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The night was cold and the sky was concealed behind a heavy blanket of clouds. You couldn't possibly see a single star in the sky.
Rei walked down the dark, empty streets of heartland city, trying to hurry back to his apartment. it's not as if he knew what could be right around the next corner though. It seemed, whenever he went outside, he felt as if he were being watched, but that wasn't anything new to him. By now, he had gotten use to it, even if the voices in his head told him not to. the voices in his head usually just acted as a warning mechanism for his skittish moments.
Whenever he was walking somewhere alone, he could hear footsteps following him in the distance, but whenever he felt the urge to look back, those voices would always tell him not to and that he should run. The voices would occasionally scare him, since he couldn't see anything when he did look back, but he shrugged it off.
Rei looked at the greyish brick wall he was walking by, thinking about the footsteps he was hearing. He listened to them carefully, hearing how heavy they were, and how they seemed to drag roughly across the sidewalk. He almost felt as if he heard breathing alongside the footsteps. He quickly brushed the thoughts aside as he quickly approached the old, shabby looking apartment building he lived in, and could hear the footsteps stop, allowing him to relax a bit, even if the voices in his head told him not to.
Rei scrambled around his pockets, trying to find his key. He didn't live with his family, so he (as you guessed it) lived alone. He could feel himself being eyed from the back, giving him Goosebumps, but he tried to shrug it off and continued looking for his key. once he had it in hand, he quickly unlocked his door and rushed inside, quickly locking it from the inside. He figured that if he locked the door, he would be safe in the confines of his own home. He definitely felt safer.
Rei's apartment was rather messy, having papers and some of his board games littered around the area. Slowly, he made his way to his sofa, pushing some of the stuff on it, off so that he could sit on it, not caring that it carried no comfort whatsoever.
He looked at dark TV screen that sat in front his coffee table and decided to turn it on, so he reached for a remote. He pushed a button, and on came the gaming channel. He slowly felt himself nodding off, but he snapped out of it when he heard a light knock on his door. Turning his head towards a clock that sat on his wall, he looked at the time. 11:58 PM it read. He decided to see who was at his door, but when he began to walk to it, the voices in his head told him not to answer. He just brushed off the voices and looked through the peephole in his door.
No one was there.
Shrugging, he walked away from the door and headed back towards the sofa, but just as he was halfway there, another knock sounded throughout the empty apartment room. he could hear the voices shrieking at him, telling him not to look, but he did anyways.
No one was there.
He just assumed that it was a group of kids, probably his age, playing pranks. He sighed then looked at the clock. 11:59 PM. The sofa looked very inviting to him, so he sat down and watched the gaming channel some more. As he began to relax once more, multiple pounding sounds could be heard from his door. He looked at his door as he heard little clinking and clanking sounds coming from it.
He noticed something moving in the corner of his vision, so his attention turned to it next. A face had formed into the wall, crying and shaking. Rei tried to ignore it and balled up on the couch, turning his attention to the TV.
He noticed that fuzz was trying to take over the screen. after a couple minutes, everything went silent. Rei sat in his dark living room, the TV being his only source of light.
He quivered, fear taking over his entire being. He almost felt as if he were going to break into tears. He slowly looked around the room, nothing was talking or moving. This was strange to him. never, have the faces in the walls, or the voices in his head left him alone for this long. His attention turned to his clock who sang the hourly song. 12:00AM.
The power in his TV went out. He tried to turn on the lamp that sat next to him, but it didn't seem to work.
He sat in a dark room for the next couple seconds before he heard his front door slowly creak open. Familiar footsteps could be heard entering his home. Rei desperately didn't want to look, but he couldn't help himself. Standing in his living room was a tall, dark figure. It stared at him, giggling for a moment, it's glowing red eyes wearing a demented grin.
Its head tilted slowly to the Left as it said "I found you..."
it began to approach Rei, its arms swaying with each step. Rei could hear the voices in his head, quietly whispering something to him, but he couldn't hear them over the darkened figures laughter. The voices began to get louder and now he could understand them. All they said was "RUN AND DONT LOOK BACK!!!"
Rei scrambled to his feet, dogging the figure once it made a move to attack him and he ran out the door of his home and down the street at break neck speed. He could hear it chasing him, the demented laughter following after as well.
Rei ran. He ran and he didn't look back, because he knew that if he did, that thing would be right behind him. As he continued on, he noticed a familiar house. Yuma's house. He remembered that Yuma had given him a house key, that of which never left Rei's side, so he began to pull it out from his pocket. Once he made it to his friends door, Rei jammed the key into the door knob, turned, pulled and rushed inside, locking the door behind him in the process.
Rei's heart was pounding heavily as he slid down to the floor, completely out of breath. Yuma's house is a two story house where the stairs are close to the front door.
He flinched when he heard a noise coming from upstairs, and he held his breath, hoping it wasn't that thing, but he closed his eyes just in case.
"Rei?" Came a familiar voice.
Rei opened his eyes to see Yuma standing at the bottom of the stairway. He almost felt as if Yuma had just become his guardian angel or something for a moment.
Yuma took note of Rei's frightened expression. "Rei, what's wrong?"
"I...I..." Rei burst into tears, almost immediately after, Yuma was at his side to comfort him.
"Come on. lets go upstairs." Yuma gestured to the second floor of his home.
Rei nodded, walking upstairs with his friend, still shaken up by what had just happened. On the way up, Rei told Yuma about the chase, and Yuma listened intently. Rei got to stay for the rest of that night, but when Yuma was about to go back up to the attic where he slept, he felt his arm get grabbed. Yuma could see that his friend didn't want to sleep alone that night, so they both shared the bed in the guest bedroom.
Morning approached at it almost seemed as if everything went back to normal.
Almost.