Shocking, Something serious seems off with Willard Arbour…

Willard Arbour had always been the town’s rock. Steady, reliable, a man of quiet routine. Every morning, like clockwork, he would walk his dog, Samson, down the same path along the river, rain or shine. His neighbors would greet him, and he’d tip his hat with a small, polite smile. But lately, something was different.

It started with little things: his walk became shorter, his responses slower. His once-pristine lawn grew patchy, as if forgotten. People whispered about how he stared off into the distance for too long, his eyes clouded over with something they couldn’t quite place.

One evening, his next-door neighbor, Edith, decided to check on him. Willard hadn’t been out in days. She knocked on his door, but there was no answer. Just as she was about to leave, the door creaked open.

Willard stood there, pale and disheveled. His eyes, once bright, now carried a strange, distant emptiness. “Willard, are you alright?” Edith asked, her voice soft but concerned.

He didn’t answer, just blinked slowly as if her words didn’t register. Then, after what felt like an eternity, he spoke. “I… I haven’t been myself,” he whispered. His voice was barely audible, like a man lost in the fog of his own thoughts.

Edith felt a chill creep down her spine. “What do you mean, Willard? You can tell me.”

His lips quivered as if struggling to form the words. “I see things… things that shouldn’t be here. In the shadows. Watching. Waiting. I feel them, Edith. Every night they get closer.”

Edith took a step back. There was something unsettling in the way he spoke, as if he were describing not a dream, but a reality no one else could see. She glanced past him into the darkened house. It felt too quiet, too still, as if the very air had changed.

“I think you need to see someone. You’re not well,” Edith said, her voice trembling.

Willard’s expression shifted, fear flashing across his face. “It’s too late for that,” he whispered, almost to himself. “They’ve already found me.”

And before Edith could respond, the door slammed shut in her face. The sound echoed through the empty street, leaving her standing there in the growing twilight, heart pounding. Something serious was wrong with Willard Arbour, but no one could have imagined just how much.