Night Crawlers

by Ron L. Carter

After Lynn’s death Jed started spending more time with Chelsea. Without Jed around as much, Justin began to get restless and bored just sitting around the house. He lost contact with what Jed was doing and he didn’t like just hanging out with Joshua. He was feeling trapped and lonely. He couldn’t quite understand why Jed wanted to spend more time with Chelsea than with him. When Jed was home it was like he was never there because all he did was sleep most of the day. They had done things together since they were little and now Justin was feeling a little abandoned and dejected.

  Jed tried to explain to Justin and Joshua about his relationship with Chelsea, but they didn’t really understand it. Jed also tried tell them they had to stay inside the property when he wasn’t home. He tried to scare them into staying home by telling them that someone from the C.P.S. would find out they were living at home without a mother and father and put them away in a foster home or orphanage. Joshua was always preoccupied because he spent most of his time being with Mister. All Jed had to tell him was that if he got put away he would lose Mister and that seemed like enough to have him do what he said. Justin’s situation was a lot different than Joshua’s, he’d been outside the property for several years breaking into houses with his dad and Jed. He wasn’t afraid to leave the compound and he knew how to sneak around without being seen. He knew he wasn’t going to stay home all the time.

  Once Jed would leave to go see Chelsea, Justin started going out at night by himself. At first it was just for something to do because he was bored and lonely. He wasn’t stealing anything, he’d just gotten used to being out on the dark nights and loved the freedom it gave him.

  He’d also become more interested in girls as he got older but his physical appearance and lack of social skills always kept him away from them. He became shy and introverted when he got around them. His interest in girls soon became and overwhelming desire and it led him into the hidden world of becoming a peeping tom. He soon started to go out on his quest to observe the women while they were getting undressed. He loved the idea of hiding in the dark and watching from outside their windows. He could observe them from outside the privacy of their own home, without being seen by them and that excited him. He would get sexually turned on just from the mere thought of watching women who were getting undressed The women were supposed to be safe in their private homes, but now he wasn’t stealing their personal belongings, he was stealing their safety and security.

  During his quest to satisfy his obsession, Justin remembered the two school girls that he had scared while they were walking to school. He loved the way he felt watching them from the holes in the fence. Those two girls soon became the object of his desire and he couldn’t get them out his head. Just the mere thought of seeing one of them undress in front of him made him extremely excited. Once he made up his mind they were his targets, he started going from house to house at night to try and find them. On the nights Jed was with Chelsea, Justin would sneak around looking for the girls” houses. He made sure he wore a ski mask that covered his face and he still dressed in black like they always did when they went out to do their house break-ins. He would do the opposite of what they did when they were looking for a house to break into. (He and Jed always searched for a house that looked like there wasn’t anyone at home). Now, he was searching for houses where he knew people were home and he could sneak up on them and spy on the women just outside their window, while he was hidden in the darkness of the night.

  As the days went by, Justin snuck around from house to house peering through the bedroom windows where the lights were on. He would creep around slowly until he would find an unsuspecting victim he could watch for a while. The more peeping on women he did, the more he loved it. It started to give him a sense of power over them and he felt like he was getting away with something that only he had control of and no one could take away. He had never felt like that before. He almost felt like he was entitled to glance into the women’s lives.

  He enjoyed searching for that one window where there was a woman or a girl inside that he could observe from just a few feet away without being seen. Sometimes he just enjoyed watching them sit in their bedroom and do nothing but talk on the phone or just sit and read a book. The biggest thrill for him was, just before they went to bed, and he got a chance to see them undress with the lights on. Sometimes he would sit and watch them for hours just watching for the few moments of pleasure he got out of it.

  He continued his new found pleasure for several weeks until he found the house of one of the girls that he’d been searching for. He was extremely happy and proud of himself when he finally found her. He clinched his fists, jumped in the air, and said to himself. Yes! I finally found you. I knew I would. You knew you couldn’t hide from me forever! As he crept up to her bedroom window, his heart was beating fast and he could hardly control his excitement. He slowly raised his head up to the corner of her bedroom window so that just part of his head and one eye could see from a tiny corner of her window. He stood there in a crouched position below the window and watched every move she made. He was fascinated with her as he watched her toss and turn on her bed while she was doing her homework or while she talked on the phone. He was captivated by her, even if she wasn’t doing anything.

  His obsession with ogling her soon became too overbearing for him and he just couldn’t get enough. He would come back for several weeks and stay for hours watching every move she made. Sometimes he was able to watch her changing clothes and that would send him into extreme pleasure. On a few occasions, he got a glimpse of her coming out of the shower with just a towel wrapped around her body before she dropped it and put on her panties and pajamas. She would usually turn off the lights and go to bed soon afterwards. Once she turned off the lights, he would then head back home. He had spent so much time watching her that in his confused thoughts, he actually believed he had some type of boyfriend, girlfriend relationship with her. He believed he had a girlfriend, just like Jed had with Chelsea.

  On another night, while he was watching the girl, he forgot to stay hidden and was watching her with both eyes peering straight at her and not from the corner of the window, like he usually had. She suddenly looked straight at the window and thought she saw someone looking back at her. She wasn’t sure what she saw, but she let out a slight scream and quickly jumped out of bed. Justin figured she must have seen him or a shadow of his face, as she headed toward the window and started to look around outside. By then Justin had ducked away from the window and was hidden in a bush. She couldn’t see him crouched behind a large plant, not too far away and in the dark. When she moved away from the window, Justin quickly headed over the fence and away from the property.

