I turn the corner and an electrifying chill runs up my spine. A warning without specifics. I stop walking and Edith continues along ahead of me, sniffing the sidewalk, running out her leash. Do I turn around and walk the other way for no apparent reason? Do I brush this off and brace myself? Did I just happen to walk through the mist of something bad that happened a long time ago? Edith is pulling on the leash and looking back at me with those big dark eyes, sonar ears perked with eagerness. We keep going.
I like to take note of the little houses in my neighborhood on our walks; they all have character. Many have very dilapidated first floors and entryways, with the next two levels set with large, open windows to let in the sun. On occasion the windows at every level are loaded to the brim with old toys, laundry detergent bottles and straight up garbage, and I wonder if there is a person in there somewhere.
I am studying the row houses across the street as we walk along, and my eyes fall on a very ordinary faded blue three story building with the shape of a man standing in the top window. He is wearing a button up that matches the color of the house, and a pair of glasses with near opaque lenses, hiding his eyes, but I feel them on me. How long has he been there watching? I see him start to slowly raise a hand, and that specific chill jolts up my spine. I swing my head forward, eyes on the ground whispering NOPE NOPE NOPE. Edith and I are almost around the corner, and I hear a noise that makes my skeleton split out of my skin.
Tap
Tap
Tap
The sound of a hand rapping on the glass, ringing out across the space of a quiet street, to my ears specifically. Curious to a fault, I cannot move forward, I have to look back. And there is that man in the window, waving his arm mechanically back and forth as if it were powered by a dying battery. Waving at me…
And there is something terrifying in the space between that mysterious instinctual fear, and the quiet nothingness of the situation. Something you can’t quite put your finger on, nor look directly at to find out why.

Luciana, 29