Someone's Peeping Through The Window

I was napping with my newborn in my bedroom one afternoon when I suddenly saw the shadow of a tall man peering through the open window beside the bed. At first, I thought it might just be the curtain playing tricks in the wind, but then I saw a clear figure of a person standing motionless. I was shocked and nervous, being alone with a six-month-old baby in the outskirts of Cuttack, at my in-laws' place, right next to the busy highway.

I thought of quietly getting up to close the window, but as soon as I moved, the baby started crying. I watched the tall figure trying to see what was happening. It had a strange, distorted face with one eye closed, the rest burned and bruised with fresh, oozing rashes. Within minutes of my getting up, it transformed into a dark vulture with green eyes, which stared directly at me before flying away.

I closed the window and heard a knock at the door, but I was too scared to answer. Later that evening, I learned of someone's death in the neighborhood. The person had been severely burned in a cooking accident and had been separated from their baby. It seemed that, perhaps for one last time, they had come to see a baby nearby before their soul was released from their human form.