I can't remember when I first saw it, but I can recall it was late at night. I was staying up late, stretching after completing a work project that I should have finished hours ago, back before the hours returned to single digits. It was when I looked away from the monitor for the first time that night that I noticed the unusually bright light coming from outside my window. I got up to check, as the light was coming from my backyard and there were no houses behind me. Only a dense forest with no paths coming anywhere near my house.
I don't know what I was expecting to see, but it certainly wasn't what was out there. Standing in my backyard was what looked like a man in a suit, though I couldn't really tell in the darkness. The light that was shining through my window was coming from a rectangular source in front of the man's face. At the time, I could only assume that some asshole had decided to hop the fence into my yard in the wee hours of the morning to shine a floodlight into my bedroom window. Naturally confused and pissed off, I yelled at the man to get out of my yard before I call the cops. As soon as I said it, the light blinked off. I tried to see where the man went, but the afterimage of the light made it impossible to see anything in the dark. I figured he had probably run off and decided not to worry about it. I made sure all the doors and windows were locked just in case and did a quick search of the house before falling asleep.
In the morning, I decided to check the footage from the security cameras I had installed in my backyard. I skipped through the previous day. No movement but birds until the sun went down. Some time after sunset, the footage glitched. In the centre of the yard, where I had seen the man the previous night, was a cluster of dead pixels with a beam of light shining from them. The light, which I guessed was from the floodlight seemed as well as the dead pixels were all distorted by what looked like compression artifacts. The time that this glitch first appeared was just after nine and it remained there until I heard my voice yelling at the stranger at two in the morning. As soon as my voice stopped, the footage glitched again and the dead pixels and compression disappeared. I had no idea what to make of this, but since the footage seemed to be corrupted beyond recognition, I figured it was useless going to the police about it. After that I put it out of my head and pretty much forgot about it until that night.
I was pulling another all nighter. Not because of work this time, but instead because I had slept in after the previous late night and couldn't get to sleep. I checked the time and saw that it was even later than last night. I had gotten involved in my own project and knew that I would undoubtedly be working on it for another few hours. So, knowing that I wouldn't be getting to sleep anyways that night, I went downstairs to make some coffee. I turned on the coffee maker, got out a mug and stared at the machine, waiting for it to provide me with the fuel I needed. I can't recall how long I stood there, watching the dark liquid drizzle into the mug before I became aware of the light flooding in through my patio doors. I turned to see the same man as last night standing on my patio staring at me.
More annoyed than scared at this point, I walked over to the doors and turned on the outdoor light. Hoping to at least see who the asshole was that kept bothering me. I flicked the switch and was struck by a wave of confusion. The man was indeed wearing a suit. A brown, plaid suit with a pale yellow shirt and striped orange, brown and yellow tie. He wore brown leather shoes and matching gloves. from the collar of his shirt was a thick, articulated metal tube, like the kind you would see on a desk lamp, except six to seven inches in diametre. Attached to this metal neck, in the place of a head was an old television set from the 50s or 60s. The screen was alive with static and emitting the bright grey light that had been haunting me. I backed away, disturbed by the thing in front of me. I can't say what brought me to this conclusion, but something inside me knew that whatever was outside my house was not human. As I moved, the articulate neck followed. the TV moving so smoothly and following my movements so perfectly that it was almost imperceptible. I had backed into my kitchen and grabbed the first object in my reach. I threw the mug at the thing outside my door. Boiling coffee streaming across the room and splashing against my skin. I recoiled in pain as I heard the glass shatter. When I looked up, the thing was gone. Only a broken mug and a shattered door remained.
I didn't even bother calling the police. Something told me that the thing that haunted me was not human and while I didn't know why I thought this, I wasn't about to question it. Before the sun rose I had packed up my clothes and valuables and had rented a truck as soon as a moving company had opened. I had resolved to be out of the house before dusk. I didn't care about where I would go. That and selling the house would come after I was far away from this place. I spent the rest of the day loading the truck with everything I owned. In hindsight, I probably should have hired some movers to help me. But it was too late for that. Just as the sun was setting, I had placed the last box in the truck. I was ready to leave, but I went back in one last time to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything important. It wasn't that late. When I checked the camera the first time, it didn't show up until after nine. I thought I was safe. I checked the basement, the bedroom and the bathrooms. I grabbed the house keys and did one last scan of the living room before turning to leave.
I stared at my shadow on the wall. The silhouette surrounded by a flickering grey light. It was here. I wanted to run. I had closed the back of the truck. I had left the driver's door open and left the keys on the driver seat. I All I had to do was run. But it wasn't having that this time. Against my will I turned to look at the thing. It stood mere feet away, glaring at me with it's static, screaming it's white noise. I fell to my knees, staring up at the thing, unable to look away. The thing's body twitched and swayed unnaturally. Like a film in fast forward. Despite this, the television on it's neck remained impossibly still. I couldn't move. I couldn't even blink in the presence of the blinding spotlight that flared from the screen. As I stared into the snowy void, a hand slapped against the static. Utterly silent, but hard enough to rattle the screen. Then another. And another. Until the static had turned black with the shadowy hands that continued to slam themselves against the screen. The force of the onslaught began to warp the static, bending the screen outwards. A pulsing, black bulge elongated out of the TV set. The forms of hands groping ever closer to me. I felt myself scream, but heard nothing but the white noise of the TV as the tendril of hands reached my face.
We watched through the static as my lifeless body fell to the ground. Steaming fluid from my ruptured eyes running down my face. Thick blood from my melted brain leaked from every hole in my head. The view held on me for a while before raising. My corpse falling out of sight. we turned to face the door and the view moved as smoothly as a camera on a dolly. As we approached a wall and the footage jumped. passing us through the closed door into the night. It cut again and we moved from my porch to the sidewalk. Again from the sidewalk across the street. Again and again the cuts came faster and the distance covered increased until the screen was a strobe of different locations remaining on screen for less than a frame. faster and faster until the screen was but a flickering blur of light before the static cut out. We were surrounded by darkness. We couldn't see, but we could feel each other occupying the space. Twitching nervously in the void. A captive audience waiting for the next show.
