t was three in the morning and I walked down Smaug Avenue. A woman passed me. Attractive, a tight red dress that wrapped smoothly around her body, a shy smile on her lips. She looked on the ground while she passed me.
It was instinct. Pure instinct. I turned and looked. From behind even better than from the front. With a guilty smile I looked forward again.
I don't know why I looked a second time. A second time my head turned and my upper body followed.
She just stood there. The dress was still tightly wrapped around her backside. Her body was still turned towards the front. But her head was turned to me. She grinned but her mouth and teeth were too large for her face.
That night I ran. I don't think she followed me. And I don't think she needed to.
It might all have been some sort of paranoia. An optical illusion due to loud music and sleep deprivation.
But since then I see them everywhere.
I stand in line at the supermarket and glance around to look which counter will be free first. I turn to the right and then to the left. In the corner of my vision I see eyes staring at me. A grin. When I turn my head to look straight at him he looks normal. He stares past me somewhere into the distance.
I sit in the back of the cab. The driver with his thick accent stays silent. The city scene flies by to my right. Outside I see faces flying past. From one moment to the next I feel his stare. I can feel the breath from his wide grin. I quickly turn back towards him. All I see is that his head moves back to face towards the front, as if he had just looked out of the passenger side window.
I enter the elevator. Two young women are already inside the cabin. I try to remember whether the elevator had just stopped for me or whether it had been there all along with the women inside. They nod when I enter. Silently they look at each other, one clears her throat. I notice a short dress and perfect legs. I press the button and turn to stand facing the door. Just when the display switches from "4" to "5" I hear a deep inhale. Something feels cold. In the blurry and small reflection of the I can see something white in their faces. They move towards me. When I turn they both shake their heads as if they just had a serious disagreement.
They look like us. They look like humans.
If anything is abnormal about them then it is that they are especially attractive, but not all of them are.
There is something human about disliking ugliness. The consensus is that evolution taught us to prefer pretty people, just like we prefer good-smelling people. Those are proxies for health. Good genes. Good mating partners.
We are careful when we see people that we perceive as ugly. Ugly people are expelled from society. They don't get a chance to take part in our wealth and our mating system. That's why they are to be avoided. That's why they are dangerous. They have nothing to lose.
Sometimes I notice a homeless person staring at me. A cripple with large scars in his face or maybe just one arm or leg. In the corner of my vision I see the large white teeth but when I look he is just another homeless with a thousand yard stare or a tired expression.
I think they only bother to look pretty if they are on the hunt. It must be costly or exhausting for them to look attractive. But attractive people are less feared.
I keep turning. All day, wherever I am, I scan the area like a turret. I notice the cute girl before she enters my office. I turn and of course there is no grin anymore. She asks for the way to some office that she would have no reason to search.
I am wondering if they have always been there. Maybe since that night I am a target. Maybe I am the object of some weird competition where they try to see who gets closest.
