New York looked different. I didn't remember seeing so many bright lights or tall buildings. It was the middle of the night, yet the streets were still flooded with beeping cars and flangers drivers. The sidewalks were beyond crowded, people constantly bumping shoulders and getting into each other's way. It was as if the city never slept. It was always awake and teaming with activity. It was fascinating to watch. Last time I was here, there weren't any cars or bright advertisements. There were gentlemen in top hats and horse-drawn carriages.
"How long have I been away?" I thought to myself. It couldn't have been this long. Even the streets were different. They're no longer the brick roads I remember. Now they're all flat and paved over.
So much had changed in what felt like such little time, remembering what the city used to be, was distracting me from my task at hand. I was supposed to be watching over the people, not the cityscape.
But the people looked different too. They dressed differently than I remembered. It seems they've traded in the dresses and suits for very short shorts and very loose jeans. Needless to say, it was a very modest choice walking out of the house dressed like that.
I was sitting on the flat roof of one of the many buildings on the block and watched the city below. I had a bird's eye view of the busy street, and even then, it was hard to keep an eye on everybody. It felt like the population of New York was growing by the second. How could everyone else do this and find it so easy?
Before my very unwanted decent, everyone else told me that this would be easy, a piece of cake even. But I wasn't buying any of it. There was an ocean's worth of people are, and I had to watch over each and every one of them.
If it was allowed, I would've said forget it and go home, but sadly that's not how it works. I was stuck down here until I had something worthwhile to report back to my superiors. I could lie, but that highly goes against my nature.
So here I sat, looking down and watching as the night owls went about their nightly routines. The night showed no signs of slowing down, car horns were honking, the sound of millions of footsteps crying out into the night, and the yelling of those trying to talk over all of the noise.
All this noise made my job difficult, every sound drew my attention. Every car alarm, every voice I heard, the tiniest of sounds made me turn my head. Each distraction proved to be just that, a distraction. There was nothing eventful going on, so I was trying to figure out why I was even here.
I understand that the higher-ups like to have us come down here and check things out every now and again, but why send me? After what happened the last time I was here, I'm surprised they even considered me. I begged them not to send me, I asked them to pick someone else, but they didn't have it. The only reason I'm here was that they pushed me off the edge. They literally pushed me off. It's a good thing I can't feel pain because my landing was the farthest thing from flawless. My face crashed into the asphalt, and my body curled to where the tips of my shoes were almost touching the top of my head, like a scorpion. Thank goodness no one saw because it was pretty embarrassing.
But I had to stay focused, I kept getting distracted. My eyes continually skimming over the crowded street below me, looking for anything out of the ordinary. The problem was, I wasn't quite sure what 'ordinary' even was nowadays. I've been out of the game for so long, a lot had changed. Whose to say the normalities hadn't changed along with everything else?
No one told me everything would be different before I left. They just said it'd be easy, and that was all. Not a single warning about anything, all I got was a wish of good luck and a sturdy push off the edge. I feel as though things would be slightly more natural if they at least gave me a heads up about everything.
One minute I was in my house asleep, then the next I was being bragged by my wrist to the gates. I hardly had enough time to make myself presentable before being forced out of my front door.
Today just wasn't my day, and everything in existence felt the need to remind me of that. So, here I sat, watching the population of New York City go about its nightly routine. It's a dreary, monotonous nightly routine.
I was getting tired of watching, tired of waiting. Nothing was happening. I've been sitting in this same spot since sunrise, and I haven't seen anything worthy of reporting. The most important thing I've seen was a cyclist running into a light post while catcalling a group of young women. They didn't seem to like being whistled at and were about to start yelling at him, but immediately broke out into big fits of laughter as he smacked the light post. Honestly, I had a bit of a chuckle myself. He did a full-on the front flip off of his bike and landed on his back.
Now I'm not going to say that I had anything to do with that, but it is my job to protect everybody. That also applies to verbal harassment. I could've handled the situation a lot better, but I figured those ladies could use a laugh. They seemed pretty sad from what I could gather, so distributing some "instant karma" as people call it, appeared to be a decent way to cheer them up. But other than that, it's been boring.
Well, it was until I noticed something in the corner of my eye. I couldn't make out what I was looking at since it was so far away and mixed in with the crowd. It seemed to be just another person, but there was something different about them, assuming it was a person and not just my imagination. To me, it just looked like a black blob. Like a grain of sand on the beach. I tried to squint and try to make out what this was, but I just couldn't.
I tried to convince myself that it was just another person mixed in with the mass of people. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off, that something was different about what I was looking at.
I decided to investigate, so I hopped off my perch and landed on the sidewalk below. Nobody noticed me. They couldn't even see me, despite me being right in front of them. Using this to my advantage, I began to bob and weave my way through the crowd as quickly as I could, but the blood was moving away from me, and it was moving fast.
It was like it had noticed me and wanted to get away without me catching it. It was probably nothing, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right.
Was it me being bored and paranoid? If that was the case, why was it running away from me? It's not supposed to even see me, so why is it running away? Is it even running away? If it was, where was it going? What even was it that I was chasing?
The strangest thing was that it rounded a corner and disappeared. Just as quickly as I noticed it, it was gone. I wasn't that far behind it, so how did it just vanish into thin air? I quickly looked around but couldn't find any trace of what is was it where it went. The alley it ran into was just like any other. Dark, cold, and empty.
At that moment, I knew I had to keep an extra eye out, just in case it popped up again. And somehow, I knew it would.
