WHO WAS THAT MAN?

(Female’s POV)

My name is Charlie, and I live in a small rental home with my sister, Sam. The two of us are living
together because the rent for these apartments is too high, and since we don’t make enough money to
afford them separately, we decided to share an apartment as roommates. I was already thinking of
renting a shared apartment, so when Sam suggested it, I agreed without hesitation. Living with my sister
was better than doing that with a stranger as you never know what kind of people we end up meeting.
And, since one of our father’s friends had his house vacant, he rented that to us cheaply.

“Cherry, Peter is coming over tonight, you don’t have any issue right?” Note that she isn’t asking me
this, her tone sounded more like “You better not have any issue with it!”

“It’s not like you would ask him not to if I say I have an issue,” I muttered which she heard.

“You’re such an understanding sister, you know, I love that about you. Anyway, I am so excited! What
should I wear?” She said all this cheerfully only to annoy me more.

“Why can’t you get banged at his place? Why do this here and make this awkward for me?” I asked
raising my voice so that it can reach her ears since she must be in her room by now.

“No can do! Besides, I feel uncomfortable with his roommate there. Have you seen his eyes? It’s like he
is looking into your soul.” Her faint voice coming from her room was still crystal clear, but I was going to
ignore that if it was of no use. So, I rested my body on the couch and turned the TV on.

She spent hours cleaning herself and getting ready for him, and it was almost laughable. I wanted to
make fun of her for looking so clean every time Peter come to stay over, but I controlled myself and
continued watching the Television. The douche got here around six in the evening, and after getting
away from my sister’s lips, he kneaded me in the head.

“And, how is my cherry doing?” As I got away from his grip, he said in an overly friendly voice.

“It’s Charlie for you. And, Sam, tell your boyfriend to stop acting like we are friends or something.” I said
as I got back to watching my show.

“C’mon, can’t I call my future sister-in-law by her nickname? Aren’t we best friends?” He took a sat next
to me and asked dramatically.

“We were, but you ruined it by dating my sister, so there, you can’t.” I looked him in the eyes as I said
that.
“Cut him some slack, Cherry. Can’t you see he is trying his best?” And, his lawyer joined in to defend
him.

“I am, but tell me that if you two ever were to break up, I would choose you,” Yes, I was angry that he
ruined our friendship and yes, I would choose my sister over our friendship.

Sam smiled at what I said while Peter pouted, the two of them chit-chatted some more in my presence,
and then they went to Sam’s room. After watching the aired episode of ‘Black Mirror’, I went to my
room and started scrolling through Facebook.

I was getting a bit hungry, and since I was not in the mood to cook, I decided to order some burgers from
McDonald’s. Not like I have any intentions of disturbing those two, but out of common decency, I was
obliged to ask those two what they wanted to eat.

“Hey Sam, I was going to order from McDonald’s, do you guys want anything?” I wasn’t going to knock
on their door and listen to their indecent voices, so I gave her a call. She told me to order a big mac meal
and a crispy chicken sandwich meal for them and hung up. Along with what she asked, I added a
McDouble and a Blue Raspberry Frozen Fanta for myself before placing the order.

It showed the order would reach me in twenty-five minutes, so I played a song on my phone and started
waiting for it. About fifteen minutes passed and thinking about closing the curtains, I went near the
window when I saw a man standing outside the front porch looking in the direction of my bedroom. He
wasn’t wearing any McDonald’s uniform nor was he holding any package, so clearly he wasn’t here to
make a delivery or something. But, I still opened the app to check if the delivery guy was there, and it
showed he was seven minutes away from my place.

I quickly closed the window curtains and went back to my bed in a panicked state. It felt creepy that a
weird man would just stand outside someone’s house and stare at it, what if he was a murderer or a
thief? Since I couldn’t shake off this fear I was feeling, I tried to take a peek out of my window, and when
I did, there was no one outside. The man was gone.

I felt a bit relieved by that, so I stepped back from there and threw myself back at the bed only to
receive the call that my order was here. I went out to pick up the order, and as I was taking it, I noticed
someone standing a bit far from the house staring straight at me. As his eyes met mine, I swear that I
saw him smile, I started getting cold sweats, so I rushed back in and locked the door after me.
I ran to Sam’s room and started knocking loudly, “What is it?” She looked annoyed as she opened the
door, but the moment she saw me shaking like a leaf, she got worried. After I told them about the man,
Peter went outside to check, but even after looking everywhere, he didn’t see anyone.

I was scared, but I didn’t want to disturb the two of them any more than I had, so I handed them the
package and went straight to my room. The feeling that if I look outside the window, he would still be
there looking at my bedroom window kept me anxious all night, but eventually, I fell asleep.

He never showed up again after that, but still, that night remained a horrible memory in my mind along
with some unanswered questions. Who was that man? And, what was he doing there? Was he some
creep who was doing nothing but staring at someone’s house? Or, was he someone far more dangerous
than I can imagine?