Car Tire creaks as the car is parked in the parking lot.
I got down from the car with my groceries as I saw Mrs. Ronan rushing near to my house.
"Thank goodness you made it on time before they could arrive. How careless of you," she said in panic.
"I know, Mrs. Ronan. That's why I hurried here on time. I know the consequences. I won't repeat this again, and thanks for your concern," I said, trying to calm myself.
Mrs. Ronan shook her head and rushed back to her house. I heard her door shut close as I reached for my keys to open my house. I hurried in and shut my door close, just like Mrs. Ronan did.
This is our town. Ever since I could remember, it has always been like this—not even a single day we lived without fear. Exactly around 7:30 PM, we could hear these identical door-shutting noises from almost everybody’s house. It's like a drill for us to do this every single day, and the reason for our panic and fear are…
The Strangers
I went in, removed my shoes, and checked if all my doors and windows were shut while carrying the groceries to all my rooms. And then, after confirmation, I let out a sigh, removed my coat, and started to make myself at home. I refreshed myself and switched on the TV to distract myself, like always. I found myself watching the movie The Tenant. And after a few minutes, I heard a knock on my door. I quickly glanced at the clock, and it said 8:30 PM. I heard exactly two knocks, and then I opened my door as soon as I heard the short third knock.
This is one of the strangers. The people of Welschman Yard know exactly what to do when we encounter this type of thing.
Rule 1:
I stood there, not moving an inch from the doorframe.
Rule 2:
Without seeing its face, I quickly looked at its feet without raising my head.
It started talking like it doesn't cause any harm to anyone. The voice had no expression, but you could say if it was smiling or anxious.
It asked me if I had my TV connection—it could definitely hear my TV noises in the background. Then it proceeded to say:
"Is your TV working?"
Rule 3:
Never ever respond or make eye contact with the thing while it's speaking.
So I stood there idle, without muttering a word. No matter what it says, we should never violate these rules because if we do, only God knows what happens next.
It left after a few minutes. My eyes followed its shoes as it disappeared into the dark. After I felt no presence of it, I stood there with my head down, took a few steps backward, and closed the door shut.
Even though I’ve done it at least 20 times, my heart still pounds whenever I hear a knock on the door.
I went back to my couch and continued to watch the movie, but I couldn’t concentrate on it now.
When will this ever stop? When did this even start? I thought to myself. I even considered moving away from this town, but I got to know that it's not about this place but the people who were born in this town—as the strangers follow you wherever you are on this planet. Rumors say that these strangers show up exactly at this hour, wherever you are.
Mrs. Ronan’s cousin didn’t make it in time to her house and saw a stranger standing at her door, not even letting her in. Then nobody knows what happened to Mrs. Ronan's cousin after that. So that’s why she seemed to have a concern with people.
And I also remember the disappearance of the Howard household, as they mistakenly left their house door open at the time when the strangers arrive. Then it was said four people, including their dog, went missing, and no information was found about them ever again. The police in our town are also well aware of these strangers and didn’t want to risk their lives.
Just like these extraordinary missing cases, we also have survivor stories. Mr. Tamson and his sister somehow managed to survive from this stranger attack, but they didn’t want to talk about what happened and left this town for good. They never came back or contacted anyone ever again. Since they didn’t explain much about what happened or how they managed to do it, people just believe that it is impossible to get away from those strangers, and the Tamson siblings might be delusional.
We don’t usually order food at this hour, as no services are available for this town considering past events of the food delivery people's disappearances at this hour. So I started cooking my dinner, then ate and slept.
The next morning, I went to work. The morning was a bit chilly, and the sun disappeared into the clouds. So I took my scarf, wrapped it around my neck, wore my jacket and shoes, and left my house just like every other day at 7:00 AM.
The following days seemed to have the exact same weather.
Today is Friday. I finally completed my shift and decided to go back to my house.
Now the time is exactly 6:00 PM.
I reached my house, did the checking drills, and sat on my couch to watch movies to enjoy myself with a Friday night movie.
The ads concluded, and the movie Enemy started exactly at 7:30 PM. I made myself comfortable and ready to watch the movie.
And then I heard…
That's right—the knock on the door. It was like a confused knock on the door and not like a usual one.
I increased the volume so I wouldn't miss the dialogue. I was so frustrated, and then, just like every other day, I started to follow the rules and looked at its feet.
To my surprise, The shoes looked like I knew them from somewhere. They seemed similar, and then I saw a pattern on its shoes.
That's the red butterfly on the stranger’s shoes—that's exactly my shoes, which my mother made for me.
I got so angry and confused, and I lost it when I saw it trying hard to have its way by stealing the one thing I had left from my mother. I couldn't manage to keep calm, so I slowly raised my head only to notice the stranger wearing the exact same coat as mine and the exact same scarf. I swear to God I didn't look into its eyes or face. I looked at its throat moving as it tried to speak something. My gaze went to its lips, and then
"My…" I whispered.
Looking at its face, it looked into my eyes and asked.
"I…"
Is this real? How could it be? My eyes widened, my heart raced, my head started to spin, and my hands trembled. It took me a few moments to finally realize that the stranger at my doorstep this time is myself.
Movie sounds.
I looked into its eyes; I couldn't move, I couldn't speak.
It opened its mouth again and said, "I…"
"Need some help." Whatever it said had a tint of fear on its face.
