The Truth Behind the Footsteps

Chapter 5: Time and Time Again

"She's good at pretending to feel nothing, she's good at hiding her scars from the world." ~Billy Chapata

It's not the fact that I know you're here, you notice me, and follow me everywhere, but maybe it's the fact that I'm not alone, and you're the darkness.

I don't want to get sucked into the darkness.
I can't. There will be nothing left of me.

+~~~~~~~~~~+

The small short breaths of someone else. The lips departing and drawing in the oxygen, the thick layer of oxygen.

The silent movement of the invisible, the steps.
The hand. It draws nearer. Closer. The figures slowly moved apart to touch the texture.

"It's you," my breath was short. She stared at me, drawing her fingers almost onto my mouth, closing in on me.

I held in my breath, falling back unto my pillow, trying hard not to be touched.

She grabbed my arm, her grip increasing onto my skin. Her hand was cold. I couldn't move.
My body was paralyzed. My mind, blank. I tried screaming, but my mouth just gave a small squeak. It was no use.

The voice was obscured, just the mouth opened. I wiggled around, trying to get out of her grasp. The grip squeezed around my arm tighter, too tight. I felt my circulation of blood almost pump slower than usual. Rubatosis.

The feeling of being self-aware of your own heartbeat.

That's what happened. My heart beat out of my chest, pounding through my brain, hitting my ears. I felt frantic.

I finally built up the courage to scream. It had come to his senses. The scream burst through the woman's ears. She vanished. I was left sweating. Mentally exhausted. And quite frankly scared half to death.

My room never felt the same way. Each night that followed, I'm pretty sure she visited.

A scar started to form around my deltoid. A layer of frozen skin in a shape of a hand print. With fingers and a palm.

I hid that from everyone. The little secret. The little word kept from the world. No one would know.

I was used to hiding these things. The pain. I wasn't raised to show my feelings. It's not like anyone would care what pain I would feel anyway. The little secret would be just perfect for the long list I'd been keeping.

8:36. Tuesday.

I'm an idiot. A terrible, stupid, no good idiot. The infection was getting worse. The skin peeled off pale, numb layers. I needed to tell someone. My head wouldn't stop thinking about the little scar. It was little, right?

No. It wasn't. It was large, and bulging skin. It was as if it grew on top of my normal shoulder.

No one would know.

No one had to.

+~~~~~~~~~~~~~+

She visited me every night. I never wanted her there. She would sit on the bed and stalk me as I slept. Sometimes the only thing you could see, was the imprint of a human sitting. Other nights, you could see her out of the corner of your eye. Peering right through me.

Days grew worse. I had been deprived of countless hours of sleep. The scar was getting more and more deranged. There was nothing I could do.

3:12 p.m. Two weeks after it all started.

Tears trickled down my face. I sat down on my carpet in my room. My hand resting in my lap. My heart hung onto the ground. I just cried— it wasn't a short cry either— long and deep cry. Those tears could have filled a bathtub; and then some.

"Ghost. It's me. Please," I choked on my words, the sadness sunk into my soul.

"I'm begging you. Answer me!"

It was as if I was screaming into the unknown empty space of the world. As if no one, but everyone could have heard me. No one that really cared. It was just to the world.

I was done. Done with the hiding of this little incident. Done with the problems. I was done.

But, the universe didn't care, they wanted me to suffer, to rot in my pain, to drown in my tears, to burst into flames. They wanted me broken.

Just like you.

A/N: Hi guys! It's been a while! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! And I hope you like the new cover I just put on! Thanks again @Humna20 for the amazing work! Please comment and vote on this chapter if you enjoyed! Bye! <3