My name is Natasha. It has been 10 years since the incident on that Halloween night. I have nightmares just thinking about it. I don’t know if he is still out there or not. That man, that horrible, horrible man. So without any more delays of my nightmare, let me tell you the story of how I became a victim of a stalker nicknamed, “ The Mad Watcher.”

It was October 31, 2004.  My best friend, Michelle invited me to a Halloween Party, and I wanted to go really bad! But it took me a while to convince my parents to let me go to that party with my friends. After what felt like hours passed by, my parents then offered a deal. 

Mom said, “Tell you what, if you wash the dishes tonight by 7pm we’ll let you go.”

My Dad then added, “But call us when it’s 10pm so we can pick you up.” 

I screamed in joy, “Oh thank you so much Mom and Dad! It means so much!” 

After washing the dishes for what felt like hours, I was finally ready to go. 

I put on my Skeleton costume and in a hurry I said, “Bye Dad! Bye Mom! I’ll make sure to call you both at 10pm! Love you both so much!” 

Dad said, “Love you too Sweetie!” 

Mom said, “Be safe! We love you too!” 

Once we said our goodbyes, I stormed out of the house real quick. I was so excited to see all my friends at the Halloween Party. I didn’t even look back at my house to wave to them goodbye.  Although I had to wait for cars passing by me to be careful, I finally made it 1  minute early to Michelle’s house. 

When I knocked on the door, she opened it immediately,    

“Hey Natasha! I’m so glad you’re here, please  come in! We are going to have so much fun!” She yelled in excitement.

Once I came in, I saw all my other friends were here: Andy was wearing a Zombie costume,  Gabby was wearing a Mummy costume, Nate was wearing a Spider man costume, and  Darnell was wearing a Pirate costume. 

“The gang’s all here!” I yelled in joy.  

Nate replied, “Natasha! You’re finally here! We are all waiting for you to come!”

“I thought you wouldn’t make it here! But here you are!” Gabby added.“How’s it hanging Natasha!” Andy asked.

Darnell shouted, “Sup Natasha! Glad you came to the party!” 

I was so psyched to see all my friends at the party. We had so much fun too. We played horror games on the PS1, watched a couple horror movies, and played truth or dare. But all that fun was going to be turned into a nightmare. After Darnell did his dare, it was my turn to pick.  I chose dare of course, big mistake. If only I chose to do the truth. 

Gabby said, “Alright, I dare you to… go to that house at the other side of the street and  throw this egg at his house.” 

I replied, “Are you joking? There’s no way I’m doing that!”

“Come on! You chose dare, so you have to do it.” Gabby complained. 

After she kept on trying to convince me to do the dare, Andy and Nate both said, “Do it! Do it! Do it!” 

Michelle replied, “Natasha, you don’t have to do it, it’s ok.” 

“Yeah, if it’s too much that’s ok,” Darnell said.

“No, she has to do it or else she is a chicken!” Andy said.

Finally, I’ve decided to do my dare. So I grabbed an egg from the fridge and went outside. My friends watched me at the window to see me at the other side of the street at that house.  

It looked old, but still as normal as the other houses around the neighborhood. Even though, there weren’t that many people around, I was a little scared of getting caught 

Just as I was just about to throw the egg, – he came out of his house.  I was in shock when I saw him, he had gray hair, looked like he hadn’t slept for 2 weeks, eyes as red as tomatoes, and those clothes. It looked like he worked as a butcher. He pointed at me with the widest grin I’ve ever seen in someone. “You… c-came.. to me.  A-a-all the years, y-you will be.. w-with me n-n-now,” he stuttered. 

While I couldn’t understand him, I dropped the egg and apologized. “Mr, I’m so sorry, my friends and I were just playing a game, I didn’t want to but-” 

The man stopped me and said in a quiet voice,  “Shhhhhh… it’s over. You can be with me now, a-all these years.”

“What are you saying?” I asked. 

He immediately walked up to me. I didn’t know what to do, I backed away and tried to go back to Michelle’s house. He grabbed me by the arm with all his strength.  He picked me up and whispered, “You won’t leave me not again.” He then dragged me to his house.

I tried to fight back, but he didn’t even cry or groan when I tried to kick him or punch his stomach. It was like he couldn’t feel any pain at all. Darnell, Michelle, and Andy burst out of the door and ran up to the man and tried to set me free from his grasp. But the more they struggled to let me go, the more his grasp of my arm gets tighter. 

He finally let go of my arm and went back inside of his house. When my friends finally got me, we ran back to the house. I looked back to see if he was following us, and unfortunately, he was. He was holding a large knife, I screamed in fear and ran back to the house. He was running as fast as he could to Michelle’s house.  

As my friends and I were inside of the house, we immediately locked all the doors and windows. While Nate was on the phone calling the police, Andy looked at the window and saw the man’s blood shot eyes, staring at him. 

He then broke the window with his bare hand in flash. Glass scattered all over the floor and a few shards hit Andy’s face. The man’s hand was covered in blood, but he didn’t scream in pain at all, he just attempted to grab me by the arm again.  We all were horrified and desperately tried to defend ourselves from that guy. My two friends tried kicking him by the stomach, and punching him on the arm. Until he pushed Michelle and grabbed Andy by the neck, and he was still grabbing my arm as tight as he can, causing my arm to feel numb.

“Let them Go!!” Darnell screamed. 

Nate grabbed a glass plate by the table and threw it at him by the head and Darnell threw a chair at him again by the head, causing him to be unconscious. Finally, the police came right on time when the man was still unconscious.

After that, our parents came to come pick us up. I told them everything that happened, but what my mom told me made my skin crawl and pale.  “That man you told us Natasha, was the same man that stalked me 25 years ago when I was your age,” Mom frantically said. Dad explained, “His real name was Mason Bernard. He lost his daughter at the age of 14 due to cancer.” Dad added, “After her death, he went insane and believed she was still alive somewhere. There were many missing young girls reported on the news in the summer of the early 80’s. Your mother was almost his next victim.” 

Ever since then, I always stay cautious wherever I go, and always hope that I never see that guy again and he’s getting the help he needs.