I was puffing on my bowl and thinking
about what Ted had said about the Lottery.
It didn't make sense, and I wanted to find
out more. I was pretty deep in thought
and deep into my bowl, when I heard a
muffled thud, like wood on wood contact.
I got up, walked toward the bathroom,
opposite my bedroom, stood and listened
for a minute. I could swear I heard voices.
Like two people talking real low, and
whispering.
I looked at the bathroom door and called,
'Ted. Everything alright in there?'
'Uh, yeah. Yeah man... Just a second',
Ted said, with what I could detect as
panic in his voice. I distinctly heard the bathroom window close, and the sink
faucet turn on. I could hear Ted splashing
in the water, so I backed away from the
door and went to sit down.
A few minutes later, Ted opened the door
and stepped back into the living room.
His face was wet, from having splashed
water on himself, but it couldn't hide the
paleness that now showed in his face.
His eyes looked scared and panicked,
as he started walking toward the kitchen.
'Wait, Ted! What's going on, are you o.k.?
I said quickly as I stood up to follow him
out. Ted opened the patio door, and said,
'Yeah man, I'll be alright. I hope you are
gonna be alright', He said as he quickly
walked away toward the back of his unit.
I just stood there, shocked at his statement,
and baffled by the sudden departure.
I watched him step inside his apartment
through his patio door. I looked right down
the exterior wall, and saw a dark shadow
peering out around the corner. As soon as
I turned my head that way, it was gone.
Stepping out onto my patio, I called out,
'Hello?'. Nothing. Silence. I swear I saw
someone. It was too tall to be an animal.
It was a human shape.
I went in real fast, grabbed my flashlight,
and stepped back out onto the patio, and
followed the wall right. Five other units
spanned the distance, and when I got to
the corner, there was nothing there. All
was quiet, except for the sound of crickets
and an occasional vehicle going by.
The units all had the same layout, with a
high bathroom window, a patio door, and
a picture window. The bathroom window
was too high to climb in without a huge
struggle, and all of them had screens on
them. I glanced at my bathroom window,
and saw no foul play, so I went back inside.
'What a strange guy', I thought, closing
and locking the patio door.
The t.v. was still on, so I turned it off, and
went to my bedroom to lay out my clothes
for tomorrow. I set the alarm for 5:00 a.m.
and brushed my teeth.
I changed into my pajamas, went out to
the living room, made sure the thermostat
was set at 70° Faranheit. With everything
locked up, I turned off all the lights and
went to bed. Laying there, thinking about
the day, my thoughts drifted towards Anna.
I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

Chapter 10

I woke up in terror. Sweat pouring off me.
Eyes shocked open as the mysterious
knife wielding killer disappeared once
again, like a whisp of smoke dissapating
as the seconds ticked by. I look over at my
clock. There are no illuminating red digital
numbers showing. The face is black.
I reach over to turn on the bedstand light,
but it doesn't turn on. I got up, went to the
bathroom and turned on the light. Walking
out to the living room, I found the flashlight
I had put on my desk earlier, and went back
to the bedroom to examine the alarm clock.
Everything appeared normal. I followed the
cord to the wall. Both it and the light were
plugged in.
Baffled, and still shaking from my
nightmare, I got up and went into the
bathroom to wash my face and wipe
my still perspiring body down. It was a
bad one this time. I went deeper into
the nightmare than normal, but I don't
remember what transpired. I never
remember. It just leaves me terrorized,
wet, shaking and with wet bed sheets.
No wonder my girlfriends would go sleep
on the couch or loveseat. I didn't even
want to go back to bed do to the cold,
wet aftermath.
I got done washing up, changed my
pajama top, and went out to the living
room to look for a breaker box.
I went to the kitchen, turned the light on,
and found it. It was behind the refrigerator.
I slid the refrigerator out enough to get
behind it, and opened the breaker box.
All the individual breakers were labeled,
and I found the one that says, bedroom.
Sure enough! The breaker was tripped.
I flipped it to the off position, then flipped
it on. I went to the bedroom, and the night
stand light was on. I walked inside the room
and looked at the clock. It was flashing
12:01 a.m. in bold red digital numbers.
Looking at the clock on the desk, it said
it was 3:13 a.m.
At least 10 minutes went by, and that would
mean I woke up at 3:03 a.m. again.
I am seriously spooked now. I don't know
what all this means, and I am wide awake,
when I should be sleeping.
I went back into the bedroom, peeled the
wet sheets off the bed and put...