"It was raining. No, it was more like a drizzle. I was walking home from work, because of the neighborhood being so small, it was only two blocks away from where live.", I explained. "I remember having this foreboding feeling... It was like I could feel his presence behind me..." I shuttered as I attempted to recall the most frightening events of my life. They only happened four hours ago, it shouldn't be this difficult.
"I could feel someone following me, could hear the soles of his shoes hitting the wet pavement behind me. At first I tried to convince myself that it was the little raccoon that had a liking for following people home and eating all of their food, but then I realized that the footsteps were too loud, too heavy to be a twenty pound animal. As this thought crossed my mind, I faltered in my steps. That's when I felt a hand cover my mouth."
The head detective looked over at me, across the hospital room, with a forlorn expression on her face. "What happened after you felt his hand on you?" She asked, her voice soft and careful, almost as if she thought I would shatter to pieces at any moment. I took a shaky breath and continued.
"He... he pulled me into an alley. I tried to scream, but it was like no one could hear me." I rubbed my swollen wrists. "He had a rope. He tied my feet and hands together. I was so confused, my brain couldn't comprehend what was happening. Even now, I'm not completely sure." I leaned over in my bed and looked behind the woman, into the mirror above the bathroom sink, at my bruised and broken reflection. " All I know is that when he pulled out the police baton, I knew that I had to get away."
The woman looked puzzled. "Are you sure it was a police baton? That's impossible, no civilian has access to those, they aren't sold anywhere. Besides, our force stopped using those things years ago. Unless..." Her eyes widened. Her chair flipped backwards as she ran out the door.
I sat there,all alone for what seemed like hours. I was shaking, crying silently. Though the enormity of my pain was physical, from my broken arm, bruised body and a large gash on my forehead, there was mental pain as well. There was something I hadn't told the detective, something that he had said. As I laid at his feet, feeling as if it was all over, that I was too tired to stay conscious, he bent down and looked at me straight in the eye. He had a mask on, but the haughty glow in his eyes was too horrifying to go unnoticed.
His voice was low, and hard. Scratchy, yet clear. I could hear the evil smirk he must have had on his face as he spoke. He told me that he had no intention of killing me. He just 'wanted to practice'. Practice. Practice means that he was going to do this again.
I tried to speak, but my voice wouldn't come out clear enough. "Why", I croaked.
He stared at me for a moment, then his eyes sparkled with a deranged smile. "Let's just say, there was an impediment that I have to deal with. Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about. Unless, of course, you misbehave. But you don't want to do that now do you?"
Before he left, he took the baton and smashed it down on my head, close to my left temple. I could feel something sticky and wet run through my hair onto the ground and seeping into the back of my shirt. He then picked me up, as if I was a rag doll, and threw my almost lifeless body against the hard metal dumpster. I heard a sickening crack and felt an unbearable pain in both my arm, and chest. That's when I blacked out.
The detective rushed back and stopped at the doorway. "Could you, by any chance, describe him for me?" She asked. "It's impediment to our case."
I scrunched up my nose, thinking. "He was wearing a black trench coat and ski mask...and he had a hood covering his head." She went pale.
"A hood?" I nodded. "Ms. Reed," she said slowly, her voice shaking. " You're lucky to be alive."
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YOU ARE READING
The Hooded Man
Mystery / ThrillerThe detective rushed back and stopped at the doorway. “Could you, by any chance, describe him for me?” She asked. “It’s impediment to our case.” I scrunched up my nose, thinking. “He was wearing a black trench coat and ski mask…and he had a hood...