Just like the previous nights, sharp at the same hour, I startled in my bed on hearing sliding the screen door. I turned my head toward the bedroom's door. He turned the knob and he pushed the door open, and he entered the room silently. He shuffled very quietly to the door. When he came out of the bedroom, I shut my eyes and listened. He opened the door of the apartment smoothly and then closed it smoothly behind him. I pushed the blanket fast and came out of the bed.

I pushed the curtain aside and waited. Even if he opened the door carefully, but I heard. I could recognized his muscled silhouette, just under the light of the street. He wore wool jacket with tight black paints and a heavy bag on his shoulder. The shoes were not to be seen from that distance. However, in the morning, just before vacuum cleaning, I was watching their prints. They were big. The dried mud on the carpet showed their spikes.

I didn't relate to anybody in the office. I feared that they don't believe. Even, I thought of calling police many times. They would come and ambush in a place and then they would arrest him upon his trespassing on the porch. Or maybe, they wait for him in the neighborhoods' yard and kick the life out of him. But, I didn't call them. I was afraid. However, I forgot about all cautions and I told it to my colleague, a fellow on my neighboring desk in the office.

"I have such dreams, too" he said.
I said, "Honestly, I cross my fingers, it is not a dream".
"You should marry. I have been a single." Said my friend, "It is good just for the first year. But after some times you will be going crazy."

He was right. But, I am for sure not dreaming. Next day,I confess to him that it was all dreaming, to have his trust. He said, "See! for me also such a thing happened. One night, I saw a ghost entered my room and it was going to suffocate me. I woke up suddenly. I didn't sleep for a week. You should marry. That is the only solution."

I didn't say a word after that, but he comes at night, just half an hour after the midnight, he was coming and going. I violated my life. The fear affected my life. Once, I decided to get rid off this intruder. In the same evening, I found a big bat. I exercised with it for some hours. I would stand with my back against the wall, raise the bat and flung it. Then, I spread my bedclothes between the sofas. It was a habit for many years. I never slept on bed, in my bedroom. I put the bat under my bed. I laid I and tried to remain awake. It was a couple of hours before midnight. I took the bat and I looked at it carefully. If, I beat him on the middle of the head, he would fall unconscious, then I would call the neighbors.

I got up and I went to the bedroom. I looked through the screen door to the porch, next to the high wall of the yard. He would come from here, I mean, I thought that he would come that way. I went back to my bed and I waited.

I woke up suddenly, by the opening sound of the screen door. The bat was beside me, on the floor. I had been sleeping. Everything went wrong. The man came in and the he went slowly to the door. I couldn't breath more. I decided to grab the bat and run and hit him on the skull. But, I failed. My knees went trembling. My mouth dried up and I couldn't blink either. He went out the door. I didn't hear his footsteps anymore. I didn't bother to get out of bed and look at him going out. In the morning, I felt tired. When I called my office, The same colleague of my next desk answered and I asked ! "please pass a leave slip for me."

"What's up? Are you captured by ghosts?"
He added that he would. I slept through the day until afternoon. The bat was still there, on the floor. I stood, took it from the floor and I decided to exercise some more, but suddenly, I threw it against one picture on the wall. Its glass was smashed and it fell down on the floor, near the small card table. I put on my clothes and I went out wondering for a long time, in the streets near my apartment. When I came back, all the lights were off. I entered the house and then my apartment. The bat was on the floor, next to the broken picture. I got it and I sat out of bedroom, leaning against the wall. I was hungry, but I should wait.

I stand up and I walked for a while to resist sleeping. Then, I heard his footsteps on the porch. He opened the screen door and came in. I stand up and raised the bat, as high as I could, to the back of my head. He closed the door slowly and walked in. He stopped suddenly. I thought, he was suspicious of my presence. I decided to run toward him, but I heard the sound of the closing his zipper, and then the sound of his steps. I held my breath. I glimpsed his head and I hit him with a crushing blow of bat. It is cry of sudden pain that resolved the crushing sound of bat on his skull. He dropped on his knees.

I raised the bat once more and I hit him again. This time, it was only the sound of bat on skull and then a heavy thud on the floor. I tricked the light. There was a huge man on the floor, with blood running out of his mouth on the floor. He was dead. I was trembling. How could I call the neighbors! I picked up yesterday newspaper, which was still on the dinner table, and I put it under his head. Then, I put a plastic back on his head and tightened it with a rope on his neck.

I carried the corpse on my shoulders with great trouble. It was heavy. I took him out and laid it against a wall. I got my car and I put the coarse on the back seat. I drove wondering in the streets. Finally, I stopped at the shoulder of a freeway going up the north of the city. I got the corpse out and I left it among the bushed, under the tall pines. I turned back home fast.

The blood on the carpet, beside the door of the bedroom, was dried. I cleaned it with piece of cloth which was wet of cold water. Then, I dropped asleep on an uneven bed, spread on the floor for two days.

When I got up in the morning, there was no sign of blood, but the bat was there, lying inside my bedclothes. I closed up the bed and I put on my clothes and I went to the office. My fellow had written a leave slip for me. He asked me, " Is he coming again?"
"I knocked him dead, yesterday night." I said.
He said, "My cousin, a daughter of..."
"Forget about it."

I turned home high spirited at the evening. No more intruder again. I tried to revive my old habits. I had a stuffed delicious dinner. I took a book from bookshelves and I read it at most four pages and I dropped in a sound sleeping.

But, at midnight, at the same time, I was awake by the sound of screen door. I turned toward the bedroom door. The man entered and walked very slowly toward the apartment's door. I held my breath, my mouth dried up. I wanted to cry, but in vein. Did he had come back to revenge? But, he opened the door slowly and he went out. Was he really himself? But, he had no bondage on his head, but with those crushing hits...

Now, It has been coming many months after that. I have not bothered to wake up at his sound any more in the last nights. But, in the morning, before leaving the house, I vacuum clean his muddy footprints off the carpet.

Short Stories