Eyes Watching

A shiver went down the length of my body right to the core of my soul.

Someone was out there watching my apartment window. I turned off my lamp and moved to my bedroom window I could see a shadow lurking beside the tree that came close to my bedroom window. Just the slightest of movement below, if I had not been staring out I would have missed it completely. Whoever it was dressed in dark clothing, a car drove by illuminating the base of the tree and his face for only a second.

I recognized him instantly, he was the man in the floor below me, and he had tried many times to get me to come down to his place for a drink. He was a creepy sort of a person with a rotund stomach with one eye that danced around his round face. Always saying no with an excuse, I had finally told him I was not interested in his company. He lurked in the lobby most days when I arrived home with a harsh glare at me with his wobbly eye.

I had moved in to my place less than two months ago and was already thinking of moving because of this man. Someone had been inside my place when I was at work. My drawers were not how I had left them. I told myself that was just being paranoid as no one had a key to my place.

Looking down at the tree trunk, no movement, had he given up and gone inside. My phone rung and all I got was a heavy breather and then a click. My number was unlisted so shrugging it off I went back to reading my book. That is when I heard a shuffle of feet in the hallway outside my door. Quietly making my way to the peephole, I scanned the hallway no one was there.

I decided to turn in early, snuggled down dozing still with the book in my hand. I awoke to the sound of my window being slid open. Jumping up I grabbed the nearest thing, which was the handle of my vacuum cleaner that I had not put away. Turning towards the window a leg was on the sill,  I charged forward raising the handle I pushed at the body that was now a quarter of the way inside. His wobbled eye started up at me. He lost his equilibrium as  his stomach pulled him farther out, Holding the handle tight I used all my strength for another big shove he slipped trying to grab on to a branch as I kept hitting him.

Finally, I heard the crash as he tumbled to the ground.

Then silence.

A women’s voice yelled to her husband to call an ambulance, then shortly in the distance a siren. I locked my window and got back under the covers. I would sleep like a baby tonight, he would not be a bother for a while.

Via the gossip in the mail room, I heard he had two broken legs, his arm had two pins put in and lacerations to his face. He would be spending at least a week in hospital. Nobody seemed to know how this had happened.

Assuming he had not told anyone how his accident occurred.

The threatening phone calls began around the time he came home from the hospital. I had my number changed still wondering how he had it in the first place. Still in his casts, he sat in the lobby just staring and mumbling under his breath when I came home.

I was thinking of moving, deciding why should I let this crazy man ruin my cozy place that I had fixed up and enjoyed. I had changed my locks, adding two sliding bolts for when I was inside. Everything ran smoothly for the next two months, no phone calls no sounds outside my door, he had even stopped sitting in the lobby.

Arriving home, I started to get into the elevator, which was full of people, I backed out saying I would take the stairs, before the doors closed a very different man stood inside. He must have lost fifty pounds and look fit as if he had been working out, as the door closed his face broke into a sneer along with his wobbly eye stare.

That was when I decided to keep my Beretta close to me.

Another month passed with no sign of my stalker.

I had run a bath, lit my candles and planned to soak with a glass of wine. Slipping down into the bubbles, soft music in the background, I started to drift off, as the water grew cool, but something in the air had changed. I wrapped my towel around me heading towards my bedroom.

There in my living room sat my stalker, his gnarled ugly face grinning. The first thing out of his mouth was he was going to have me now. He started to get up, as I ran towards the bedroom, he grabbed my towel, pulled it to the floor. This man was going to rape me.

I ran into my bedroom the window was wide open, locking the door, I grabbed for my gun from the bedside as he crashed through, leaving the splintered door hanging from the hinges. He came towards me, stopped when to his astonishment he saw my gun pointed straight at him.

He sneered and kept coming. I had a split second to make a decision.

Did I want the police called then a lengthy trial and him out in six months and this nightmare to start all over again.

He reached for me, that is when I shot him in his chest. He stumbled to the floor. His

ugly face showed terror. That is when my second shot hit him right in his wobbled eye and the blood spurted out.

Bending over him, I found no pulse.

I put on my housecoat, called 911, poured a glass of wine and sat down to wait.