Even though I didn't want to open my mouth and I wanted to run back into my house and crawl under my bed—even though I sensed it was going to be bad news—
I could hear my own self saying,
"What do you want?"
There I broke all the rules with these words of mine. I lost visuals of things that could happen next.
It didn't change its reaction. It was me, and the only thing that made me believe otherwise was its dark eyes full of void and its face of confusion and fear.
"Can I have some… uh, water?"
The way it asked wasn't like a request or anything; it was so plain and sounded like a statement, like it was reading something from a paper.
I didn't say anything, so I thought maybe if I give it some water, it will leave. So I walked backward, keeping an eye on that me who was standing outside, into my house, and then ran into my kitchen to get some water.
My heart raced. I could hear the loud movie noise in the background. Then I grabbed a cup and filled it with water, and my hands trembled. As soon as I filled the water, I ran outside and handed out the water. Then, without any further ado, it just left.
"It just left, just like that?" I thought to myself.
I watched its back until it went far away without taking a sip of water and disappeared out of my sight.
I finally tried to calm myself and let out a heavy sigh, then went inside my house and just stared at my TV while the movie was playing in front of me. All I could think was, why the hell did I do those things that stranger asked?
Maybe it looked exactly like me?
Maybe it needed some help?
I couldn't stop these thoughts, so I switched off the television and went back to my bedroom, hoping I would be okay the next day.
On Saturdays, I usually don’t wake up early, but today I woke up around 6:00 AM because I couldn't sleep very well. Since lying in my bed awake was a bit uncomfortable, I went outside to make something to eat. Yesterday night felt like a nightmare. I got angry at myself for being so careless and got afraid of what would've happened if that thing did something to me. But I was also thankful that nothing happened.
I cleaned my house, went for a walk, and just like every other day, I sat on my couch and switched on the TV. But to my surprise, the TV didn't work and said there were some weather issues. So I checked the connections and called Mrs. Ronan to ask her about the TV, but she didn't pick up the phone.
The only sound in my house is the television at this hour every day, but today it was dead silent. So I went to reach out for my phone to watch Instagram reels. As I went to reach the phone, which was on the right-side coffee table…
Thud.
It was thunder. My heart skipped a beat, and I looked outside the window and saw that it started to pour.
So I took my phone to see how long the rain was going to continue.
Now the time is 7:50 PM. I made myself ready to encounter any weird stranger and get it over with and go to sleep.
Just like I anticipated, I heard a knock.
I heard a continuous knock.
And without waiting, I ran to reach the door to open it. As I was about to hold the door knob—
"Barbara!"
I heard my name being called from outside the door.
I stood there frozen.
"Barbara, open the door!"
I didn't know what to do. If I didn't open the door, something might happen to me because I never heard someone call my name at my door at this hour.
As I opened the door slowly, I could see those dead eyes and that emotionless face. It's the same me from yesterday. I didn't think that the same stranger could come twice—it never happened. Every time I encountered a stranger, it was always a different one. But today...
I gulped and looked into its eyes. Since I had already broken all those rules yesterday, I didn't think of doing it again today. But before I could ask anything, it opened its mouth.
"Torch light," it said, exactly like it sounded yesterday, with no emotion in its voice. I knew it was bad news, and I knew I was going to face some consequences. I couldn't help it. I made myself ready to give my torch light to this stranger.
I didn't know why I thought this way, even though I was angry at myself this morning for doing things it told me yesterday. Even though I was too scared about what could happen next, my arm was prepared to reach out to that torch light to give it to the stranger.
Maybe it looked just like me?
Maybe it is raining outside and it wants my help?
Maybe it causes no harm?
I thought to myself...
"Can I have a torch light?" it repeated again.
Thud.
It was thunder again.
My brain stopped working. I ran inside to grab my torch light and give it to that. My legs started moving on their own. My heart was beating so fast. I rambled upon the hall and grabbed the torch light and kept a few steps...
Thud. I ran into something. Something that shouldn't be in this place.
I knew what it was. I knew I messed up. As I turned to look at what it was, the room went pitch dark after the lightning hit. That was the last memory of me in my house.
I didn't know how many hours had passed. But when I woke up, I was in a field with no buildings or trees in sight. It was a dark grass field. I looked at my feet and wondered how I was wearing shoes and tried to recall what happened, but I didn't remember what happened after the power cut.
I got up and started running to get somewhere, but I didn't know where this grass field leads. I could see the moon now, and I ran fast with water splashing each time I placed my feet on the puddle.
I saw something. It was the light from Nova Tower in our town. I realized my town is nearby and ran towards the light. As I stepped into the town, the power came back, and I didn't bother to stand. I ran with all my life. As I reached near my house, I saw my house with no lights on, so I thought it would be dangerous to go in carelessly. So I decided to ask for help from Mrs. Ronan. I knocked on her door until the doorknob turned. Mrs. Ronan opened the door; I felt so relieved.
"Mrs. Ronan, are you safe? I didn't know how I went away from my house. I think it's not safe to go inside my house. So you gotta help me. Can I get some water, please?" I pleaded while catching my breath.
That's when I noticed Mrs. Ronan didn't even bother to look up at my face. She was looking at my feet, and the look on her face—I couldn't see it properly as she was facing down—but I could say it didn't feel like the same Mrs. Ronan whose face was full of concern for me. This time, her expression felt like she was looking at some...
Stranger.
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