Short Stories

FEAR

Running had always given Lindsey a kind of confidence she couldn't get any other way.

That was why every day, before her morning classes, she ran.

One day, with the morning sun coming up over the horizon, giving a golden glow to everything, and with the wind blowing against her face, giving her a type of clarity not even coffee could create, she set out on her run.

That day's run was different though; halfway through, she noticed a man following her a few yards behind, matching her pace exactly.

She decided to cut her run short and headed to the apartment she shared with her friend since the first grade, and the man continued to follow her. She started to panic and sprint faster. She reached the steps to the apartment and pulled out the key, almost dropping it in the process.

Going against her instincts, Lindsey looked back and the man was at the corner, quickly closing in on the apartment, making her panic more and more.

She finally got the key in the deadbolt, unlocked the door, and hurried inside.

She re-locked the door, picked up her cell phone, and dashed up the stairs to the room that overlooked the street below. Looking back, she should have called the police right then, but she didn't.

When she got to the window, she slowly parted two of the blinds and saw the man standing in front of her apartment. He was speaking into his phone, looking straight at her.

Lindsey gasped and pulled away from the window, falling on her bottom. "I'm just paranoid. He wasn't following me, and he wasn't looking at me. It was all just a coincidence."

After a couple minutes, she got up, repeating this to herself the whole time she got ready for her class.

Half-an-hour later, she was driving towards campus in her beat up Honda Sedan when something on the side of the road caught her eye. Her pulse sped up, the same man, who she had thought had been following her, was standing at the next corner, keeping his eyes locked on her.

Without hesitation, she slammed her foot on the gas and didn't let up until she got on campus.

She looked for the man for the rest of the day, but didn't see any sign of him.

Later that night, Sayla, Lindsey's roommate, dragged her out to a frat party on the edge of campus as the "designated driver" for Sayla and the rest of their friends.

After the group went inside, Lindsey looked around for familiar faces. Finding none, she decided to go outside for fresh air and to get away from the overwhelmingly sweet smell of the wine coolers and the pungent smell of beer that was being spilled all over the floors, counters, tables, and couches.

She sat on a bench and spotted someone else across the yard, but shrugged off the sinking feeling deep inside her telling her that she was not safe, thinking it was just another drunk student.

The person started coming towards her and she looked up at him and went stiff as he sat down not four feet away from her.

It was the same man from that morning.

He kept getting closer to her inch by inch until he was a less than a foot away from her. She could feel his hand reaching out to grab her arm.

Right before he grabbed her, she snapped out of her paralyzed state, and made a mad dash for the front door of the frat house, but the man bolted after her not even three seconds after her.

Lindsey was running as fast as she could, but it wasn't fast enough, the man was closing in on her, the space between them slowly diminishing.

A few yards away from the building, the man tackled her from behind.