The Descent Into Madness

It was so difficult to get some proper sleep at night. The girl who lived in the apartment above me, Mary, was so restless. I could hear her sobbing every night through the floorboards. The structure of the apartment building was at least 160 years old so of course I was the lucky winner to be living right under her. After living here for 2 years I had gotten to know Mary very well and I’ve learned that she’s quite complicated. Initially, I thought she was some crybaby afraid of the dark. She told me that she wasn’t afraid of the dark, but of what dwelled in it. Mary built up the reputation of being the “crazy girl” in the apartment building because she ran around telling people that “he was real.” I noticed that every morning her eyes were bloodshot due to the lack of sleep. She told me that she had to stay awake to make sure he wouldn’t come. I guess night time was when the ultimate madness had taken its true form. 

Every night she was tormented by the visitor she would see peeking out from her closet. The trees' long skinny fingers tapped on her window. She believed that it was his way to say hello to her. It was his way to tell her that he was there listening and watching from outside the window, through the vents, and under the bed. Mary would cry to me everyday about how frightened she was and begged for the terror to end. I brushed it off trying to reassure her that he wasn’t real. I knew it was only some folklore that tried to scare children but she stood her ground. Mary had the audacity to tell me that I was the crazy one for not believing her. Everything that she presented as evidence; I rebutted with a plausible explanation. 

“He taps at the window,” she said. 

“No, that’s just the wind making the trees move,” I sighed.  

“He turns off my lights.” 

“It's just the faulty electrical system in the building.” 

But she was a believer and it's exactly what he wanted. He was feeding off of the attention slowly sucking her soul out of her until not one drop of sanity was left. 

“Save yourself before he ruins your life like he did to me! Please be careful, you don’t want to be his next victim,” she warned.  

To be honest, the words “next victim” sent chills down my spine. Her descent into madness only got progressively worse to the point where I found her lying on the sidewalk one morning. I looked up and saw her window wide open. I couldn’t fathom how something fictional could play with her mind like that. He had a physical grasp on her life like he was real. I guess he had her right at the edge. All he had to do was blow ever so gently like she was a feather, and then made her fall. I didn’t know if she was finally at peace now. I was so used to hearing crying all night that it felt unsettling to get some restful sleep. That same night the wind’s cries almost sounded like Mary. Then, my night light turned off. I turned over on the bed to get up to go see what was wrong and when I looked up I saw him standing right in front of me.