The Man Who Was Always There

British weather. So unpredictable, it's annoying. Yesterday, was just average weather, slight sunlight with average winds, and now it is dark at 4:30 and there's so much fog, it's hard to see much. I kicked the sheets off my bed, still looking out of the window, showing absolutely nothing. I should really stop going to sleep so late, and waking up late too. It was a very bad habit. I walked to the kitchen, surprised by the darkness. I flicked the switch, to reveal the room. I was making breakfast (at 4:30, really?), when the phone rang. It was very loud. "Mum! Pick it up!" I yelled, but nothing happened, and the phone still rang. They probably left to do... something. I picked up the phone, and spoke. "Hello?" "Good evening sir," a woman spoke. "I'm afraid to tell you, Albert Sutherland has passed away..." A tear escaped my eye, as the woman on the other end of the phone blabbed on. My grandfather passed away.

The next day, the weather hadn't changed. Outside, the wind was extremely strong, and made a meal of my mum's umbrella she took out to help from the rain. We got to his house, and it was huge. Oddly enough, I loved my granddad, but I never went to his house, he always came ours. Either that, or we would previously arrange for somewhere to meet up. He was a very nice man he was.

We looked around some of his stuff, a lot of his stuff was in the attic, typically in old boxes. After a few minutes of searching through, we found an old book of his. A diary. I looked through, and it was a horrible sight. It was full of drawings of a creepy looking man with a white face with coloured in eyes and mouth. He had a large, grey top hat, and wore very old fashioned clothes, which were also grey and white. It was quite eerie looking at it, no emotions. There was writing to go with this pictures. There was one of him playing in the park, with the man in the background, watching them. The caption read "I like going to park. My friends are all there. Even him." I was shocked. Even 'him'? He clearly was quite familiar with 'him', but... I don't know. "Look at this!" I alerted my mum and brother. They looked at the drawing, and were also shocked. "What the..." said my brother. My mother said nothing. I carried on looking, him watching over his family eating, him sleeping, he was even in the battlefield with him. The weird thing is, he isn't an imaginary friend. As he grew older, the pictures became clearer. They were all equally surprising, except the last one... it was him from yesterday. Granddad was in his bed, and 'he' was looking over him, about to place his hands on my granddad, the caption read "He's decided to let me live all this time, but now, I must depart." My eyes watered. What the hell? A mysterious figure, LETTING my granddad live? What is this?! I threw the book back in the box and decided to look through other things.

Nothing else interesting in that box. Just clothes. I looked in another box, called "FORBIDDEN TOYS". What was that supposed to mean? When I looked in, I knew exactly what it meant. His own, home-made toys, of 'him'. Appalled, I closed the box, and did not want to look in it again. My mum found a photo album, which was pretty normal, except one. It was a picture of him at home, back to the window. It was pretty recent, but I could faintly see 'him'. A real him? I got confused and scared, I requested to go out. Leave the attic. Leave the house. I couldn't take it with him. I stood next to the door of the house, it felt like night time.

The fog was extremely thick, but I could see some of the plants ahead. I took out my camera to look through pictures of my granddad. I really would miss him. Just then, the leaves moved. I quickly looked up. The wind hadn't become any stronger. I heard footsteps, getting slightly louder, with every step. I looked around the scene, but there was nowhere. The footsteps kept going. Then I finally saw him. My first reaction was to take a picture. I don't know why, but I did it. He walked like a clockwork robot, very stiff motions. Then I decided to run. I ran all the way to the back of the house. Tired, I hid behind a shed. MY FAMILY! They were in there, 'he' wasn't chasing me, I knew he wasn't. My family are still in there. I sped past the walls of the house, and entered. Rapidly going up the stairs. I saw my mothers lifeless body on the floor, and 'him' putting his hands on my brother. He turned his head to me, blinked and raised his hands, pointing them at me.