Chapter Text
It was a cold Thursday night in New Jersey, around 11pm. Most places were already closed, other than some janky gas stations and the bar downtown. If you were like Frank, bored and with only one or two friends, your only option is to grab a drink, which is exactly what he did.
Frank was in his way to the bar, it was the middle of November and especially windy that night. He was dressed in long blue jeans that had a washed worn look to them, a black jean jacket on that had a few holes in it, some random band-tee he owned, broken in converse, and a pair of fingerless skeleton gloves.
He didn’t usually walk places but his car was out of gas and he didn’t feel like conversing with the bitchy workers at the gas station next to his apartment. So he took the 10 minute walk to the bar, the only sounds surrounding him were cars and occasional trash cans falling over from raccoons.
He eventually made it to the bar, the warm air quickly regulating his temperature. It was particularly busy, the majority being just old guys other than the few younger people around his age, not many tho.
He took a seat at the bar, where he is greeted by Evan, one of the bartenders. Him and Evan are necessarily friends, but they share conversation sometimes when the bar isn’t too busy.
“Hey Frank, how’s your night been?” Evan questioned while clearing some glasses off the bar top.
“Same ol’ same ol’” Frank responded casually in an almost exhausted voice. He looked around to see who else was sitting at the bar.
To his left, there was an older woman, tall ginger hair, a fur cheetah printed coat, and big scare sunglasses, she seemed to in her 60’s or so with noticeable wrinkles. Then Frank turned to his right.
There was a man there who seemed to be around Franks age. He was a very pale man, almost sick looking, yet his skin looked appeared soft. He had black hair that reached his shoulders paired with a side bang. He had a dark cloths on, black skinny jeans. A ever darker black coat, a t-shirt, and a black and grey striped scarf. He was drinking what appeared to be a glass of whiskey while smoking a cigarette.
Something about the man almost intrigued Frank, but he didn’t think much of it and was quickly distracted by Evan who continued to ask him questions. “You gonna drink anything tonight or just chill?”
“I guess I’ll have a budweiser” Frank replied lazily while giving his shoulders a shrug. Evan grabbed the beer and slid it to Frank who caught it easily and popped it open as Evan walked back over to him.
“Don’t you got any friends to hangout with of something? Or parties to go to?” Evan interrogated. Frank was internally embarrassed because truth is, no he doesn’t, he has a very private, boring life. He wakes up. Goes to work. Calls his mom if he has time, and then goes home to either watch whatever is on cable or go to bed, fitting in small meals (gas station hot foods) throught out the day.
“Well if I did then I wouldn’t be rotting here, would I?” Frank responded, half with attitude, and half in a joking way. Evan just huffed and shrugged his shoulders as he walked back over to the old woman.
Frank glanced back over at the man a few seats away. He noticed something on his face, some red spots, almost splattered a bit on his cheek. Frank had assumed it was paint, the guy looked artsy.
The man must’ve noticed Frank looking at him because he turned his head towards him, which cause Frank to quickly let out cough and faced downwards, staring at the floor. He just looked back up slowly, facing the variety of drinks in front of him behind the bar as he took a sip of his beer.
He wasn’t even staring at the guy or anything, he just happened to get caught when taking a peak at him. When Frank shift his eyes over to see if the man was still looking, he was suprised to see the he had vanished. -What a weird dude- Frank thought to himself as he took another drink.
Frank continued to have on and off conversation with Evan for a while he drank his beer and an additional one. He had to walk home in the dark so he didn’t want to drink much. So he payed and left. He walked out the door and was once again engulfed in the chilly breeze, seemingly colder than before. He took a breath and watched as it became visible when it hit the cold air. It was now 1am and Frank just wanted to curl into his warm bed and go to sleep for as long as he could before he had to go to work tomorrow.
He started his walk, this time there seemed to be less cars driving by, or at least Frank thought so. It was noticeably quieter. Jersey was not the type of place you wanted to be walking around at during this hour. Frank wasn’t scared, but he knew it was somewhat dangerous.
As he was walking, he thought her could hear footsteps behind him. The footsteps seemed to be walking at an average pace. Frank didn’t turn around to see if anyone was actually there because well, he had no reason too.
The footsteps began to get louder, and faster. Whoever was behind him was gradually getting faster and closer to Frank. Frank picked up his pace a bit, trying to assume the person behind him was in a rush. But the footsteps got even faster and didn’t move from their position directly behind Frank. Frank was only 5 minutes away from home at this point. He just tried to ignore it and tried to speed up as the person behind him was.
But the steps became closer and closer, they seemed to be only 3 steps behind Frank. Frank heard the steps louder than they had been before, getting a bit scared that someone was going to pounce at him he quickly turned around.
Expecting someone to be right there, he was shocked to see that not a single person was there. He was the only on that sidewalk. He swiftly turned back into his original direction and walked fast to his apartment. He didn’t know if he imagined it or not but either way, he just wanted to sleep.
He eventually made it back, finally shutting and locking his door behind him. He was too tired and exhausted so he just made his way to his bedroom, discarding his cloths and threw on a pair of pajama pants. Crawling into bed and trying to just get a warm good nights sleep and forget about his weird experience.