Not Your Usual Scary Stories

I Know It's There

I can feel it watching me again.

As far back as my memories go, it's always been there. Always watching. I don't know what it wants, but whenever I'm alone I can feel it nipping at my heels, eyes burning into my back. Daytime or nighttime, these things don't matter to my stalker. It only leaves my awareness if another person is around.

It has bothered me for years, and I've tried to catch it more times than I can count. Rapidly spinning around in long hallways when I know it's right behind me or locking myself in rooms with mirrored walls that show everything all at once; no results from anything. I had even found an empty field with nothing but grass as far as the eye could see, but no matter how quickly I turned I saw nothing but the endless expanse of green and my shadow cast long across the ground.

No one believes me. They think I'm crazy. Years of psychiatry have led them to believe that it is just a severe fear of loneliness, but I know differently. It is real. It has to be. Anytime I doubt it for even a second I can feel its malicious intent creeping back up through my consciousness. There is one last thing I can try that even "it" certainly cannot hide from.

It has taken some time, but I have finished construction on the perfect room. A perfect cube of seamless white walls, broken only by the soft fluorescent lights perfectly lining the edges of the floor and ceiling. I have finally created a space where absolutely nothing can hide. Even the door is crafted to disappear completely after being sealed, creating a space where even the tiniest imperfection will be immediately noticed.

Deciding it was now or never, I enter the room and close the door behind me. Naked, to be certain of accuracy, and alone I can easily feel it's looming presence again. I rapidly scan the room, often jumping to entirely new locations randomly, but thoroughly making sure I do not miss any area. There is no place to hide this time. My pace hastens as I frantically continue my efforts to catch it, always just out of my line of sight, but to no avail. It seems the doctors were right after all. I sigh to myself and glance down, eyes resting on my shadow, the only contrast in the room.

Then it hits me. My shadow? But there's light coming from every angle. I stare more intently and my frown deepens as my shadow smiles back up at me.

"You found me. My turn." It says, as it reaches up and takes hold of me.