I was tired and my shift was almost over and I turned and looked out the window and there he was. He had his face, blank and white, nearly pressed against the window. Nearly gave me a heart attack.
I should have expected it, really. He always shows up when you least expect him to.
I was probably staring at him a bit too long, because one of my co-workers (Danielle) asked me what I was looking at. "Nothing," I said. "Nothing at all."
My shift ended and I walked outside. I didn't walk immediately to my car. Instead, I took out a cigarette (I know, it's a bad habit, but what the hell, I'm allowed to have them) and put it in my mouth, then lit it as I walked around the building.
I could see his silhouette as he followed me. For some reason, I wasn't scared. What, was he going kill me now? I couldn't stop that.
No, what I did was this:
I stopped abruptly and turned around. There he was, standing behind me, quite a bit taller than I was.
I took my cigarette out of my mouth.
And I blew smoke in that fucker's face. Or, well, his lack thereof.
"I'm not running," I said. "No matter how many times you show up, I'm not running. So just kill me now or leave me alone. Got it?"
It looked at me, as if he didn't comprehend what I was saying.
"What do you want?" I asked. "There is nothing important about me. Nothing at all. So why are you following me? What do you want me? Go fuck with someone else!"
He said nothing. As his silence continued, my anger rose. Until, eventually, I did something incredibly stupid. Well, stupider.
I put out my cigarette on his face. Right on his cheek. I just put it out. He didn't flinch or move, like he didn't feel a goddamn thing.
I gritted my teeth and threw the cigarette on the ground, then turned to walk away.
I felt a tentacle grab my arm. It burned through my sleeve and I felt a horrible sensation on my skin. I cried out and then felt another tentacle wrap around my neck and I though Oh god this is it, he's really going to kill me oh god.
But he didn't. He turned me around and brought me closer, as if he was studying me. As if I was a bug under a microscope.
He continued staring at me for a few seconds and I could feel the searing grip of his tentacles on my arm and neck. And then, just as suddenly as he had grabbed me, he let me go.
I fell to the ground and looked up. He loomed over me.
A word filled my head, filled my thoughts then. All of my mind was filled with just one word:
NO.
Was it an answer to my earlier statement? Was he telling me that he would never leave me alone? Or was he saying that I was important?
I didn't stick around to find out. I ran back to my car and drove off.
The last I saw of him was a pale silhouette in my rear view mirror.
