"The Man in the Hall"

"The Man in the Hall"
By T.H. Willis

10/18/05 Edmonds, WA

The sun had long since set as I pulled my black Acura sedan into the well lit parking lot of my apartment complex. It was mid October and in typical Seattle fashion it was cold, wet and rainy. A gentle breeze swayed the branches of the tall cedars that surrounded the shadowy three story building that held my one bedroom bachelor pad.
Tucked back in a quiet residential neighborhood on the outskirts of the seaside town of Edmonds, WA, "Whispering Cedars" had been built in the late 80's as a five building complex designed to house the many retirement aged people who were moving to the area at the time to enjoy small town living on the shores of Puget Sound and still be only about 20 minutes north of Seattle.
Now most of the residents were well into thier senior years. The residents wanted peace and quiet in the complex so the management usually shunned single guys in thier mid 20's like me. I liked the place,however, as Whispering Cedars had large bedrooms, a pool/hot tub and a work-out facility. I offered to do part time maintenance in my free time for the elderly manager if she would rent me a unit. After assuring her I wouldn't play loud music, smoke pot inside, or have wild parties I was allowed to sign a 6 month lease and move in.
I was still soaked in sweat from another day's exersions at the local moving company I worked for. I shivered as I stepped out of my warm car into the drizzly damp air of the quiet fall night. Yawning deeply I made my way toward the secured entrance of building "D". As I walked briskly through the wet parking lot I passed the rows of sleeping Buicks and Caddys. They were all owned by my elderly neighbors and most of them rarely left in fear of losing thier prime parking spaces nearer to the building thus I was almost always forced to park way out by the street.
I was halfway to the door when I got a strange feeling that stopped me dead in my tracks. The hairs on the back of my neck as a wave of nauseating yet totally irrational fear swept through my belly. I looked around; the dark lot remained empty. Still, I had the unsettling feeling that someone was watching me
"What the..." I said to myself aloud as I looked up at the cloudy charcoal sky. Just for a moment I thought I had seen pale a blue light come from somewhere in the dense clouds before disappearing back into.
"Probably just a chopper or low flying plane." I lied to myself before jogging the rest of the way to the entrance through the icy rain.
I walked in the door, turned the ringer off on my phone (there was no way I was going to be called into work the next day; I needed a day off) and immediately hit the shower. The shower's steam felt absolutely wonderful. I lingered there under the hot water until it began to get cold and even then I was slow to get out.
Stiff, sore and exhausted, yet slightly refreshed, I left the steamy bathroom behind, entered my small bedroom and threw on a comfortable white sweat suit. I then tossed a pizza in the oven and cracked open a can of Cherry Coke.. After two weeks without a day off I was preparing for a relaxing night alone. Just me, my soft black leather couch, some unhealthy food, and my big screen T.V. I wasn't scheduled to work the next day and I was looking forward to sleeping in for once.
I couldn't help but think of how glad I was that I'd broken up with my girl friend the week before. With as busy as I'd been between moving and maintenance work I didn't have any time for a relationship and tonight I was definately glad to be alone. Besides I was a relatively good looking young man with a nice place, a little bit of money and a cool car. I definately was looking forward to being single for a while even if it did mean sleeping alone most nights. For some strange reason I'd always hated sleeping by myself, even as a child. I'd always figured it must have been some attachment issue or something. How wrong I was I didn't yet know.
By 8:15 I was sprawled out on the couch with a gourmet dinner of Di'gorno's Stuffed Crust and Cherry Coke watching "The Godfather II". By the time Michael gave Fredo the infamous kiss of death I was sound asleep on the sofa, still fully clothed and with the lights were still on.
This is how I usually slept when I was alone. At the time I didn't know why I'd always felt uncomfortable sleeping alone in the dark. Over time, though, I'd learned to sleep in the light when alone.
I awoke some time later, hearing the sound of the dvd menu repeating itself to the Godfather theme. Half asleep still, I used the remote to turn off the t.v. Before turning off the lamp by my head I glanced at the clock; it was half past midnight. Illuminated in the soft yellow glow of the porchlight that shone in from out on the deck, I faded off back into a deep sleep.
