Someone

I was on the train that morning. The floor rumbled with motion under my feet. The car was empty. Or so I thought. We passed through a tunnel, came out the other side. A seat was suddenly occupied.

The hair on my neck stood on end.

I got off at my stop. Headed up the stairs. My heartbeat pounded in my ears. Uneasiness spasmed my guts into knots.

There’s someone behind me.

I don’t want to look. I just know they’re there. I can feel them. The eyes staring holes into me.

An icy chill races up my spine. I want to run but I can’t. I just walk.

My flesh is beginning to crawl, my mind running rampant with desperate attempts to dissuade myself from what I know is true.

I’m going to die today.

***

There’s someone behind you.

Don’t look. Don’t run. Don’t speak. Just wait.

Can you feel it? The eyes, that are staring at you? They stare intently. They stare without purpose.

Can you feel that? The hair on your neck that’s standing on end? That’s because you’re uneasy.

Do you feel that sensation? The flesh on your arms as it rises? That’s your skin trying to crawl from your bones. It wants to drag you away from this unseen threat.

Do you feel the cold? That chill as it creeps down your spine? That’s the last bit of your instinct begging you to flee, the desperate plea of your mind to run away.

Now… Do you feel that? That lump that’s knotted your guts?

That’s the weight of a decision you took too long to make.

You didn’t look. You didn’t speak. You just waited.

And now you’ll die.

Because it’s me behind you.

And you didn’t run away.