The Face At The Window


I don't generally scare easily.
I'm happy to walk through the graveyard at night and I never batter so much as an eye, but I suppose
having four dogs and an accompanying cat with me always means that I am never truly alone.
But I do walk alone around the Marian at night with only the stars for company, and my imagination fails to wander to thoughts of monsters and psychopaths.
The one thing that does scare me however is a face at a window!
This stems from a night working on a psychiatric ward in an old asylum way back in 1984 when a stranger to the hospital attacked staff with bottles thrown from the roof forcing the whole hospital into lockdown. My mentor and I locked ourselves and our 24 elderly patients into our ward and when I checked if the office windows where bolted shut, I suddenly glimpsed the intruder standing outside , his impassive face up close and personal against the window panes.
Yes it was the stuff of nightmares.
Last night, with the Prof away, I walked the dogs slightly earlier than usual. There was method to the madness as I wanted to slip into my jim jams in order to watch The Walking Dead reruns before next weeks' restart. We had not long returned, all wet and cold from the rain and as the dogs shook themselves dry, I turned to put their leads onto the table.
Now we have three windows in our kitchen. Two facing the back garden and the path to the gate and one inset window facing directly onto the lane. This lane window is screened at head height with an antique French lace curtain .
As I turned around I suddenly saw a face above the curtain. It was blurred by condensation  but it was there right up against the glass...pale white and wearing a hood of sorts against the rain
A millisecond later it moved off as I yelled out " SHIT A BRICK!" at the top of my voice
I cannot think of a time recently that I have been so frightened

By the time I had scrabbled around for the back door key, unlocked the kitchen door, and had leaned over the back wall to check the dark lane whoever had peeped through the window had gone.

All of the dogs slept on the bed with me last night!

What's frightened you recently?

71 comments:

  1. And what the hell were they doing? That's enough to scare crap outta a person.

    Whats scared me? um well we've had some very hot weather and every time i go to feed or check on the rabbits i have it in mind that they might not be still alive. They are though :)

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  2. I bet it was Jason the Despot!

    What's scared me? Getting an ominous letter from HMRC.

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  3. donald dump blowing up the planet. RESIST!

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  4. I walk Elsie early and the mornings are dark. We often walk through an area that's a sort of forest. It's lonely but I feel safe...except when my darling pooch keeps stopping to stare behind us. That freaks me out.

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  5. ...and I forgot to add that your story was the stuff of nightmares. The fact the person had disappeared suggests a peeping tom or you had scared him/her as much as they had scared you.

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  6. Wow! That's creepy! I've never seen anyone at our windows but it would freak me out too. Nothing has scared me recently, beyond politics at least.

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  7. That is creepy John...I have the same fear..when I was young and living home with family my brother snuck outside and pressed his face against the kitchen window as I stood there washing dishes....to this day it freaks me out to look from a lighted room through a window into darkness...spooky.

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  8. That face at the window would certainly scare me! Do you suppose if something truly bad happened to you by the hands of someone else, one (or all) of your dogs would come to your rescue? -Jenn

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  9. A brown snake in the veggie patch!
    I am terrified of any snake but browns are really nasty & I have been chased by one up a hill..left an almighty fear

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  10. Why did I read this blog before going to sleep? WHY?

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  11. Anonymous1:13 pm

    "... and I never batter so much as an eye ...".

    Thanks for the laugh, John. I didn't think you had considering you have never been in a street fight, and despite your love of Scotch eggs battering an eye in absence of a hard boiled egg would be taking the sublime to a ridiculous level.

    U

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  12. My bedroom faces the front of the house, which has a walkway up to the front door. I was in bed w/my 2 dogs. Woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of someone (something?) walking up the path; sounded like it was dragging its leg. Then “it” turned and walked back down the bath, with the same dragging-its-leg noise. The 3 of us sat upright in bed, not moving a muscle. And the dogs not uttering a peep. I think we were actually frozen in fear. I’m not the type to be easily frightened….but that managed to do it.

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  14. I hope it was your own reflection you saw, very scary to think someone had their face that close to your window! I'm looking so forward to the WD!

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  15. When I was ten years old, we lived in a house with oil heat, so there was an oil tank outside the bathroom window.below the window.
    One night I was taking a shower and I turned and there was a mans face at the window, I screamed. Mom came, heard the story, Dad went out .. next thing I heard was Uncle and Neighbor, talking to Dad, carrying rifles !!! No one was found.
    I have never been able to bear an uncovered window at night, as soon as the evening begins, I close all shades or curtains across the glass.

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  16. THIS STORY DID! That's what!!

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  17. the thought of the current President having the nuclear biscuit.

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  18. We had a peeping tom once at the nurses home. I was looking out of the window one dark evening and suddenly realised there was a face up against the glass. I screamed, he screamed and then a whole posse of young nurses ran outside to try and catch him. I doubt he would have survived if we'd been successful. We were angry rather than scared.