I opened my eyes, awaking to a strange sound like metal tapping softly on glass. From the way the living room was lit I could tell that it was still well before sunrise. As the tapping sound continued a cold chill ran up my spine. Someone was trying to get in!
Instinctively I thought about the decorative Katana sword that hung above me on the wall behind the couch. If some robber was breaking in he'd have a surprise in store. I tried to rise but couldn't move at all. With horror I realized that I was paralyzed.
Shadows moved across the wall. Terrified out of my mind, I tried to scream. No sound escaped my lips and I still couldn't move. This all felt eerily familiar. Too familiar.
As the noise continued my fear began to turn to something else that must have come from deep within the primitive parts of my psyche. There are no words for what came forth, I can only say that hopeless terror gave way to some sort of animal rage. A primal growl escaped my mouth through clenched teeth as my body and soul fought to regain control.
Terrifying memories began to flood my mind. This has hapened before and suddenly I knew what was going on. They were back.
Slowly I sat up and regained my true self. Throwing off the grip of paralysis like an old blanket I looked over toward the balcony where the noise had been coming from.
The noise had stopped and there they stood, two strange beings standing on my back porch. I could see them clearly through the window and the glass door that led to the balcony and they could see me.
Frozen in apperant surprise that I had managed to sit up both were frozen. One was crouched down outside the window staring in with those empty black eyes, the other was standing by the door, some sort of metalic hand tool held near the handle.
They were textbook Greys, straight from the x-files and at that instant I knew I'd seen these entities before. Thier large empty eyes were almond pools of black floating on oversized lightbulb heads. Thier mouths were slits and thier noses were barely bumps centered on thier pale grey faces. Skin tight black cover-alls covered thier lithe figures.
For a long moment no one moved. Fight or flight? I didn't know what to do or how to react. Slowly the crouching alien rose to it's full height of about four feet. Both greys maintained nuetral expresions as they stared at me.
I thought of the sword on the wall but quickly dismissed the idea of absurd. Standing my ground would be futile and potentially fatal. Who knew what motivated these things, let alone what technology they held at thier disposal. They could probably kill me in an instant just like exterminating a rodent.
I wasn't going to let this happen again. They were not gonna win this time. Suddenly I jumped up and bolted for the door not twenty feet away from my position on the couch. I fumbled with the deadbolt for a long second before finally managing to open the door. The welcome light from the lit hallway flooded into my darkened apartment. I instantly barelled out into the hallway...
...and right into an oversized dark figure dressed all in black. It was a man, or at least resembled a man but looking back I doubt he was human. The man-in-black didn't even budge as I ran right into his thick body. I bounced off his solid form like he was a brick wall and began to fall backward toward the floor. As I fell something flashed brightly from his outstreched hand. The world went dark before I hit the ground.
Blackness. Oblivion. Light.
The next thing that I remembered was sitting up on the couch back in my living room. Early morning light from the outside was now illuminating my apartment. I looked at the clock on the wall; it was 6:27am. I was alone.
The apartment was freezing cold and I noticed that the back door was half open letting in an icy draft.
It seemed only a moment ago that everything had happened and I was still terrified to the point of panic. Without even stopping to put on my shoes I grabbed my keys off the kitchen counter and headed for the front door. It too was ajar. I leaped down three flights of stairs then ran barefoot through the parking lot through sheets of freezing rain and hopped in my car. My only concern was getting out of there, fast!
Ten minutes later I was sitting in my car, still scared witless, in the parking lot of a grocery store.
Who could I tell? Nobody would believe me anyway. I felt helpless and alone, scared and violated. At least I was safe for the moment.
To this day I don't know what happened to me while I was out but based on my other experiences I have a pretty good idea. I know that it wasn't a dream. I never spent another night in that apartment again. I only wish that moving out of there had ended it.
After all, we can run but we can't hide; not from from them, anyway.

To Be Continued...