The Fire

Chapter Two

Past

The first time I saw The Hooded Man was the first day of college in September of 2016. Leah and I were getting off the bus when I saw him, standing on the side of the road. He was wearing a black zip-up hoodie with matching jeans. The shadow coming from his hood covered his face completely, creating a black mask of mystery. It was quite obviously a man. The tall, broad stature told me that much, but I could see nothing else. He seemed to be staring at me. I looked behind me to see if he was staring at someone else, but no one was there. By the time I had turned back, the figure had vanished. There was nothing left of him. Leah was already at the front doors of the school, looking around curiously to see where I was. She hadn't seen the man and I decided to keep it like that. I didn't want her worrying about something that was probably nothing, so I ran to catch up with her, ready for our first class.

But that wasn't the last time I saw him.

That December, I was at Leah's house for her Christmas party, and he was there again. This time he was standing opposite the front of the house, doing the same thing as before. Just standing there, as if waiting for something. I wondered whether I was just imagining him, or whether it was just a trick of the light. But then he moved, he started to charge towards the front of the house. My instinct told me to run to the front door and lock it, the way he was acting sent shivers down my spine and I didn't want to risk anything. I ran back to the front window to see what he was doing but he wasn't there. He had gone again.

I did think it was weird. Obviously, because there was some random guy following me around, but also because of where he was. You would have thought that if he wanted to hurt me, or Leah, he would get us alone, not in front of a school with hundreds of students bustling around or in a house party with, again, plenty of people to be a witness to anything that could happen.

After checking the street in front of the house for the hundredth time, I returned to the kitchen where the party was in full swing. Faces of people I didn't know were dancing around to the heavy beat of the music with red paper cups in their hand. I scanned every one of them to find the one I needed right now.

Leah's.

When I finally found her talking to my friend Millie, I pulled them both to an abandoned corner of the room.

"What's up Sophie, are you okay?" Millie questioned, noticing the concerned expression on my face.

"Well, long story short, there is a man following me and I don't know who he is or why he is doing it." I blurted out.

"Wait, what?" Leah looked around worriedly and grabbed my arm, dragging me across the room and taking me upstairs to her room, Millie in pursuit. She hurriedly shut the door behind her and twisted the lock. We were alone.

"When did you first see this man?" Leah said.

"I saw him a few months ago, the first day of college when we got off the bus. I didn't want you to worry so I didn't say anything."

"You should have!" Leah paused and motioned for me to sit on the bed. "I've seen him too."

"You have?" I wondered why she hadn't told me but then I remembered my own reasoning and stopped myself from saying anything.

"I saw him the next day standing in the middle of the street. I noticed him when I was standing by my window while getting ready for school, then my mum called me to say we were leaving and by the time I looked back, he was gone," she explained.

"Well, I just saw him. Looking in through the front window from across the street, he stared right at me. I ran to lock the door and went back to the window, and...and he was gone."

Millie looked at us both in disbelief, before she sighed and said, "I'm sure it will be fine, just some creepy guy from school probably."

I hoped so.

I really hoped so.

He was also the last thing I saw on the night of the fire. Standing behind the glass patio doors opposite me was the silhouette of a man wearing a hooded jacket and jeans. He was shrouded in a cloud of smoke billowing all around him. His shoulders rose and fell rhythmically, his chest rising and falling with it. He was clearly unphased by the events. Seeming calm and relaxed. And in his hand, his fingers clutched the handle of a container, and in his other, a small rectangular object.

He was looking in, surveying the scene before him, as if watching the climax of a movie unfold. Just standing back and watching, doing nothing.

And that's when I collapsed. I still can't be sure if I really did see the man then or whether it was just the fumes of the fire manipulating me, causing me to hallucinate, or something. But this shadow was all we had in identifying the cause of the fire. We may well have been clutching at straws, but it was our only hope in getting justice for Leah.

Much to my dismay, that was not the last time I saw him.

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