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  19. haven't had a sudden fright lately but for long term ones it's Trump.

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  20. I think I would have shit a brick if that happened to me. Be careful and lock your windows and doors!

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    Replies
    1. This afternoon i found out that it was a neighbour walking their dog!

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    2. Why were they looking in your window?

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    3. I think the dog was having a poo and they got bored?

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    4. At least that's put your mind at rest - no burglars, no crazy low-life.... no Trump stopped in for a chat!!

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  21. Storms here in Arkansas... I guess at nearly 50 i don't like to admit that storms can make my heart thump in my chest and i try to not outwardly show it but....

    We lived forever and a day in Texas and we sure do get the storms there.. but where i lived it was flat without many trees and you could see a storm coming from far off... if you can see it coming it tends not to scare as bad... Then we spent 3 years in CA... no storms what so ever... just calm , even weather... which honestly was a little boring after Texas...lol

    Then we retired to Arkansas...found a fixer upper house by a lake surround by huge, ancient pine trees...Now after being in TX without many trees... and CA without any storms... a storm here can really get my heart pumping... First the wind does not 'whisper through the pines' no it ROARS through the pines and they creak and grone and you swear they are coming down...Second the storms like to come in the middle of the night... I think i hate that the worst..Its dark and i can't see whats coming... So yeah Spring storms are on the way and i'm not looking forward to it..

    Sounds to me you might need some blinds up at the windows John...Always love your stories Hugs! deb

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    Replies
    1. We seldom have bad storms here , so i can really understand just how frightening ones you experience must be!

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  22. Phew, John, that was scary. What scared me recently? I walk the dogs very early in the morning - almost before sunrise. Last week Skabenga my Lab hurtled off into the maize fields next door and after a figure wearing a great coat in the distance. I could see three large dogs alongside him. As Skabenga reached them, a voice shouted No man! And Skabenga turned and hurtled back to me. My heart was in my mouth. It was the night watchman guarding the maize next door with FOUR of his huge dogs. If one or all of them had turned on Skabenga, he'd be dead now. I still have nightmares about this.

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    Replies
    1. What was he guarding the crops from jo?

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  23. What the heck were they doing out there?

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    Replies
    1. Letting their dog pool in the road just under the window me thinks

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  24. When I am walking in the dark and I hear footsteps coming up behind me ... I don't like that at all!

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  25. I came home last summer, late in the afternoon, to a home invasion taking place. I could hear them on the other side of the downstairs area but could not see them. They went out the back door that they had broken to gain entry. I heard the footsteps running across the back deck, and then they were gone. I was lucky, but it still makes the hair go up on my arms thinking about it. Police came...Nothing missing and they were never caught. Now we have an inside security system and "on demand" motion lights outside the home. I catch a lot of raccoons, deer and other wildlife hanging around but thankfully, no human burglars.

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    1. The aftrnoon is the worst time in the day for burglars!

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  26. I was walking my dog last night around 6.00pm so it was already dark. I thought someone was following me but it turned out to be the noise of my zip pull bouncing on my coat! Your chicken header freaks me out.

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  27. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    Replies
    1. Well you've taken ages telling me

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    2. It's the close up of that chicken at the front.....the stuff of nightmares for bird phobics like me.

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    3. I love that chicken, but I feel for you. :D

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  28. Maybe it was your reflection in the dark window?

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  29. The last time I was truly panicked was leaving our office in the dark to go to my car. I heard a funny groaning noise with every step I took. Realized as I went that it was my d--- shoe!!

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  30. I walked with a friend early in the morning before sunrise at my old home in Laguna Beach. We walked the neighborhood first then down the hill across the streets and last up our hill that was a killer. No houses just open land. One dark morning I walked alone and going up that hill even with my flashlight, no cars yet, I heard some rustling of leaves and bushes. Now in my mind I knew it was probably a deer, skunk or raccoon but I knew it was a lion, tiger or a bear !
    The second I hit my street which was the first street, going up the hill I was so happy. I never walked alone that early in the morning again.

    cheers, parsnip

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  31. Many years ago now, when I was 17 or 18, my family lived in a three storey terraced house, with the main living rooms on the first floor. The ground floor had a utility room, loo, and a spare room, which I had as my bedroom. One night, I was woken up by the sound of a lighter being repeatedly flicked on. I opened my eyes to see a figure, lit by the glow of a lighter, leaning over my dressing table. Assuming it was a family member, I sat up and asked them what they wanted, at which point they turned and ran out of the room, towards the front door. I think I spent about 5 minutes frozen in place, my heart trying to beat its way out of my chest. Eventually I gathered up my courage to get up, creep past the wide open front door, and climb up to the other bedrooms, on the second floor. I woke my mum first, and was told I was dreaming and to go back to bed! It took getting my dad up and showing him my jewellery and a vintage clock from the hallway were gone, before we could convince her we'd been robbed! Needless to say, I slept with a bloody big knife under my pillow for a long time after that!

