The Quiet Invisible Man

by Chelsea
(Albuquerque, NM, US)

I was about 7 or 8 years old when I lived in this five bedroom house. There were seven other kids living there with me - my older sister, my younger sister, two half sisters, one half brother, and a girl and a boy who were the kids of a friend who was living with us. It was a crowded house, but mostly we all got along.

One day my baby sitter (the friend living with us) left for a few minutes to get a couple things at the grocery store, leaving me alone. I was home sick that day so everyone was at school or work. She wasn't gone very long.

My cat Bosco used to walk up and down the hall saying hello. We don't really know where he learned it but we were kids and we just thought it was cool, and never looked into it.

On this day I was watching cartoons in the living room when I heard Bosco saying hello in the hall. I decided to pop around the corner and scare him, but when I turned the corner there was a kind of outline of a man at the other end of the hall and it dashed into mine and my sister's room slamming the door behind it. I was so scared I stood there for a second then went and hid in the living room until my baby sitter returned. When she finally did I decided not to tell her because I knew she wouldn't believe me.

It could have been my childhood imagination but it seemed so different from all the other things I made up. It never bothered any of us. We would just get creepy feelings sometimes and would hear things moving in the house, though there were so many of us it was difficult to prove anything.