  A few minutes after Justin left the property, a light came on outside the front of the house and a man came out holding a gun. He began to walk slowly and carefully, all around the house. Justin watched him from a hidden area as the man searched for several minutes before Justin finally decided to leave. When he got back home he made up his mind, he would stay away from his “girlfriend’s” house for a few weeks before he went back again. He wanted to let her get over the scare of thinking she saw someone.

  Justin’s appetite for peeping on girls was growing stronger and stronger and it had increased to the point where he was no longer feeling gratified by just looking in the windows at them. He wanted to get inside their homes, up close, and right next to them. He was used to breaking into houses so he decided he would break into their houses. He made up his mind that he would wait until his “girlfriend’s” parents left her alone one evening and then he would break into her house while she was sleeping. Once he knew she was asleep he would be able to break in through a window and then get closer than he’d ever been before. He could watch her sleep while standing right next to her bedside.

  He was very patient and determined as he watched her house for several weeks until one night it finally happened. She’d been left alone. Onc
e her parents loaded up and left, Justin said to himself, Alright girlfriend, I finally have you all to myself! I’ve waited a long time for this moment to come!

  Once her parents’ car was out of sight, Justin snuck up to the house and peered in her bedroom window like he had done so many times before. He watched through the window as she went into the bathroom to take a bath. He could hardly wait to get inside the house and be alone with her. He said to himself, come on, come on, and just go to bed so I can get inside your house. When she came out of the bathroom, she was wearing just a robe with nothing under it. He had seen her in her robe before, but she usually had on her panties and a tank top. Before she turned out the lights and went to bed she took off the robe and threw it over the nightstand. Justin could see her youthful body and he thought to himself, Wow! She’s beautiful! At that point he could hardly contain his excitement. This was the moment he’d been imagining in his mind and dreaming about for several weeks. He was so excited he was almost jumping up and down, but he knew he had to control himself. He said, take it easy, just calm down. He started breathing long, deep, quiet breaths to try and calm himself down. When she turned out her light, Justin could see that she had left a light on in the bathroom. It was just enough so he could see the silhouette of her body as she crawled into bed and pulled the covers up to her neck. She turned on her side facing the bathroom light as she went to sleep.

  Justin waited until he was sure she was deep asleep and then crept around to all the doors and windows to see if any had been left unlocked. He soon found that everything was locked up tight. Not finding an easy entry, he wrapped his ski mask around a small rock and busted a corner of a window on the opposite side of the house. He reached his hand slowly inside and unbolted the lock of the window. He carefully slid the window up until it was completely open. He shook out his ski mask and made sure there was no glass in it and put it back on his head. He then crept back to her window to make sure she was still asleep. When he got there, he thought that she must’ve heard something because she’d turned her body in the opposite direction and was now facing the wall. He was just happy that she was still asleep.

  He crept back to the open window and hoisted himself head first up and into the room. He inched his body through until he was completely inside the house. Once there, every move he made was slow and deliberate, just like he was stealing something. He made sure he didn’t bump anything as he made his way through the kitchen, living room and down the hall to her bedroom. It took him several minutes to just make it to her bedroom door. He peeked in at her from the corner of the bedroom door to make sure she was still asleep.

  Once he was comfortable that she was sleeping, he tiptoed ever so slowly up to the edge of the bed, until he was standing right next to the back of her head. He stood there several minutes just watching her sleep. Soon both of his legs were touching the edge of the bed as he got very excited. The excitement of everything finally got the best of him and he let out an uncontrollable chuckle. When he did that, his legs slightly moved the bed. He had his pants pulled down to his upper thighs and rubbing himself when the girl heard the noise and felt the bed moving. She immediately flipped over and looked up and saw the all black figure standing over her. She began to scream so loud that it momentarily surprised Justin.

  Justin was so stunned by her high pitched scream that he just stood there for a few seconds not knowing quite what to do. After he realized she caught him in her bedroom, he pulled his pants up and started to head for the door. In his haste and fear to get out, he ran to the front door and tried to open it. The door had a chain lock on it and when he tried to open it the chain jerked the door back in its place. Not sure what had just happened, he let go of the door knob and headed to the window he had come through when he broke into the house. When he reached the window he dove head first out of it and onto the ground outside. He rolled a few times and then quickly got to his feet. The girl was still screaming when she started turning on all the lights in the house. Justin watched from the fence as she ran into the kitchen and grabbed a huge long butcher knife and called, what he thought was the Sheriff’s department. Justin knew he had to get out of that area quickly and head home.

  On the way back home he was extremely pumped up and excited about getting within just a few feet of his “girlfriend.” The satisfaction he got from the entire encounter made him very proud of himself. He kept saying over and over again, you did it! You got right up next to her bed! I knew I could do it! He was very happy that he had gotten away with being inside her house. That encounter made him feel better than anything he had ever experienced in his life. None of the stealing he’d ever done came close to the excitement and satisfaction that he was feeling at that moment.

  When he got home he decided he would soon start searching for his next female target. He knew that he had to do more girl watching, but he was going to stay away from his screaming “girlfriend’s” house for a while. He wanted to give her time to get over being scared.

  The high school girl Justin thought of as his girlfriend called the sheriff’s department and reported Justin’s break-in. There were neighbors with her in just a matter of minutes after she called them but it took the sheriff’s department about forty five minutes to get there. After a few days of what they called a full investigations, they weren’t able to find anything that would point them to a suspect. Not having an explanation or a suspect, they told the girl’s parents it was probably some high school boy she knew just pulling a prank on her. The parents weren’t happy with the investigation and the father told the Sheriff, “Even if it was a high school boy pulling a prank on her, I feel like she was violated. If I catch the kid in my house again I’ll kill him.” The Sheriff told him it would be better if he let the law handle it, instead of killing some kid and possibly going to jail himself.

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  Chapter 12 - Mister becomes the Master