You wake up randomly and see this strange man lurking at your bedroom door, “No matter how loud you scream, nobody can hear you,” The man says. You pinch yourself, thinking that you are just dreaming, not dreaming, having a nightmare. Your fingernails dig into your right wrist, sending a message to your brain to scream. You just sit there, fidgeting with your long brown hair, and start to braid it, braiding is your speciality. The man walks down your hallway, you catch your breath, you pick up your phone, to check the time, 3:15 A.M, It’s too early to start getting ready for school, You stand up, walk over to your nightstand and turn on the pastel blue lamp, and pick up a novel, “If It’s 3:15, I might as well get some work in.” You say to yourself. The time flies faster than when you were 12, playing with your friend, Jack.
Your alarm blares, which makes you think that it’s time for school, you pick up your phone, it buzzes, The text message reads: YOU BETTER WATCH YOUR BACK…… From an unknown number, you block the number, and start to get ready for school.
***
“Bye Mom!” You yell. As you walk towards the Yellow Bus. You find Jack on the bus, “Hey.” He says. “Jack, It happened again, The Man in my doorway.” “Again? But that was only a week ago from the last one.” “I know, it randomly occurs when I least expect it.” You reply. “It sounds horrifying.” He says. The bus turns into your school. You remember that you have a science test today.
***
The Final bell rings to go home, you start to walk out of the school doors, as your best friend scares you, well, your only friend, after the incident, you never want to remember that day, the noises that still haunts you and Jack, the repeated gun shots, in the nearby room, your 7th grade science teacher making every one in the class go into the storage closet; it was small, but it was safe, you crammed right next to Jack, Jack is just praying, you hear him whisper, so quiet, barely audible, “Please make everyone in the school safe,” You wish that also, hearing him pray makes you feel safe, you hear footsteps outside of the storage closet, banging on the door of the storage closet, you just stay silent, Isla walks over to lock the door, it clicks. We just sit there, hoping that everything would be okay, and it ended in about an hour. The bell rang, to go to the next class twice, we just sat there, quiet as a mouse, as the enercom broke the silence.
***
You knock on the door, begging your mother to open up the door, as the man inches closer, and closer, and you continue to knock on the door, and you open it, you start to run in. “Mom, there was somebody chasing me!” “Sweetie, you must be seeing things, there’s nobody there.” That was what your mother said to you as a child, ‘That you are seeing things’ ‘And they don’t exist.’ You just walk down the broken sidewalk, 1 block away, 2 blocks away, 3 blocks away, 4 blocks away, You run through the door, not even saying ‘Hello’ to your mother, and go into the safety of your room, and pick up your phone, and start to doom scroll to get your mind off of your thoughts. Bluetooth connect your headphones and start to blare ‘Teenage Dirtbag©’ By Wheetus© and start to work on your science homework.
You start to doom scroll again, only to remember that you have math homework to finish, the teachers never give you enough time to finish your assignments, so they become “Homework” for you to finish. You drift into a deep sleep only for you to get awoken by him.
