Friday, August 12, 2011

Watching Me

I wanted to get some writing inspiration so I turned to Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop this week. This is my first time joining in so please be gentle.

 I'm loving this prompt....The Police said it best when they said, "Every breath you take/And every move you make/Every bond you break, every step you take/I'll be watching you". Write about a time you believed someone was watching you.

The exact time of this memory is a bit unclear to me.  The details are fuzzy but the feeling of being watched I can still recall clear as day.

I had to be around seven or eight years old at the time.  I believe I was up late on a weekend night hanging out with my family.  It must have been late fall because I remember it being cold outside but no snow was on the ground.  I grew up in Western New York.  So, it couldn't have been wintertime if there wasn't snow or some type of frost on the ground.  I remember the air being crisp where you could see your breath if you breathed out.  I'd say it was fallm  probably just after Halloween. 

I've never really tried to think through this memory past the actual eerie feeling I had.  And being scared to death.  It's interesting to look back now and attempt to decipher the actual details.  Everything now is really an impression of what was.  No concrete details.

I can still hear the television playing quietly in the living room.  For some reason my memory places me in the laundry room of the first house I remember growing up in.  We lived there from the time I was about four until the summer I turned twelve.  It was a single level ranch house.  We had three bedrooms.  Mine was the very small.  My brothers shared a room and slept on bunk beds.  We had a decent size living room with a dinning room coming off the back of it, connecting to a small kitchen and then  a laundry room off the back.

The laundry room was small.  There was a washer and dryer lined up against one wall, the outside entrance across from them.  Next to the door was a folding table under a window.  There was a door between this room and the kitchen. It was between the wall with the washer/dryer and the outside door.

I believe I was in the laundry room because my mom had asked me to lock the back door.  Clear as day I remember walking up to that door.  I looked out the pane glass window in the door.  It was right at my eye level.  I believe there was a sheer curtain over it.  Did I lift the curtain or was I able to see through it?  I'm not quite sure.

I got this eerie feeling of being watched.  As I looked out the window I swear to this day that I saw a face in the window looking back at me.  And I mean close, as in peering in.  I saw no body, just a face.  I don't know who it was.  I don't know if it was just my imagination.  Maybe, I had just finished watching a scary movie. Those details have all faded from my memory.  All I know is I was terrified!  Those eyes stared straight into my soul.  They made me quake in fear.

I didn't scream, though I wanted to.  My instant reaction was to lturn the lock lock on the knob and slowly back away while keeping my eyes glued to the face in the window.  I don't remember ever telling my parents about it.  Maybe I did.  Odd that I can't remember that.I should ask them one of these days and find out. 

Years later, I continue to tell myself it was just a figment of my imagination.  But what if it wasn't?  What if there really was someone in our gated backyard?  My mind can't even wrap itself around that possibility.  The memory haunts me to this very day.

I have had nightmares about it ever since.  At first there were many then slowly over time they have all but gone away.  But, every once in a while I see that face peeking in the window during a cool, pitch black night and I am shaking once again.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Howdy... Yeah good story. I had a dream about my nanny turning into a witch.. Weird I know. but as a kid it was scary. I always wonder what are dreams mean...Hmmm...I see a new post coming my way...
XOXO,
Shirley
(KindredAdventures too)

Unknown said...

That would've scared me as a kid too! You definately write about it! I can't wait to read it.
Thanks for reading and for commenting!

Gretchen said...

I KNOW I would have screamed and run away. I am a big wimp.

stopping by from Mama Kat's :)

~Mistee~ said...

Spooky!!!! Im already a big chicken as it is! I'm sleeping with the light on tonight and not looking out any windows or doors after dark!!!!

RedWriter said...

It is amazing how over time memories slowly morph into feelings and simple snippets almost like a dream that you are trying to grasp on to in the morning. This is a great post, made me shiver. ;) make sure you come back next week. Xx (visiting from mama kats)

Tiffany said...

Soooo creeped out! Glad you were able to remember it!

January Dawn said...

EEK. Creepy. It's interesting how weird memories from our childhood haunt us forever. I have many but none about scary watching eyes peering in through my window. Stopping in from Sunday Funday! I'll have to check out Mama Kat's too. :) A great 'first'!