Short Horror Stories

The man on the balcony

When I was about 11 years old I lived in a one bedroom apartment with my Mother (we were very poor) and the bedroom had double sliding glass doors that led out to the balcony. We lived on the third floor for safety and the cheaper rent it offered.

My Mother often stayed in the living room late into the evening because she liked to watch TV before bed and I preferred quiet.

One night I was up in the top bunk (we had a bunk bed with a full size mattress on the bottom and a twin on top) and my Mom came into the room and called my name quietly. I’m a light sleeper so I woke right up. She said, “there is someone on the back porch – don’t move.” She was standing just outside the doorway to the room and had stopped entering when the saw the shadow of someone behind the blinds covering the glass doors. The type of blinds that are flat when closed but with the lights around the complex you could see his shadow through them.

I just remember being shocked that someone could get up onto a third floor balcony!

Then he started to knock – really slowly – that’s when I got scared. My Mom went into the kitchen and called 911. I stayed as still as I could hoping he would just go away.

It couldn’t have been more than 3 minutes but the next time I opened my eyes he was gone. When the police arrived about 3 minutes after that they looked all over the complex but could find no sign of him. When one of the officers went onto our balcony there was no indication of how he’d gotten up to the third floor but there were two very evident palm prints where he’d leaned against the glass for who knows how long before my Mom walked in. It never happened to us again – I hope it didn’t happen to anyone else either.

-thoughtcatalog.com