I still have the nightmares about that horrible night. After the night I saw him, I never dared to go in the darkness alone.

4 years ago, I used to live in an apartment which was 12 storey high. Me and my parents rented a flat in the first floor of the apartment. It had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a hall and a kitchen.

There were rumours that years ago before we moved in, an old man died due to some chronic disease, and of course me and my parents didn’t believe in them.

But after we moved in, I got a room for myself. It was not much big, a small room probably designed for 12 years old kids like me. For some months, I lived in that room. I was happy to finally have a room for myself and did many things to decorate it.

But I eventually left that room and moved into my parents’ room. I sometimes used to see shadows at corner of my room. It was quite unnerving. I told my mother about it, and she admitted that she too experienced it. So, she decided it better for me to be with them.

2 months passed and I never saw those shadows in my room. I thought it was over, but I was very wrong.

I clearly remember about that night when I saw him. It was a summer night, it was very hot, so after it was past midnight, I woke up feeling very thirsty.

There was no light in the house, except for the street lamps coming from outside and lightning up the whole house slightly.

I reached for my water bottle to find it empty. I sighed and got up from my bed to go to hall. Before leaving the bedroom, I glanced at my parents who were snoring peacefully.

Very slowly I stepped out of the room, without glancing at my chamber which was right beside my parents’ room, I went into the hall. A jug filled with water was on the center table.

Before reaching out for the hug, I glanced at my two little budgie birds. They were asleep, which was weird as they never were this quite and sleepy whenever I entered the hall. Probablying they were too tired.

So, I took the hug and directly drank water from it, my deserted throat felt a little better. I drank a little more and kept the hug back to its place.

I’d like to say I got back to the bedroom and fell asleep peacefully. But what lied ahead was something horrible.

Just as I was about to turn away and head towards the room, something orange caught the corner of my eyes. I wasn’t sure what it was, I probably thought it was my main door since it was orange in colour. But I was wrong, something was standing in front my main door. Chills ran through my spine. It wasn’t something but it was someone, a human figure was standing in front of the main door of my flat, it’s back was facing me, whoever he was, he was tall and lanky.

Suddenly the temperature of room started to fall down. It was getting cold.

The tall man was standing very still, he was wearing a orange woolen pea coat, and the realization hit me that the coat was what I saw and not the main door.

He was wearing a green waist down, and his hands shoved in the pockets of his pant.

My whole body started shaking. Who was he? Was he a thief? Should I wake up my parents?

I tried to scream or move, but nothing worked. It was like I was glued to the ground and voice box being removed from my throat.

All the nerves in my body felt like they were about to burst.

The man wasn’t moving. For a moment I thought he was a criminal, but then noticed that he wasn’t even moving to breathe. His body didn’t show a single sign of inhaling and exhaling the air.

My whole body froze. Not from the dropping temperature, but from the horror of seeing a man standing near my main door.

He still wasn’t moving. He had the same posture, then suddenly my feet took a shaky step towards him. I didn’t wanted to but it was like I had lost control over my own body. My feet moved closer to the lanky man.

My heart was pounding faster than usual as I stood right behind him. The hair of my arms rose up, my teeth clattered as if a cold aura surrounded him.

I didn’t know what would happen, I expected him to attack but he disappeared into the thin air like dust fumes.

My body unfroze, and very much in my control. Probably it was my imagination, cause I was still sleepy. But it definitely wasn’t my imagination.

As I started to march towards the my parents’ room, I stopped in midway and watched in horror. The man with orange coat, was now standing in front of the closed bedroom door. His back was facing me, he was in the same posture.

I gulped down, whoever he was, he wasn’t my hallucination. He wasn’t moving and stood perfectly still as a statue.

Suddenly my toes started cramping, the pain in my toes were so sharp that I lost my balance and fell on the couch behind me.

I didn’t get up from my couch, I didn’t dared to. I kept my eyes on the man. I knew he was going to do something horrible, and that I needed help.

I glanced out of the window to see if there was any pedestrian who might help me. And what I saw made me want to hit my head. Frost was forming on the window, it shouldn’t have been possible, it was summer season and there must not be frost on the window.

Part of me knew that the very presence of this man did this, but the other part of me wanted it to be my illusion.

I slowly rubbed my cramped toes just because the pain was passing to my hips by now. While doing this, I didn’t take my eyes off the guy. And then, my fears seemed to come true.

Very slowly, the man turned, he was dangerously slow. I wanted to run into the kitchen, but it meant that I had to go closer to me cause the kitchen was just a little ahead from the main bedroom.

After what seemed hours, he turned completely, I forgot breathing when I saw his face.

It actually wasn’t a face but a shadow with human face outline and instead of his eyes, there were red dots, very bright as if someone was flashing laser.

He took slow steps towards me, his red eyes or dots were fixed on me. I didn’t moved, again I felt my body freezing.I didn’t even realized that he was just 4 steps away from me, his red eyes were now piercing.

He took one more step, just 3 steps away and then he stopped. Something white like a crescent moon started forming on his face and I realized that he was grinning.

I exhaled through my mouth and noticed that my breath was the colour of fog and that the temperature was almost to 0 degree.

His grinning didn’t stop. He then said something which unfroze my body, probably because of fear. He said “Hello, I am Mr. Orange Coat.”

I didn’t care about my paining toes. I bolted up from the couch, closed my eyes and ran towards my bedroom, I knew I would hit Mr. Orange Coat as he was blocking the way. But I didn’t felt a thing.

I ran fast and opened the door of the room and closed it quickly and jumped on the bed in between of my parents. I pulled the blankets up and covered my face. Suddenly I started feeling hot, I was sweating badly. But I didn’t care, I kept myself hidden under the blankets for what seemed like hours.

But I needed to make sure the man was gone and that me and my parents were safe. I peeked through my blanked towards the closed door, expecting him to open it and grin with his crescent moon smile and red eyes flashing on my face.

But he never showed up.

Today it has 4 years since that incident, and I wonder that what was he or who was he? Why he called himself Mr. Orange Coat? And how could he make the room cold in summer season.

And the most shocking thing was, even after making so much noise while running away from him, no one waked up, neither my parents not my birds.

I probably might never know who he was but one thing I could say is, there was connection between those shadows in my room and Mr. Orange Coat.

Author: Sid