somehow kicked whatever affliction had befallen me. I decided to be completely sure and go outside and investigate.

There was nothing but silence outside. No cars, no animals, and no creature. The shadows in the road remained, but there was no otherwise sign of the creature. Until I turned around to walk back into the house.

Cast across my door was the shadow of the creature, with its arm clutching the doorknob.

I stood there petrified in fear. I’m fairly certain the shadow wasn’t on the door before I exited my home to investigate the lack of the creature. Was it in the house? Was it still outside? I shut the door, got in my car and drove to a hotel in town, where I stayed the night. This morning I woke up and told Roland immediately.

Of course, I was still concerned he’d think I’m insane, so I fudged the details a bit – I didn’t mention his unnatural height or lack of face, nor the shadows that he seems to cast – which may have changed his advice. He told me to go to the police.

Of course I haven’t done that. And I don’t plan to. They’d think I’m crazy.

Am I?