I sat outside on a crisp autumn evening. The world was slowly descending into night around me. I did this often. It was a good time to reflect. Most of the time I was uninterrupted, since my closest neighbors were a mile away. I was not home alone, my parents were inside, probably watching MasterChef. I enjoyed my time alone.

I eventually stood up from the front lawn and picked up the Rubik’s Cube I had been twiddling with. Before I walked inside, I had a strong inclination to look down the road, so I did. There was a figure standing in the distance, silently gazing toward me. I couldn’t see its shape. This wasn’t unusual. It was standing down the road, and I was standing up the road, unmoving. Boring. It was getting late, so I turned around, and went inside and upstairs to bed. 

Now at this point you’re almost definitely thinking one of these thoughts: 1. It’s your neighbor, 2. It’s Slenderman and you’re going to die, or 3. You’re crazy. All of those are reasonable. But consider this: what if it’s just a blurry man that sometimes stands in the distance, always watching, never taking full form. What if him and I are, like, chill. I had no way of knowing if we were, in fact “chill”, but I thought it would be nice to assume kindness in this situation, since the other option could be death.

One day, my older sister was driving me home from school. I was in 8th grade at the time, and it was the height of the Silly Bandz craze, and I was very cool in middle school, so of course I had on an entire arm of Silly Bandz. I had only one favorite. It was in the shape of a green stegosaurus. The first one on my wrist, the last one I put on in the morning. I held my arm outside the open window, feeling the cool breeze on the part of my arm that wasn’t covered with Silly Bandz. My mother always told me not to do this, saying that my arm would hit something and snap. For some reason, though, I had to disobey. And by some unknown force of nature, not by wind, the stegosaurus band was taken away. I couldn’t let my sister know of my terrible loss in fear of her telling our mother my arm was outside the car, so I hid my emotions for the rest of the drive.

Some time after this incident, I was sitting outside again, going over the events of the day. It was mid summer, and the air was heavy even at dusk. I had a feeling that there was something in the road again. Then suddenly, I was there at the side of the road. Like an impulse. I appeared there in seconds, not even moving. He was there again. I don’t know how I noticed it, but when I did, my blood ran cold. He was closer. Maybe a few feet. But it was notable, knowing that I had never seen him move an inch. I couldn’t fall asleep that night.

In the weeks following, he moved closer each time I saw him. He never moved in front of me. I tried watching the road from dusk until midnight, but he would never appear. Or at least not until I looked away for a second. I tried showing my parents, but they thought nothing of it. Cryptids are a common occurrence in my town, and they laughed when they first saw him. “This is what you’re worried about?” They would say, “Back in my day, we had the Mothman! Oh, he has mild control over your actions? What’s he going to do? Make you do a jumping jack?” They were no help. I just had to wait until he was close enough for me to see him clearly. I couldn’t go towards him, obviously. Not for any paranormal reason though. He just freaked me out and I didn’t want to voluntarily be near him. 

August 7th, 2010, something was different. I could feel it as soon as I woke up. I walked outside at 8 pm and made my way over to the side of the road. He was right there, as clear as possible, still a fuzzy man. Up close, he looked almost exactly the same as how he did far away. Like the figure on a mens bathroom sign. With something green around his wrist. He had my Silly Band. Of course he did. I needed to confront him. 

“Hey.” I said. “Come on.” 

He stood there silently, as he does. 

“Your arm is too thick. It doesn’t even fit you.” I moved over to stand directly in front of him. He had no eyes. Alright. “You’re going to stretch it out.” He didn’t move. I sighed, and moved back to the front lawn. “How is it even staying on. You’re made of some kind of mist… What are you made of?”

He did not answer. I had an idea. 

“Wait here.” I ran back inside and found my box of Silly Bandz. I searched through them determinedly. When I finally found what I was looking for, I went back outside. Thankfully he was still there. 

I jogged back up to him, and held out the Silly Band. “Here. I thought maybe we could trade? It’s still green. It’s also stick figure shaped so I thought it sort of looked like you!” 

He looked at me, and then, slowly, he moved his arm towards me. He held it out expectedly. I just dropped the Silly Band into his hand, and he put it on his wrist. “Cool. Could you… give me mine back now?” He pulled my stegosaurus band off from the bottom of his arm, somehow, and handed it back to me. I thanked him, and backed away as if we had just made a drug deal. I sat in the grass and attempted to communicate with him for a little bit after that. I learned that he was pretty good at DDR, solely because he demonstrated some dance moves after I asked if he was good at DDR. I went to bed proud of my negotiation tactics.

So we’re chill. He was one of my best friends all throughout highschool! (I didn’t have many.) Even after I’ve moved, everytime I come back he sees me, and we catch up. I’m still not entirely sure what he is. Maybe some kind of ghost? All I know is, most 14 year-old girls faced with a man of mist slowly creeping towards them would’ve called the Ghostbusters. I’m so glad I didn’t. 

Mostly because the Ghostbusters are expensive. But also because I made a lifelong friend.