1 Heavy footsteps outside my window

(2015-2016) It was a nightmare, that felt too real.

That night, as I stayed awake in bed, I heard thunder with a few droplets coming from outside my window. "Oh how nice." I think to myself, it's been a while since it rained here. As I listened in closely, something didn't seem right. It didn't sound like normal raindrops, it sounded more like someone was knocking outside my bedroom window at 3.43 A.M.

"Ok, let's ignore that too," I tell myself. Every time something that can't be explained happens, I usually tell myself to ignore it, and it will soon go away on its own. Don't give it the attention, it's wanting.

It's nothing more than my imagination, right? Something strange always happens around this house. My family blamed my cats, but as my oldest skinny 9-pound cat that loves to climb our roof passed away, the noises outside my window didn't.

I frantically told my parents each morning, about the heavy footsteps that kept only walking back and forth all during the night. No one wishes to believe me. For weeks and months, I was cursed to hear this unidentified soul that wanders outside, waiting for who knows what.

One night, I was done hiding with a nightlight blazing my entire room, I felt petrified that it will crawl in, while I lay in bed drifting away in my dreams.

I waited and waited for the heavy footsteps that sounded like a person. As I sat in bed watching YouTube, hoping it will keep me up that night, I began to dose off. Thud. Thud. Thud.

There it was. I opened my eyes and looked around. Nothing, I was still alone in my room, "That's good." I praised myself for staying up. The sound that has been haunting me for eternity was back once again.

I waited and listened. I listened to its walking pattern, it just kept walking back and forth, nothing unusual. Except it was, it didn't accrue to me until today(7-16-22), years later when the sound of the footsteps has gotten closer to my window, but I was still a young idiot. I had one goal in mind and that was the only thing that kept running in my head.

I slowly got out of bed, in my hand I held a small, cheap turquoise flashlight that doesn't beam farther than 2 feet away from me. Slowly creeping towards my window, I hoped that it wouldn't see me. A fool I was. That stupid nightlight was still so bright and was directly on the opposite side of my window.

Again, the younger me was an idiot, I haven't changed much as I grew, I'm still an idiot at times. I didn't realize it until it was too late. I was casting my shadow against my blue curtain. But the footsteps stop long before that, they stopped the moment I got out of bed. The moment my foot touch the floor.

"Did it hear me?" No, that's not possible. I have a fan that screams while it's on. I'm not even sure how it was remotely possible for me to hear the thing that's outside my window. Do I have good ears, or just a bad curse to catch unlucky moments to cast as my memory, only to haunt me as I grow older?

It was too late to back up now, my shadow has been cast. I knelt on the floor, the other foot to hold my balance in case I need to run out the door. My heart didn't race, and my hands didn't shake, yes I was traumatized by the events that have been happening every night, but I was more curious as to what this could have been.

The time seemed as if it was taking a moment to slow down. I wanted all this to be over and unmasked the culprit once and for all, so I can finally get some sleep.

I raised the bottom left corner of the blue curtain, flashlight ready, I moved the blinds away from each other and peeked outside. It was pitched back out, nothing was visible. Around this time, my family house didn't have lights installed, so being outside was like walking out in a minefield. You never know what you'll trip onto.

The only light source at the time was the light post. Depending on the time of year, the light would be able to reach my window if the leaves of the tree haven't grown in yet from the winter season. I can't recall the month, but I wouldn't be using a fan if it was cold. So the tree might have had some leaves on it, but that wasn't the issue here.

There was no sign of light anywhere outside, noting from the neighbor's back porch or the night sky. It was like I was inside an empty, black void.

I turned my camera towards my window and used it to see outside. I couldn't see the roof of the first floor downstairs at all.

To be honest, I'm not even sure what I was looking at that night. It was all darkness. No refection was seen with the light I had on hand. I spent around 2 maybe three minutes looking out my window waiting to hear the footsteps in the dead of night.

Time really wasn't friendly with me. The 2-3 minutes, I stared closely outside, was a nightmare. I wanted to look away, but something was forcing me not to turn around, even if I did, I couldn't move. I stayed in position, frozen in place, watching nothing but the void out my window, closing my eyes wasn't an option either.

Nothing but silence filled the room. It was a situation where running didn't seem like an option anymore. The hairs on my arms rose as if something didn't make sense. Something wasn't right, and I decided to ignore it and let it take its course for the night.

The moment I was allowed to move again, I stood up and walk back to my bed. That night I had trouble sleeping, I lay there staring at the empty walls and bare ceiling. I didn't bother it any further, and it didn't bother me that night. Around 4 or 5 A.M I slept for very little time before waking up 7 hours later.

I was amazed how I was even able to sleep at all. That day felt normal like any other day, and that night and a few nights later I didn't hear any more footsteps. Was it because I took a leap and looked out the window? No. I loudly damned my family to hear what I heard all those nights ago, cursing them to understand the things I suffered hearing overnight.

The day I cursed them all was the day I passed the footsteps. I no longer heard anything coming out of my window, I would sleep peacefully in my bed. Truth be told, it did take a long while for me to sleep in the dark again. As for my family, they began staying up late at night hearing those drastic footsteps still coming from my window, from their ceiling.

It was 2:17 A.m as they hastily ran outside and to my room, with brighter flashes of light beaming in and from the same window I peeked out of before. This time as I looked outside as they did. The footsteps, which they swore they heard, stopped as the lights came on.

"I didn't hear anything." I kept telling them, now they didn't believe me on that. Before they ran to my room, they had been calling me again and again, while I was sound asleep. When I finally awoke, I noticed I have several missed calls from my mother and twin brothers. "What the hell is happening right now." Turns out the hefty footsteps also came with loud banging sounds, as my mother described it, "It sounded as if someone was running on the roof, outside my window."

They weren't sure what it was, but the final straw of the thing running around upstairs, made my family start calling and banging on my door. Now petrified of these things' existence, my family ordered cameras online to be installed and called for an expert to handle whatever it is that was latched onto my roof.

The footsteps did continue for a few more nights, as always I wasn't able to hear any of that anymore, but it did keep my family up. On the day the cameras were being installed, they were ready to capture whatever it was, but the footsteps didn't come back. "Maybe it's camera shy." I jokingly thought the next morning. They all waited as I slept soundly night after night until they eventually gave up. The sound didn't come back anymore, and as years passed, we never found out what that sound was.

But that's not the end of the story for that cursed window.

Sincerely,

Strawberry