The Bird-Man

The Bird-Man
It was late at night and I looked around my dark room. I was surprisingly awake for the late hour. In the corner, I saw a strange shadow. It looked like that of a human being, but somehow, the face was all wrong. As it stepped out of the dark corner of my bedroom, I saw why. Its face was something of a mix between bird and man, with an elongated and sharp mouth and nose, but unlike a man or a bird, there was only black depths where the eyes should be, like that part of it was just a skeleton. Despite the being's lack of eyes, it seemed to stare deep into my soul, almost as though it were reaching into my soul...

I woke with a start. Just a dream, I thought. I looked around my room. There was light spilling in from the stove light in the kitchen. I could clearly see that there was nothing out of the ordinary in my room. I turned my back to the door and what I saw reflected in one of my poster frames made my heart stop. There he (it?) was, staring at me the same way as he had in my dream. I looked back towards the door quickly and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw nothing there. I again turned my back to the door. His reflection was still there, but this time it seemed closer. Figuring it was just an overactive imagination from the dream, I just closed my eyes and fell back asleep.

When I woke up in the morning, I was exhausted as I had been tossing and turning all night long. All through my dreams, the bird-man had not left me alone. I got up and went to the bathroom. I turned on the sink and splashed the water on my face, and I was finally able to blink my eyes open. I looked up into the mirror...he was there, behind me. I pinched myself to see if I was dreaming. “Ouch!” I cried out in pain. Maybe it is just a phantom image from my dream last night. I tried to go about my day as normally as possible, but everytime I looked into a reflective surface, he was there.

This has been going on for a whole year. Every night I dream about him, and everyday I see him in my reflection coming closer and closer each time. Even getting closer, his face was still difficult to describe exeactly what I was looking at, as if the bird-man was still far away. The last time I looked, he was right behind me. That was this morning. Not only did I see him, but for the first time I could feel its presence.

Right now as I'm typing this, I can feel him behind me, steadily coming closer. I set up a mirror by my computer. Maybe I should look at it right now...maybe....