It was a cold and quiet night and I was watching T.V. in my apartment. It was nearing 3 in the morning and I knew I had to go to sleep because I had work in the morning but my body wouldn’t shut down. No matter how many times I dozed off, I couldn’t stay asleep. There was something off about tonight, it was as if every living and non-living creature was out and about. Picking my phone up off the table, I saw that it was 2:50 in the morning. I rubbed my eyes and took my hair out of the ponytail that I was in when suddenly, there was a knock at my door, for a minute I thought I was hearing things but then there was a knock again. I wasn’t sure if I should go over there and open the door but the knocking got more and more insistent as I sat there. Finally I went and yanked the door open…but there wasn’t anybody there. I decided it was probably some teenagers trying to prank me and closed the door. I sat back down in front of the T.V. but had a nagging feeling that someone was watching me.
I decided to turn off the T.V. and go out for a walk. I thought that if I walked around, I’d be able to tire my body out enough for me to get a few hours of sleep. Before I left, I made sure to take my keys, my keycard, my phone and some pepperspray. I’m a woman who lives alone and who is walking outside at 3 in the morning, so I was rightly paranoid. To understand the rest of the story, let me tell the layout of my apartment complex. My apartment complex is pretty large with over 100 people residing in my building alone and the complex was made up of 5 buildings and that includes the adminstration office and they are arranged in a rectangle form with a large park in the middle. The admistration building is at the front and the gate is right behind it. In order to leave and return, you have to put your keycard in the slot, it was an added security measure after a couple of apartments were broken into.
Anyways, I leave out through the gate and make sure to check that it’s locked before I set on my normal walk routine. Normally, I walk around 7 before I have to go into work at 8 so this path is well-known to me and most of the stores I pass on my way know me. Some of the shops were already closed except for this 24/hr coffee shop at the end of the block, I planned to stop there, get a coffee and then go home. Halfway there, I heard footsteps behind me but when I looked back, there was no one there. This set off my red flags, I knew I wasn’t hearing things, I didn’t bring my headphones and it was quiet before that. I made the quick decision to head straight to the coffee shop instead of looping back to my apartments. I’d rather stay up the rest of the night and head out when there was light and more people were outside than take a chance of this person following me home. I made it to the coffee shop, the footsteps following me every step of the way but once I got inside and looked behind me, there wasn’t anybody outside.
I didn’t think anything of it and just ordered a coffee and a cream cheese bagel, sat down and went on my phone until 7. Once the time hit 7, I put my phone in my pocket and started to head for the door when I stopped dead in my tracks. Despite it being 7 in the morning, it was still pitch black outside, nothing had changed. I thought that maybe because I was tired, I read the time wrong but when I checked my phone, it now said 7:05. How could it be 7 and yet it was still dark out? That didn’t make any sense. I decided to head back home anyways, it was already a weird night and I just wanted to sleep, I’d call in sick today instead of going into work. Halfway there, I heard the footsteps behind me again, turning around, I was that there wasn’t anybody there. Not taking any chances, I ran all the way back to the apartment, my heart was thumping in my chest. I could hear how fast my breathing was and I was so scared that I had started to cry. I could hear the footsteps behind me and it sounded like they were steadily getting closer and closer until I could hear the breathing of the other person. What only took 10 minutes felt like hours as I finally saw the gate to my apartments, I quickly took out my keycard, put it into the slot and closed the gate. Turning around, I saw the shadow of someone ducking onto the side of a building on the outside. The gate arrounded the apartment so I knew they couldn’t get in but I still booked to my apartment as fast as I could.
I allowed myself to calm down once I got to my apartment door. Unlocking my door and walking in, once again I stopped in my tracks when I saw that the T.V. I could have sworn was off, was playing right in front of me. What’s more is I saw someone sitting on my couch, watching my T.V.! Slowly I got my pepperspray out of my bag and made my way around my couch. I dropped my spray and screamed when I saw my body on the couch. I took closer steps, trying not to wake myself up and that was wierd thinking. “You have to be quiet, you don’t want to wake yourself up” I mean, I knew people say they have an out-of-body experience, but this was just plain creepy. As I was approaching myself, I saw that I wasn’t sleeping, my head was tilted but my eyes were wide open. And then slowly, my head started to turn and it made this horrible creaking sound. Like when you open an old door and it creaks, my head turning made the exact same sound. And then suddenly, I was face to face with myself but my eyes were devoid of any emotion. It was like I was staring at myself but at the same time I wasn’t.
“I’ve been waiting for you.” it said in this raspy voice
“Wait…what? What do you mean you’ve been waiting for me? Who are you?” I asked it
It only smiled at me and said “I am you?”
I shook my head and started to back up, this had to be a dream? I had to be dreaming right? Shaking my head, I closed my eyes, willing for this to be over and when I opened my eyes, that…thing was gone. Deciding I had enough, I turned off the T.V. and went to bed.
When I woke up, I was surprised and horrified to find myself back on the couch…in my living room…with the T.V. on. I looked for my phone when I noticed it on the table, picking it up, I turned it on to see that it was 2:50 in the morning. I threw my phone across the room when suddenly…there was a knock at the door.
Ghost Wife Poems 