It was Halloween day. My father and I had spent most of the morning and afternoon harvesting the last of our corn crop of the season. I was extra excited to be done with the work since I was going over to a friend’s house to watch scary movies in celebration of the holiday.

I didn't get back home until just after midnight. My parents were both asleep by then, so I hung around outside and smoked a couple of cigarettes, just enjoying the cool night air and the bright full moon before I finally went inside. After eating some leftover pizza, I got into my pajamas and climbed into bed.

As I started to drift off to sleep, I heard a soft knocking at the window across from my bed. It wasn't very loud but it startled me nonetheless as my room was on the second floor. I sat straight up and leered at the window. There was nothing there that I could see, yet I still felt uneasy.

The full moon cast a pool of light across my bedroom floor that seemed to stretch out to touch the foot of my bed. I stared out at the window hard, my fingers clutching the hem of my blanket. At first, I tried to rationalize it—maybe someone had tossed a rock, or maybe a bat had bumped into the window. But that didn’t make sense, as I clearly remember hearing several soft raps. That’s when I saw the small silhouette of something peeking into the window and a pair of glowing eyes looking at me!

I stared in shock, my skin tingling with goosebumps, all my hair standing on end as fear seized me. I couldn't move or speak. All I could do was stare into those eyes, watching them blink slowly. They were large, almost oval in shape, and seemed to shimmer a soft green. The more I stared at them, the clearer they became.

I watched as the creature placed its hands on the glass, its thin fingers spreading apart. Then it leaned forward, pushing closer to the window. I wanted to scream for help, to yell for my parents but my voice stuck in my throat. I tried to will myself to get up, to run away from the terrible thing that was lurking outside the second-story window but I couldn't.

After a moment, the creature pushed through the window as if it wasn’t there and landed silently on the floor. It crouched there, just under the window, the pale moonlight washing over its head and shoulders. Then it stood up—it was a lot smaller than it had appeared outside the window, maybe around three feet tall. Illuminated in the moonlight, I could now see it had shockingly red hair that reached its shoulders—its flesh almost a translucent white which seemed to shimmer faintly.

I watched in terror as it approached my bed with slow, calculated steps. My eyes must have adjusted to the darkness because I suddenly realized that the creature looked like a little girl, although her features were skewed oddly, giving off an unsettling appearance of the uncanny. I could smell the freshness of pine and flowers emanating off her body; she smelled of the forest. The girl stopped, leaning across the foot of my bed as she peered at me closely, cocking her head sideways as if studying my face.