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  32. Recently my 15 year old coming home from school and about to put his key in the lock as I ( I am slightly deaf) opened said door. Me "OMG eeek" - him "muuuuuuum" as only teenagers do.

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  33. Very long story cut short. 1973 in Belfast N. Ireland, alone in an old office building at lunch time. Being held at gunpoint by the IRA who were looking for an undercover British army operation. Sounds like a movie. I really thought I was going to die. Can still see their faces to this day 43 years later.

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    Replies
    1. This! This is true threat and not only fear. This is also modern history, not to be forgotten. Hug!

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    2. The underplaying of this paragraph astounds me
      Janice! How awful..how bloody awful

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  34. Ho.lee.crap. Stories like that make me miss my (big) dogs. When my husband was away for the night, one slept at the top of the stairs outside my room, the other slept in my doorway.

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  35. One incidence that really frightened me i:
    When I was 15 my parents and I went to visit friends who lived in a beautiful region near the Baltic Sea. Grown-ups, kids - we all had a blast but the accomodations weren tiny. I was the eldest and did a lot of baby-sitting for both families, so as a sign of appreciation I was offered to sleep in the holiday flat next to us, which was vacant. The flat was on the ground floor in the next building and faced a huge private garden. Almost the entire bedroom-wall was windows with a glas door to the padio, facing wild flowers, bushes and trees. Very romantic at daytime. Pitch-black dark at nights and very - quiet.
    Until one time I suddenly woke up in the middle of the night. The bed was underneath one of these giant windows and it felt like something, somebody, was next to me. And there it was: A soft scratching of the glas and a voice whispering my name: "Alexandra". Silence. Darkness. Then again:"Alexandra!" Somebody was moving to the glass door... In these moments I understood the phrase of `blood curdling in your veins`, because it really does.
    I was lucky to somehow make it out there.
    Up to this day I stay in top floor apts. only.

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    Replies
    1. Bloody hell.....who the fuck was it?

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    2. A neighbour down the street.
      I had talked to his 14 year old son before, this is how he knew me. A few months later he did the same thing with another girl but was caught.

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  36. Years ago - being followed - closely - in the dark.

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  37. Trump got elected.

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  38. I was home one night watching tv in a ground floor flat. My bedroom had mirrored wardrobes and was next to the toilet. I popped in for a quick wee, leaving the door open, as you do when alone and saw a bloke at the window who was watching me via the mirrored wardrobes. He was close up to my bedroom window furiously wanking! He was fuck ugly too.

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  39. Why am I reading this at night accompanied only by a deaf lame shepherd, a Pomeranian and a Puppy? I'm going to be jumpy for a week!

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  40. Around 1984-85 we bought a house on three acres in N. Calif. The couple who owned it had divorced and it had been up for sale for a couple of years and was used as a rental. When we went to view it the first time, it was occupied by a youngish couple and their three boys. The husband was a pastor at a local church. The wife remarked to us fondly that the boys were very special to her. Later we found out that at one point while they were living there she had tried to commit suicide--unsucessfully, thank goodness. The emergency medical team had to come, though, from what I heard later.

    I think that house had a lot of bad energy pent up in it. I sometimes would awake at night to what appeared to be a swirling, black, amorphous cloud over me near the ceiling. And one night, (my heart starts pounding at the thought), I woke up to the sound of someone running loudly up the stairs to our second floor bedroom. I'm a light sleeper, but my husband was sound asleep. I sat bolt upright in the bed, expecting whoever it was to come bursting into the room. But he stopped at the doorway and I swear he was breathing hard from the exertion and trying to restrain himself in what I sensed was anger, or at least some strong emotion. I just sat there, frozen, until the dark form gradually disappeared. Was it something left over from the suicide attempt, or from the negative energy left in the house? I never had any other experiences like that after we eventually moved to another place.

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  41. A friend of mine on a tour of England stopped at an old church along with a bus full of tourists who all trooped through the door except for her. She was freezing cold and could not move past that door although she tried several times. No one else felt a thing and she is not the kind of person who believes in such things.

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  42. Last year, we were visiting my sister in Texas for the first time. In the middle of the night, a siren went off and we had no idea at first what it was. When it dawned on us that it was a tornado warning, we scrambled down the steps to the basement. My sister's dog was too scared to move and was in the middle of her bed, crying. I flew back up the stairs, grabbed the dog, and as I came down, I looked at the sky through her transom over the front door, and there was "the finger of God", a tornado. Luckily, the dog and I made it in time to the storm cellar. My sister lost her roof and patio furniture and I will never spend the night there again.

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  43. Maybe it was a ghost.

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  44. Nothing has frightened me like that in recent memory. So glad to live in an apartment building!

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