short story practice

Walk

This story was inspired by this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq4A3kL5dNk

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Nydia took in the smell of car smoke and rain. It had just stopped pouring and she decided it was the perfect time for a jog. She made small strides, taking in her surroundings. It was pretty late at night, not a lot of other civilians were around, except for those coming home from a late shift. Nydia put in her earphones and listened to music. She picked up her pace, water on the pavement splashing with every step she takes. She notices someone walking slowly ahead of her, and she slows down.

"Evening," she greets, removing one of the ear buds. She moves forward, advancing in front of the man who was now behind her. She sped up, and started to put the other bud back into her ear. She hears another pair of footsteps rapidly going towards her.

She quickly looked behind her, but no one was there.

She looked around confused, wondering if the footsteps were part of the song playing in her ear. She shrugs it off and blames it on the song, and when she starts her jog again, she notices someone in the far distance, looking at her. She starts walking slowly, waiting for a response. The man starts walking backwards with every step she makes.

Nydia stops, uncertain and afraid. The man stops as well. Nydia takes another step towards him, quickening her pace as the man walks backwards as well, matching her speed. The man stops. Nydia quickly jogs past him, staring at the ground, too scared to look. When she was at a reasonable distance, she looked behind her back.

The man turned her back to her, and started to walk the opposite direction.

Nydia let out a sigh, removing her earphones completely. She could not risk being followed at this hour at night. She jogs at a steady pace, sweat forming on her forehead as the air becomes humid and it becomes hard to breathe. She looked behind her just in case, and saw that the man stopped again, far from her.

The man suddenly runs to her, backwards.

The sound of splashing as the distance between the man and Nydia diminished was loud in her ears as she sprinted to her apartment. The man quickly followed suit, his arms on his sides, the only moving body part his legs as he chased Nydia. Nydia fumbled with the door to her apartment building, the man dangerously close before she finally budged it open and slammed it behind her, the man stopping in front of the door, his back against it. Nydia kept pressing the up button on the elevator until it opened and Nydia retreated inside.

Trying to catch her breath, Nydia sat down on the elevator as it carried her to her floor. When the doors opened, Nydia stood, but was immediately frozen.

A man was at the end of the long hallway, his back facing her.

The man ran backwards to her, and Nydia has never run this fast towards her apartment door. As she fumbled with her keys as she struggled to get the apartment door open, and when she did, she quickly got inside and closed the door behind her, making a small thud as the man hit the door. He continued to bang against it, Nydia running to the kitchen to grab a kitchen knife, dialing 911 on her phone.

The responder told her to calm down, and that help was on the way. The man continued to try to break her door, and Nydia sat in the corner of her kitchen, knife in front of her, sobbing as loud thuds continued at her door. Nydia did not know how long it was before it was finally quiet, and the police suddenly knocked on her door. Nydia was hesitant to open her door at first, but when she did, she was greeted by the police. They let her step out of her apartment, questioning what had happened, while trying to get her to calm down. With a promise of catching whoever was following her, they left.

As Nydia readied her keys to her apartment door, she stared in fear as she realized that she never closed her apartment door.

With shaking hands, she pushed open her door and expected to find someone with their back facing her, but was met with nothing but her apartment.

Nydia sighed in relief, going to pick up the knife from the floor and putting it back where she got it. She took a bath and changed into fresh clothes, still shaking from the events of the night.

As she put her hand on the handle of the bedroom door, however, she heard the faint scuffling of footsteps inside, then it became quiet. She quickly grabbed the knife again and threw open the door.

Her bedroom was empty.

Nice, now I'm hallucinating. She thought, putting the knife under her pillow for good measure. She lay down, her body and mind exhausted. She stared into her dark room, her eyes focusing on the cabinet, the bedside table, her lamp, then her bookshelf...

Wait.

Was the cabinet door always slightly open?

Nydia sat down in panic, reaching for her knife as she slowly approached the cabinet. She quickly opened it and stabbed blindly inside, her eyes tearing up with fury. There was nothing but her clothes inside, which were now ruined because of her blind anger. She threw the knife inside, visibly frustrated as she made her way to the bed.

A man was in the corner of her room, his back turned to her. She froze, her eyes wide in fear as the man slowly faced her.

Nobody heard her scream as he ran towards her, and soon enough, it became quiet again.