Running From a Shadow

Meeting #1

Jack's P.O.V.

As I walked in absolute silence from my job at a ranch in Ohio, I knew something was wrong. I always had the isolation of the traffic to fill my ears as I walked my way to my house to start making another gmod video with Mark. I looked forward to it, knowing by heart the text message I would receive just as I opened my door. Get your ass on the computer!

Today, however, felt different. I felt like I was being watched, every move being recorded in the mind of my stalker. I turned around slightly, not trying to give away that I was suspicious. Nothing. I was so fucking paranoid that I let myself look like a freak thinking I was being followed. No...someone must have been there. I had seen the tail of a jacket turn around a corner. Who would want to follow me? I looked like I hadn't slept in days, which was true, and smelled like fresh horse shit, also true. But someone had followed me, God knows how long, as I made my way home.

Being the sly person I was, I ducked into an alley way too wide and open for an attack. It lead to a street I knew to be two blocks from mine, but I was heading in the other direction, cutting through alley after alley until I reached the rain-covered forest that held my old treehouse. I never went there anymore. No one knew about besides me, but it was a hell of a lot better than leading this creep to my house.

Cutting the last alley, I saw the same jacket tail whip behind a dumpster. Starting to grow a little worried, I took off at a sprint deep into the oaky woods that I knew like the back of my hand. There weren't any trails. Just little puddles here and there from the rain that had been coming down every hour for the past month, the sunlight showing off every ripple as my feet bounded towards the largest tree in the center of the forest. I heard a larger set of feet splashing against the squishy earth a couple yards behind me. Shit this guy could run.

I decided to take a detour as to throw him off. I ran for the large tree that had been ripped from the ground due to a wind storm a few days prior. When I ran past it, I reached out and pushed the log back towards the dark figure. It knocked him down long enough for me to get several yards away from him. I remembered the knife I had left in the treehouse. I could defend myself, though I didn't want to use it. The seven inch blade made a perfect souvenir, but nothin more. I wouldn't dream of tainting the beautiful metal with red, rusty blood... unless a creepy stalker forced my hand.

I ran up the ladder to the top of the twenty foot tall tree, pulling up the ladder just before the figure could grab hold. He just stood there. What did he want?

"Go away!" I barked, but it sounded nervous. Apparently, he hadn't noticed my nerves, because he walked away in silence until he disappeared into the now setting sun.

I stood up shakily looking around for my knife in case he decided to come back. It was exactly where I had left it: stabbed into a piece of wood that I had pulled from the base of the tree when I was younger to replace unsteady stairs with an oak ladder I could take away in a moment just like this. I had broken two already, due to anger towards my old friend Ryan, who had told my family that I was gay two years ago. Back then, it was a lie. I liked girls and only thought of guys as good friends. But ever since Mark had followed me on social media and started to collab with me, I had felt a much different kind of feelings towards guys. Mark in particular...

I pulled the blade out of the board and put it on the small coffee table in the middle of the tight space. I stared out the window at the darkening sky, wondering suddenly what Mark was doing right now, but that was put to an end when I heard a voice creeping up my spine.

"You know, it's rude not to invite me inside, Jack." Mark? What was he doing here so late? Didn't he have to go to sleep early as to be up in time for his early job at the construction site?

"M-Mark? What...are you doing here?" I stared at him for a moment, trying to think of what he might say in return.

"No, Jack. Mark is at home, curled up in bed." Mark's clone smiling wickedly into my eyes. If this wasn't Mark, then who the fuck was it?!

"I-I don't understand..." I trailed off, staring into his deep, intense eyes, which were not mocha like Mark's, but a dark shade of red. They reminded me of blood.

"What's wrong, Jackaboy?" He took a step closer, only a few feet away. His voice smooth as silk, deep as the ocean.

I couldn't speak. Just gripped the window frame in terror as the Mark look-a-like inched towards me. He stood, our faces an inch apart before speaking again.

"You wanna have some fun?" The question sounded deadly. His quiet whisper sending chills through my body. He backed away as my phone rang, reading my mother's number. I picked it up, still wide-eyed from what had just occurred.

"H-hello? Mom?" I tried not to stutter, but failed amazingly.

"Jack? Dear? Are you alright, honey?" She sounded worried sick, like she'd been crying on the couch waiting for me to come home.

I looked around the treehouse. No sign of Mark's twin. Realizing I was still on the phone with my mother, I tried my best to sound calm.

"I'm sleeping at a friend's house tonight. Sorry I forgot to tell you." It seemed so easy to lie to her nowadays. She seemed not to notice my usual lying symptoms.

"Ok, sweetie. You just had me worried is all."

"I'm okay." I muttered to no one in particular. Just trying to find the courage to sleep alone in the woods with a man who looked like Mark seeping into my nightmares.