4. The Smiling Shadow Man with Terrifying Red Eyes

Most of this story takes place back when I was just a little kid. I lived in a nice neighborhood, in a relatively small town in Southern California.

I had this…person growing up. There is a reason that I don’t call him a friend. I would see him everywhere, but the majority of the times that I saw him, it was in my house.

The man was completely black. And no, I don’t mean race. I mean actually full-on pitch-black. His clothes were indiscernible. His face was hard to make any judgment calls about. The only distinct feature I remember is his red eyes. He had the most terrifying red eyes (the entire eye was red, not just the iris, by the way). It’s weird writing about them now; I can see them in my mind’s eye. Gives me the chills.

It would never be an auspicious moment when he arrived. It wasn’t the clock striking noon (we didn’t have a grandfather clock anyway), or the second the sun went down. It would be random. I would be playing with my Lincoln Logs (never a huge fan of Legos, no idea why) and without as much as a whisper, he’d be there with me.

He would never do much. Just stare. And smile. Then leave as quietly as he’d come. The longest he stayed with me was probably a little over an hour. Just standing there. Looking down.

Anyway, as the years went by, I began to get accustomed to his presence. He’d appear, and usually I would just nod. I even got used to using the restroom around him (#2 included); that’s how often he was around. Standing ever so close or ever so far away….

I tried everything. Talking to him. Yelling at him. Asking him questions. One time, I even got the courage to touch him. He merely stepped away from my reach, so I left it at that. Occasionally, he would give me a smile.

The reason I don’t refer to him as evil or hateful or whatever is because he never hurt me. Never even tried. Just watched and smiled. Those red eyes never stopped making me shiver, but that was mostly just me.

We eventually moved out of that house. Childhood gone, I bid goodbye to the shadow man. He was there on the last day before the move. His grin that day seemed to be plastered on his face. It didn’t waver for a second. I was about age nine at this point.

The next years of my life were blessedly free of his presence. No more watchful red eyes, no more crying myself to sleep….

Fast-forward to age sixteen. I was walking up to my room. It was after midnight. I hadn’t thought about the black man in a long time. I was walking down the hall that leads to my room when the man emerged from my brother’s room. His red eyes focused on me, and he flashed me a smile. He slowly walked across the hallway into my room….

I turned around, walked back down the stairs, and left my house. I then sat on the curb until morning.

I haven’t seen him again since then.