He woke with a jolt, having fallen asleep on the couch again. Rubbing his eyes, he quietly cursed at not having the sense to have just gone to bed. As he shut off the television he vaguely noted the rain had set in. He padded upstairs still carrying a cloud of drowsiness around his head.
His wife went to bed hours earlier and was deep asleep. He changed into his pajamas in the dark, taking great care to not wake her. As he carefully stepped into his bedclothes he heard the metal garbage can he set to curb topple over.
“Great!” he muttered to himself. “Score one for trying to be on top of things by setting the garbage out the the night before. Looks like I’ll have a mess in the morning.”
Then he heard a scream outside. It didn’t sound like an animal, then again maybe a rabbit? He shuddered at his childhood memory of that sound. When the second scream happened, a little closer, he stopped what he was doing and stared towards the blinds of his bedroom window. He could see the shadow of something moving outside his second story window. He knuckled his eyes. It was a windy night, they have some old trees. That’s all.
He began pulling back the bed sheets to crawl in when he heard a tapping sound on the glass. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Now fully awake, he whispered to himself “It’s some stupid raccoon.” though he didn’t really believe it.
He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths before he fully opened the shades. He saw her with her hand pressed against the window. She was a withered old hag. Her arms were skeletal with cracked leathery skin stretched over bone, glistening from the rain. Her maniacal eyes glared at him through greasy unkempt hair. A toothless twisted mouth, a black smile leered at him. Her shriveled breasts long ago collapsed and had settled upon a distended wrinkled belly. She was crouching on spindly legs. He blinked and she was gone, but he heard a cackle within the howling of the wind.

Have a happy Halloween everyone!