The Shadow in the Corridor

My mother let me stay up late and watch TV on the love seat since I couldn't go to school. We had a pet toy poodle named Shelly that continuously rested at the foot of my mother's feet.

My mother and father had a few friends who lived down the road and would come over to play dominos or cards with them from time to time. We would have to go to bed during these gatherings.

That specific night, my mother and I were watching an episode of "The Twilight Zone" when my mother's dog, Shelly, sat up and focused on a shadowy figure at the end of the corridor in the kitchen. She began to violently snarl, and the back of her fur stood up as she backed up to my mother's feet, staring at the shadowy figure. My mother immediately jumped up and turned on the hallway lights, but there was nothing there.

However, our dog was truly agitated, and it really creeped me out. I was only five years old. My mother grabbed the phone and called my father, who was at work, and told him that she thought we had a prowler and needed him to come home.

I could hear my father's voice through the phone telling my mother to call the police until he could get there. As soon as my mother hung up the phone, it rang again. My mother picked it up, and it was our neighbor who my parents played dominoes with. She was shouting on the other end, telling my mother that her husband had just shot himself.

All this happened almost at the same time that our pet dog saw that shadowy figure in the corridor. To this day, I remember that occasion in detail and believe that we saw the spooky spirit of our neighbor after he had shot himself.