STAY AFRAID (A Horror Anthology)

#17 - The Shortcut

11:39 PM

It was almost twelve in the midnight when I got off from work. Obviously, I was doing some overnight shifts at this accounting firm downtown because it was the end of the month, and no one was free to do some extra stuff. I didn't complain though. The pay is generously good, and I was living alone in this apartment down south; basically, no one's waiting for me to come home. I grabbed my jacket and turned all the lights off in the office when I finished the last spreadsheet I was working on.

I called it a day, I thought.

11:47 PM

The cold wind greeted me when I left the building, reminding me of how late it was already. The old security guard who has been working in the building for more than a decade now bade me goodbye, and I did the same, smiling halfheartedly.

"Goodbye, Jason," he said politely. I just waved at him.

I was tired and cold and hungry, and all I wanted really was to just go home. When the chilly wind of November blew straight at me, I tightly wrapped myself more with my jacket.

11:51 PM

The taxi was oddly cold when I entered it. The driver asked me where I was headed, and I gave him my address. He didn't look friendly though, but who really cares? What I wanted now was to just go home and eat my fill and sleep. Tomorrow's Saturday, so I could just sleep in. How I love that. I picture my bed inside my head—the comfort and the soft blanket.

Maybe I could take a nap for a while. The driver sure knew where my address is.

12:18 AM

I was awakened all of a sudden by a loud thud and found myself catapulted towards the back of the front seat. I heard the driver cursing under his breath, loud enough to know that he was pissed. I rubbed my throbbing head and checked what happened.

"Sorry, dude," the driver started, "I think my one of my tires got busted."

He sounded really pissed but tried to keep his composure. I would be too if I was in his situation. How unfortunate.

I noticed that my apartment was just now four blocks away from where we stopped, so I told him that I would just get off his taxi and pay him still for the ride. He agreed at this and received my money. I intentionally put some extra; well, the guy looked bummed and stressed though, might as well cheer him up a little.

12:24 AM

One of my neighbors told me about this little shortcut to my apartment. I'd been using this for a while now, but this would be the first time that I would be taking this at this hour. It is this small alleyway between two corporate buildings which basically snakes out to our block where our apartment building is located. But at this hour, the alleyway looked dark (though not really because of the main road sodium lights) and empty, foreboding if you allow. It didn't look dangerous though, but somehow it didn't look safe either. Yet, this is the fastest route to my apartment which was now waiting for me to come home.

My stomach grumbled hunger, so I entered the alleyway.

12:26 AM

I was already in the middle of this narrow alley when from the distance, I could picture out a faint silhouette of a man, motionless, standing on the right side of the alley, and was standing with his back at me. I stopped myself from going further and suddenly had this urgent feeling that I needed to get out of this dark and empty alleyway. I just felt weird about seeing someone oddly standing in this alleyway at this hour. But before I could even turn to retreat, I saw the man slowly turning to where I was standing. My heart pounded when he did turn, and I did not know what to do next. I was not thinking clear. I was tired and hungry and dead nervous. What would happen to me? Would I be mugged here? Would he take my money? My phone? I prepared myself for the worst. However, the idea of maybe he was just a normal person after all who was just doing whatever it was that he was doing there and now would just want to leave this constricted passage. So, I froze to where I was standing, waiting for that man who could either rob me or kill me or who I could just say hi to if he passed by.