Echo

1

'Wait for me!' Anna yelled as she ran towards me from behind. It was a wednesday, and as usual I was at school like any other student. I rolled my eyes as she approached. Why was she talking to me?

'What a boring lessons again eh?' she said to me when she finally came next to me. I just kept walking, ignoring her. I didn't like her at all. She used to be a friend, but stuff went wrong and we grew apart from eachother. Yet it felt quite natural that she was walking alongside me. Exept for the fact I wished she would just go drown herself. 

Finally we reached the bikes at the end of the courtyard.

'Have a nice day, until tomorrow!' Anna said to me while she was grabbing her bike and got on to bike away. Again I rolled my eyes as I grabbed my own bike and started biking as well to my own home. 

Around halfway home however it suddenly started to rain.

'Ah damnit' I mumbled under my breath as I reached to the hoody of my jacket. A sudden girl on my side however made me brake and stop. 

'What do you think you're doing?!' I yelled at her. I didn't mean to yell but it happened anyways due to the heat of the moment. 'You could've caused an accident! Stay on your own side of the lane next time!' 

'It's okay' a voice from an old woman said. I looked to where it came from and noticed the old couple that was walking on the sidewalk. 'You know it's okay for bikers to bike wherever, as long as it isn't on the middle of the road? Bikes aren't cars after all.' 

I was baffled by this stupidity. On a sidewalk, sure, you can walk wherever, but as a biker you still have rules to follow. 'Uhm, bikers too have to stay on their own side of the lane, the right side, just like cars. We aren't walkers after all...' 

'Did you ever see a symbol for bikers where they had to bike, like is with cars?' the man of the couple said to me. I had no idea what was going on. I just shook my head in disbelief and biked on. How can people be so dumb, I thought to myself. I just wanted to be home, out of this rain. 

Then the most weird thing happened.

The rain suddenly stopped as soon as I started biking. The sky turned completely dark, even though it was in the middle of the day. But the weirdest thing of all was the red light coming from above. As I looked up I saw this giant error message in the sky. It looked like some kind of holograph, like you see in science fiction movies. Exactly like that. 

An alarm accompanied the message. I was scared. What the hell was going on? As fast as I could I biked on to get home as quickly as possible. I was passing the last roundabout and got in the last street before home. It didn't have any lights, and was always calm. Normally I totally didn't mind it, but in this dark, with the fear for whatever was happening still pumping adrenaline through my body, it gave away a very eerie atmosphere. And if that wasn't bad enough, the small stroke of trees that was next to that street was even darker than anything around. Anything could be hidden in there. 

Then I suddenly heard breathing. It wasn't just some breathing from someone a little further away as if they were running and going out of breath. No, there was noone around at all. Yet it sounded so loud. And weird. Not even human to begin with. It was slow and felt right next to me. As if something was breathing right in my left ear, the side of the forest. I tried to look quickly what was breathing like that, but I was biking too fast to see anything in the darkness. Whatever hid in there, I had to get away from it fast. 

I was almost there. The breathing became louder and louder, but I was almost past the trees. The breathing sounded as if it was going into my ear. Then finally the last turn came. I took it, and immediatly my home became visable. I stopped in front of it, threw my bike on the ground, and ran inside, locking the doors. 

Suddenly, I woke up. 

I was back in my room. Everything was silent. But the feeling as if something was watching me was not. I kept my eyes closed. But all I could see was this weird face. And not just one, but at least a dozen. I felt watched from every side of my bed, even from above and below. I had no idea what these watchers looked like, but if they looked anything similar to the image that had formed in my mind now, this didn't mean anything good. 

Then this voice came out of nowhere, speaking to me inside of my head. Even though I was scared as hell and everything seemed so wrong, this voice was kind and actually very calming.

'Just stay calm. Don't open your eyes.' the voice whispered to me. I did as it said. I tried not to think about the things that were watching me, and while concentrating on the darkness and happy thoughts, I waited. 

After a short while the voice came back again. 'I seems to have calmed down.' I felt that too, and also felt relieved to hear the soothing voice again. I calmed down as well. However, as soon as I did the world changed again. 

I woke up again. The room was light, and my boyfriend, Stephen, was there too. It was his birthday, and behind my back I was hiding a present for him. I was having a lot of fun, laughing together with him. But something was wrong. Why was this suddenly happening? Just now something terrifying happened, and suddenly I am as awake as can be, lights on, sitting up?While I was trying to find an answer for these questions I felt the presence of those weird creatures returning and once again I woke up, back again in my bed in the dark where I was before. The real world. The real awake. 

The presence was heavier than before, and while keeping my eyes closed I wished for them to go away in my mind, over and over, never having felt this sense of danger before.

Then everything suddenly went over when an alarm went off. Lights in the hallway went on and entered my room through the door. All safety seemed to have returned, and I finally dared to open my eyes again.