Peekaboo

[WP] Snuggled into bed, you review the footage from your doorbell camera for the day. You notice a strange inhuman figure enter in the morning while you were at work. With rising panic you scroll through the rest of the day - there is no footage of it ever leaving.

******

My first day at my new job.

Anything but perfect.

My boss was... well, nothing to write home about. A middle-aged guy with a receding hairline and almost nonexistent facial expressions save the permanent scowl on his face. All he kept doing was to remind me of how he needed 101% productivity from me and how he required the highest output from my marketing.

I barely got to meet any coworkers because they didn't even bother to come to see the new guy; I only met them when the announcement was made when I reported for work. Aside from names, half of which I should have forgotten, nothing else was committed to memory.

At the end of the day, all I wanted to do was get home, wrap myself up in a duvet, and finish a quarter-liter of ice cream while watching some Netflix, which I did. I remembered something I heard in a movie; "Boring is always Best", and even though my life wasn't quite boring, it was well on its way there, and for the time being, it suited me perfectly.

Human relations always fostered unwelcome emotions, and I just wasn't ready for all of that.

After a movie or two, I decided that Netflix today just wasn't it. So I flipped to my doorbell camera. I was a bit of a voyeur, and with the wide-angle lens connected, I could always know who was the new girl my neighbor opposite was cheating with. Today seemed fairly boring; He still stuck to Lola, the waitress from the cocktail bar in the next building.

One day the pig would get caught...

What?!

I pressed rewind on my remote, my heart racing. I saw something. Something I cannot describe to this day. It wore a strange white mask with holes for the eyes, but the mask was the least of my worries. The creature - that is the only suitable description for its appearance - seemed to be have been put together on a broken twig instead of a rigid skeletal framework. One-shoulder was higher than its head while the other was hanging at its chest. The story was the same in its legs.

Worse still, it must have been eight feet tall.

It seemed as though a Frankenstein experiment had gone wrong - a slab of flesh was molded around a coat hanger and then brought to life. It dragged itself to my door - to use the word 'walked' for such a movement would be the slander of a century - and opened it.

I blinked.

It opened my door and entered. It didn't break-in. It didn't pick the lock. It just put a key in, turned the knob and the door opened. The same for I had to unlock to get in here.

My heart was beating wildly and I could almost feel it rattle my ribcage with every diastole. Calm down Jacob, I tried to assure myself, this is only a dream.

But no matter how many times I rubbed my eyes, there it was on the clip. As clear as day, a monster had just entered my apartment.

I carefully scanned the remaining footage leading to the time I entered and even after - a duration of barely an hour. Nope, my worst fears were confirmed. It never left the house. As I was watching the footage, somewhere in my house was this monster, probably even watching me and waiting to strike.

I shivered before grabbing a baseball bat, cursing myself.

"Should have installed cameras indoors too for f*cks' sake!" I said to myself, searching the sitting room. Nothing was there.

"I swear to... oh damn it, whatever you are, I'll assume you know how to speak English. I don't know what the f*ck you're thinking..."

I kicked open the bathroom. Nothing.

"...but you picked the wrong house, damn it. The wrong house! I'll freakin' kill you, I swear!"

Everywhere was still silent. I searched through the extra room and the kitchen. Still no sound. I began to regret leaving the office a bit late. My employer and a few other coworkers left forty-five minutes earlier, but I stayed back to put up the act of a diligent worker. I should have left early, I would have caught it.

"Diligent my goddamn ass. If I just..." I stumbled and fell. "...this day cannot get any freakin' worse, huh?" I muttered, grabbing a furry armchair leg for support as I raised myself.

Then I remembered two things:

All my furniture had leather upholstery.

There were no chairs in the kitchen.

Shaking as I got up, I was face to face with a grotesque, disproportionate bust. Looking up, I met the mask looking down at me, its empty soulless eyes boring into my soul.

"GYAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"Calm, calm!" A familiar voice said as I heard a lot of giggling from within the suit. A few zips ripped open and I standing in front of me were my boss and two other coworkers. They all contributed to the strange shape of the creature.

"Surprise! Like the costume?" they said, laughing as the door opened and more workers burst in.

"This is an official welcoming party," my boss said, smiling as he handed me a can of beer.

I. Hate. People.