Horror stories, urban legends, e.t.c

The Pursuer

The last rays of sunlight were fading quickly. The streets were still damp from a recent rain glimmered thinly, the streetlight had not yet flickered to life and the streets were hanging suspended in that breathless, squinting moment between light and dark.

I was on my way home from what had been a difficult job, leaving me exhausted and grim. I took long steps, my hands balled into fists that were shoved deep into my pockets. It was chilly, not a biting cold but a murmuring one. A cold that sent its palette hands creeping along your skin, whispers of touch that raises goose pimples, hair and suspicion.

I felt my heart rate quicken, my breathing becomes laboured. I paused, eyes fluttered shut and I heard the muted crunch of a single footstep behind me, then nothing.

There was someone following me.

I set off at a dead run, all springs and gears turning and now there was no mistaking it, I had a pursuer.

I didn't look back I only ran. My feet slapped pavement hard, charring. We ran together, my pursuer and I, a manic, high stakes dance through side streets, back alleys, and over garbage cans.

I jumped one-handed over a fence, finally reaching my home. I ran to my stoop, I reached my front door. A mad scramble for my keys. I knew that if I could only make it to the basement before I was caught I would be home free.

I ran to the basement door, shoved it open, then tore down the stairs, jumping down the last two steps before hiding in the shadows.

My pursuer slowed as he crept down the steps of my basement, each footfall descending him further into the murky gloom. A weak ray of light shining down the basement stairs allowed me to see my pursuer's hand brushing and feeling his way along the cold basement wall, searching for a light switch.

I heard his every breath, ragged and heavy. As his hand met the light switch he quickly flicked it on. I watch as the man in the blue uniform stood frozen in terror as his gaze swept over the room from the blood-stained walls, the gory freezer in the corner to what was left of my previous meal on the metal table in the corner of the room.

He didn't hear me creep up behind him, but he must have felt the throbbing bulge in my pocket as I emptied a full dose of ketamine into the flesh of his neck.

"Well, officer," I whispered into the policeman's ear as his body went limp, "looks like you've solved this case"

A maniacal grin crept its way across my lips.