The car trudged over to the petrol station, finally having lost the little life left in it. Annie was relieved they'd gotten it this far, and after filling up on fuel, she planned to drive far away from this spot that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere.
Only barren land stood on either side of the road, with the merciless sting of the sun cutting into her skin. She moved back into the shade of the station, searching for any attendant to fill the car up. She felt a firm grip on her arm, and was yanked backward.
"Boo!" A man screamed in her face, although it hardly made her flinch.
"You're no fun," mumbled Danny, as he shut the flap of the camera, "if you'd at least pretended to be scared maybe we could've had a little footage."
Annie sighed, thinking how desperate they'd become. Being a YouTube personality wasn't as easy as people thought, especially when one ran out of material.
Now, she and her friend Danny had decided to take a stab at travelling in hopes of finding something interesting for the viewers.
There was nothing in sight except for a store nearby. One look at Danny's face jammed into his phone told her it was useless to ask him to check.
Although the place was open, she found no one around. The lights were on, the coffee machine was active, and the fridges were working, but it looked as if whoever had been there had vanished.
More so, Annie couldn't shake the thought out of her mind that she was being watched.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
She noticed a door open slightly behind the counter. Peeking further, she saw a computer screen recording. And if her eyes were correct, the person on the screen was Annie herself.
She saw her figure still standing by the counter, even though she was in the room by now; the recording indicated a few seconds' delay. Relieved, she was about to leave when she noticed the footage change.
Someone else had appeared where she'd been moments ago. It was a man; tall but with a slight hunch, and thin almost to the bone. He disappeared into a room as quickly as he'd arrived.
The only room to enter was the one she was in. It could only mean the man was in there with her. Annie swung around to see the man towering before her.
He was extremely tall in person, and had the most roguish features she'd ever seen. With grimy, yellowing teeth, several cuts and bruises on his cheeks, a ragged cap resting on tattered hair, and the overwhelming stink of cigarettes.
It was the manner with which he was looking at her that scared Annie. The man's eyes went up and down her body, as if he considered every inch of her skin as his property.
She pushed him away to head back out. She'd almost left before remembering she needed the fuel. Again, the second she'd turned around, the man was barely any distance apart from her.
