It was late now—the sun had set hours ago, it felt—and I was standing outside, head tipped up as I stared into the fog-drifting clouds.
I told Lizzy I needed a breath of fresh air because there was some guy who sat next to us, reeking of cigarette smoke.
In reality, I needed a breather. Knowing that Jase was in there, two booths down, didn’t necessarily settle well with me.
After taking a deep breath, I exhaled, staring into the night desperately.
But that’s when it happened.
A shadow moved to my right, making me stiffen when I shot up, glancing in that direction.
But there was nothing there.
I swallowed something hard, breaths stilling when I glanced around nervously.
It moved at my right this time, and I cried out, flipping around.
But there was still nothing there.
“Jase?” I said then, guessing it was him. “What are you doing? Are you trying to scare me?”
There was no response… just the icy wind biting into my skin.
I swallowed down nausea.
A bush rustled next to me, and I scrambled backward, heart pounding hard against my chest as I backed off.
I couldn’t breathe.
What was happening?
But a voice came to my right:
“Little girl.”
I flipped in that direction, crying out.
But there was nothing there.
“Little girl meets her doom,” it said from behind me. “Can’t tell her that I was a few.”
I flipped around again, but still… nothing.
“Can’t deal with her beady eyes,” it said from my left. “They’d look so great for my disguise.”
I cried out and spun that direction, but the entire world was empty.
“Rip out her soul and flood,” it said from behind me again, “feast on her sticky blood.”
I didn’t waste a second.
I bolted inside.
Dashing through the night, I burst through the front doors and scrambled over to Lizzy.
“Lizzy! Lizzy!” I cried, scrambling to a stop at her booth. “Someone’s trying to kill me!”
“Whoa, whoa,” she said, glancing around to find a select few people staring at us. “Calm down, tiger. Take a breather.”
“No!” I yelled. “Outside! He was threatening to drain my blood!”
She just stood from the booth and caught my arm, dragging me back into the booth so I could sit beside her.
I tried to fight her, but she just pulled me into a hug and gently rubbed my arm up and down, trying to soothe me.
My breaths softened a touch, but my shaking didn’t subside.
“Remember what mom said?” Lizzy whispered gently. “Breathe slowly, calm your nerves, and then reason it out in words.”
I listened, gently taking in deep, slow breaths, and exhaling as she rubbed my arm.
After a minute or two, my shaking subsided.
The moment my thoughts settled back in place, a dark smile flashed across my vision.
I immediately looked to the booth Jase was originally sitting in, and it was empty.
My pupils shrank in fear.
But I was still calm, trying to catch my breathing when I gazed back down at her.
“Good,” she said gently, “now… tell me what happened.”
And I explained it to her, the voices, the shadows… what he said to me.
Lizzy listened through everything, clearly interested in my safety as her eyes dulled slightly in concern.
“I know that I used to have a problem with my imagination as a child,” I said desperately. “But it happened! I know it did.”
But she finally said, “I believe you.”
I looked up.
“To be honest, I’ve felt something off, too,” she explained to me, sounding much more calm and soothing than before. “But everything will be alright. You know I’m always here for you. That’s what twins are for, right?”
I just closed my eyes tightly and drew her into a hug, and she wrapped her arms around me, holding tightly.
I used to have these issues as a kid. When I got too nervous, I would imagine things happening. I would hear noises and see things, but they weren’t quite hallucinations. My doctor said they were dreams I would experience, and my mind couldn’t decipher the difference between dreams and reality. That this was a result of an anxiety and paranoia disorder.
I’d been on meds since, and I knew very well that I was getting better.
But this… this was different. It was in the same environment, and it just happened! I knew it did. It was real! I wasn’t going insane, right?
I gazed back over to where Jase originally sat, finding the mug of coffee still there and his form gone.
If it was him… it would make sense. He never really showed me a cute, cuddly side. In fact, he always sent me this smile that told me to sweat freely.
If it was him who wanted to kill me…
I intended to find out.
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