This story takes place five years ago and it still haunts me to this day. My family was having a rough holiday season. None of us were getting along and our house had an uneasy feeling. We were all on edge. Something wasn’t right. It was Christmas night and my family were driving home from a fancy restaurant we go to every year. I, unlike my family, wasn’t tired, so the forty-five-minute drive seemed perpetual. On top of that, my little sister was constantly moaning about how her friend didn’t get her anything for Christmas. After about 20 minutes of driving my dad stopped at a gas station to get some cigarettes and my sister, brother and mother all got out to pee. I stayed in the car as I had already gone before we left. Once they all left I decided to play a few games on my phone. I looked at the car clock and saw that ten minutes had passed, so I immediately wondered what was taking them so long. As soon as I peered out the car window, I saw a man staring at our car. The man startled me as I didn’t know how long he had been watching. What made it even more unnerving is that he had a blank stare from behind his matted beard, no expression at all. It was hard to make out any features as it was pretty dark, he was wearing a dark hoodie that didn't fit and he wasn’t standing in an illuminated part of the station. He was about 5 foot 9 and looked to be middle aged. Once he saw me notice him, he started walking towards the car, instinct told me this was not good and I felt a sickness explode in my stomach. Luckily my dad came back with the rest of the family just as the man took a couple steps. My dad apologized and told me he had been in an argument with the cashier. I didn’t care, I was just glad that my dad was with me. I took another glance at the man outside, and he was still staring, but this time he had an annoyed look on his face. We drove off and for the rest of the car ride, I couldn’t stop thinking about that man. This wouldn’t have been too bad if it had ended there, but it didn’t. Later that night, I was watching YouTube while everyone else slept, and luckily for me, a storm was raging over us. I enjoy storms, it makes me cozy as I’m laying in bed. I put my phone down and just enjoyed the ambience. That didn’t last for long as I heard something smash into the window behind me. I lurched forward and nearly fell out of the bed. I thought a bird had just smashed into the window. I parted the blinds and what I saw next still haunts me. I saw a man standing out by my parent’s cars, looking up at my room. I took a closer look and I nearly had a heart attack. It was the same man that I saw at the gas station, only this time, when our eyes met, he grinned. Being the fourteen-year-old I was, I did the manly thing and screamed at the top of my lungs. My dad came running down the stairs and entered my room. “Why the fuck are you screaming?” He said. I told him about the man and I explained everything that had happened. My dad grabbed a baseball bat and told me to call the police. After 10 minutes, the police turned up outside our house and found the man in our shed. He was arrested and that was the last time I saw him. The next day my dad inspected the house and we found the handle of our back door had been damaged, not completely broken, but definitely damaged from the outside. Even creepier was that my dad also found where someone had been living in our toolshed. A pile of things from our house was also found in the shed including some of my mom’s intimate clothing. Someone had made a bed out of an old tarp and some spare bedding from the linen closet in our house. In this make-shift bed were several stuffed animals from my sister's room. The shed smelled like piss and body odor and we found food wrappers and food containers from things we had in our pantry. To this day I hesitate to enter the remote areas of our house without thinking about who or what may be lurking there. I have since learned that this is called...
