Do you ever feel like you're being watched?

.

"Say, Jackson, do you ever feel like you're being watched?"

"Not particularly. Why?" He asked Chloe.

"I mean, I never used to, but recently..." she trailed off.

Starting to feel concern, he sat up. He studied her face in the pale moonlight for a moment, before speaking again.

"You're not kidding, right? Cause this isn't something funny to joke about."

"No dude, seriously. Swear to God."

They both sat quietly, Jackson pondering. They had been together almost all the time recently, but as much as he racked his brain, he couldn't recall a single instance where he felt the same.

"Well, I don't know, but I haven't really felt it. But even if there was somebody, I'm with you all the time so don't worry about it. I'll beat them up for you if they try anything funny."

Chloe gave a hesitant scoff. Jackson liked to keep things light-hearted, which always made her feel at ease, even when it concerned tense topics. But this time, her heart rate remained elevated. Even as they spoke, she couldn't shake that uncanny feeling. It was like she had suddenly developed a spidey-sense. Worse still, it was dark enough that she couldn't see much with only the illumination from the moon. Her eyes darted nervously.

Jackson picked up on this and scooted over closer. He mustered up his courage and looked deep into her eyes. "I promise you, there's nothing to be afraid of. Let's just head home for today. I'll walk you up to your doorstep."

Hearing this, Chloe felt a slight release of tension that she hadn't realised had built up in her shoulders. They got up and started walking home. She stuck as close to Jackson as she could without feeling awkward, the whole time still nervously keeping an eye out. She half expected a crazed man to jump out of the shadows at any moment. As they passed the buildings, a few night owls and late workers occasionally passed by them. What was normally a comforting and serene journey in the calmness of the night was now like a giant escape room, and every fibre in her body was tensed, ready to get the hell out.

Stuck in her mind, Chloe had been so focused on the environment around her, that she had tuned out the people walking by. People that she assumed were just like Jackson and her, just out late and on their own way. She didn't notice the glances being shot her way. She failed to realise that their eyes lingered on her long after they had walked past her. Jackson, meanwhile, was busy keeping an eye on her. He, too, didn't notice the unsettling behaviour of the people around them. Seeing the state she was in, he considered carefully before finally putting his arm around her shoulder. She had a mini heart-attack when that happened. It had caught her by surprise, and seeing as he had never done this before, she felt a little embarrassed by it. She gave a slight chuckle at her reaction. It did feel nice.

After what felt like ages, they finally arrived at her house. He brought her up to her door and gave her a little pat on the shoulder. "Look, we're here now. Easy, right? Man, that felt like a fetch quest in one of my games haha."

She bit her tongue, not letting him know that it was nerve-wracking the whole time. Instead, she gave a slight nod and thanked him, before unlocking the doors and stepping into the safety and warmth of her home. She closed the door behind her, not noticing Jackson staring at her as she did.

As she sighed a breath of relief, she looked up into her living room and jumped. Her whole family was standing there. Rigid. Eyes locked onto her, like a predator stalking its prey. Her lips trembled as she stuttered out the words, "h-hey, I know it's p-pretty late but did y'all really h-h-have to scare me like that?"

No reply. They stood, rooted in place. Her mind and her heart were having a race. She couldn't tell whether her heart or her legs would give out first. "Why are you just.. staring at me like that?", she shot out. She had meant for that to sound fierce but it just came out as barely a whimper. Her whole being could feel that something was wrong. She didn't understand.

Finally, her brother croaked out "wake... up".

"Wh-what?"

"Wake... UP"

Her eyes shot open, her head beaded with sweat. Her heart was racing. She stared up into her ceiling. "What the fuck kind of nightmare was that?" she mumbled to herself angrily. As her heart rate slowly came back down, she started looking around in her pitch black room. She had never particularly been scared of the dark, especially not in a familiar environment like her room. Even then, she couldn't shake that weird feeling from her nightmare. She glanced around. Door. Dresser. Closet. Posters. Work table.

Wait, closet. Could've sworn I closed it after changing just now. She chalked it up to bad memory.

Just as she was about to lay back down in bed, she noticed something wrong. Something.. shiny in her closet. I don't have anything reflective in there. She strained her eyes, willing them to make out what it was she was looking at. She stared intently for a few seconds.

Suddenly, she jerked backwards in her bed, pulling up her blankets. They weren't reflections of light. They were the whites of eyes. There were a pair of eyes staring at her from within the closet. She trembled in her bed, covering her face with the blankets now. No, it couldn't be. I'm imagining things. It's just that damned nightmare. As her face was covered, she faintly heard a soft sound. It was like... cloth, or something soft being pressed together. Her carpet. It got closer to her and with each passing second, her heart came closer and closer to leaping right out of her chest. When it got right beside her, it stopped. She paused, listening closely.

Without warning, she heard a raspy whisper right in her ear "I love watching you dream".