Across town in the afternoon, the final school bell rung for the day releasing students to enjoy the sunshine. I walk out into the brisk, crisp wind of autumn with my friend by my side. She wasted no time, as she rarely does, in starting a conversation about the ass-kicking our teacher gave to some of the students in the last period.

"I feel kind of bad for them. The project wasn't that easy y'know? Don't you think Mrs. Bass was just a little too harsh?" She asked me with that typical overwhelming sense of sympathy. She needs to be less of a people pleaser and grow up. The assignment wasn't even hard, they were just being stupid and lazy, so now they have to face the consequences of their actions. It just happened to be through annoyed teachers and bad grades.

"Yeah, sure," I answered, having to fight from rolling my eyes. I love her, but she needs to realize they never learn to just do their work. It's their problem, not hers. I was already tired when I got to school this morning, and Mrs. Bass just made my day longer than it had to.

Hannah was silent for only a moment more before she perked up to her usually bubbly self.

"So, are we still doing our Sunday study group thing?" She beamed up at me

"Uh, yeah? Why wouldn't we?"

"I don't know, sorry."

"What would you have to be sorry for? You did nothing wrong."

"Sor-" She cleared her throat to stop herself. "Um, anyway, see you tomorrow!"

"See you tomorrow." We parted ways, both living walking distance from the school but unfortunately in opposite directions.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

My walk home from school wasn't long by any means. It maybe took ten, twenty minutes tops, but that was it. It was a walk through my neighborhood. Houses in rows with clean cut lawns and dying grass. The leaves crinkled under my steps. Usually, I hear birds chirping and some rustling of trees as they flew around, but today was different. The road was oddly abandoned, even by the birds. The leaves made no sound under my feet, even the really crumpled ones. A heaviness started falling in the air onto my chest. I started to feel nervous, like I should be nervous. What do you have to be scared of? It's just quiet today, enjoy it. Despite what I told myself, it wasn't right. I knew I was wrong; something was wrong. I started speeding up, getting ready to turn a corner when I saw him.

It was a man shrouded in darkness despite the cool sun showering everything with light. The longer I tried to look at him, the more dizzy I became and dark spots would form in my vision. I couldn't make out his features, not even if he had arms, but a part of me didn't want to get close enough to try. The only thing I knew was he was insanely tall, he must have been close to at least seven feet. He stood in the driveway of a random house I didn't know. I felt the urge to run. Calm down, he probably lives there. You don't know. ...No, Jackie, stop fooling yourself. He's not normal. Get out of here.

I sped up my pace a bit, trying to walk as fast as I could without letting off that I wanted to run. The figure didn't move, but simply turned to face my direction as I finally turned the corner. I could feel eyes watching me as I moved out of sight. Slowly but surely the suffocating heaviness lifted, but I was still unnerved.

I was roughly a minute from home when I felt the heaviness start to crawl its way back to me. This time I sprinted. Legs pumping and using fear as my energy, I ran until I reached the front door. I fumbled with my key, the heaviness getting closer. A sweat started to roll down my face. My hands were shaking as I finally put the right key into the lock. As I unlocked the door, I looked around, scanning for the giant man. I didn't see him, but it was if I could feel he was near. I rushed inside, not wanting to stop and think about these feelings while I was out in the open. What is going on?

I nearly slammed the door behind me. I was shaking and breathing like I was out of breath. My thoughts were swirling in my mind when my mom poked her head out from the kitchen.