It was a rainy storm.
Rain was pouring down from the clouds, not sparing a single surface with damp water.
And you. Lucky you. Lucky you were standing under the school entrance roof, waiting for the rain to stop.
School was finally over and you just had to be greeted with rain. How fantastic.
You hated those algebra lessons, I mean who wouldn't? And the teachers too! Always so annoying and nosy.
"Who even is X and why do I always have to find it?" you yelled to the sky, anger coursing through your veins.
Everything stops. You realize what you done.
Countless stares turned to you.
Their stares morphed into scary monsters. Each with countless eyes gurgling at your anxiety.
Dark and gooey monsters crawled closer, each step sending a slam throughout the pavement. What's happening?
Anxiety took over you. A humming in your stomach was apparent. It was loud. Your breathes turned shallow and the rain became louder then it already was. You couldn't think straight.
I'm sorry. Please don't look at me. Please don't. I-I'm really sorry. I-I can be better..
Her figure appears in your vision again.
Her eyes boring over your body, riddled with scars.
The stares eventually stopped after an eternity and everybody moved on with their lives. The monsters disappeared along with the stares.
That was nothing. Nothing happened. Nothing happen- tears rolled down your face.
You couldn't face it. You couldn't face your fears. You couldn't face the anxiety.
The wind blew harder, stronger then it ever was. That caused the rain to go straight towards you.
The burning tears rolled down your face, the rain making sure to wash it right off. You begin to gasp, each one coming out ragged as you struggled. Your vision was blurred from the tears and rain.
Nothing happened. Nothing happened. You thought to yourself as you prepared yourself. Nothing happened. This is just a bad dream, you thought to yourself.
Well, that doesn't matter now, you thought to yourself. It wouldn't change that you would need to walk home in the rain. After all, nothing happened.
It was hitting especially hard today.
You look at your backpack again, hoping that an umbrella would magically pop out of existence. No luck.
So you stood there, watching as every other child gets picked up by their parents or goes off with an umbrella.
You're not sure why you kept on standing there. The rain wasn't going to disappear any time soon. You might as well get a move on.
You look at your supposed jacket or rather the lack of it. The bully at your school and you were too scared to face him.
Whatever, none of what you were thinking of mattered anyway.
You braced yourself for the rain and it hit. It hit like a truck. Wind blew into your lungs as if trying to purposely expand them to blow it out. The rain didn't help either, as it blinded your eyes again and made you choke on rainwater. Each gurgle of the rain felt as if you were being choked, again.
This was okay. This always happened. You were going to get through this. Nothing happened.
With every step you took toward the path towards your home, the darker the sky became. You had managed to utilize your backpack as a makeshift umbrella, which barely worked and it ended in your bag becoming soaking wet.
It would all be worth it, you say, convincing yourself that your smarts meant something. After all, nothing happened. What could possibly go wrong?
Moving through the dark streets of 13th Street, you look at the lamp posts. Beautiful, you thought. It's such a shame you can't admire the damp moonlight on such a day.
You finally arrived at the midway point of the journey back home. You might as well take a shortcut to get home faster.
As you decided to take a dark turn in an alleyway, you looked around. Dark buildings surrounded the alleyway and trash was everywhere on the ground. Typical. What else could you expect from a alleyway? A bit of red was on the ground too.
Wait, red on the ground? In an alleyway? You needed to run. As you turned back to run out the alleyway, you bumped into a figure.
"S-sorry, I d-didn't mean t-" you didn't finish stuttering as you looked at the figure you bumped into.
You looked at the figure. A tall figure, dressed with a dark black coat with similar matching boots and hood. A bit of darker red stain was near their boots.
You froze.
Skin tingling and your heart racing was all you could have felt. Your blood ran cold. You might die here. In a random alleyway. You couldn't take your eyes off the figure.
When you were little, you always laughed at the actors in horror shows for standing still when looking at the killer but it was different in person. You tried your best. You could not move. You tried harder. Your feet stood still. How could you judge behind a screen? Why were you ever this foolish?
Your eyes flickered back to the red stain. It was matching with the red stain on the ground, was it a coincidence? Many grim thoughts invaded your mind, imagining countless ways of your disappearance and death. You didn't want to die. You had a life to suffer through first.
Your eyes shift back to the figure. A still unmoving figure despite the harsh rain and wind. The rain clattered against the buildings and the ground but the sounds drowned out as you began to zone out, again.
Being practically several inches from the figure, you could feel their presence. A scary one. Scarier than the bullies at school. Scarier than her.
You began to feel cold again, but this wasn't from the rain. You began to hyperventilate, praying to every god you knew despite not believing in any of them.
Please. I don't deserve this. I'm sorry.
This was fear.
True fear. Fear that you might disappear, not temporarily but permanently. Fear that your life meant nothing when you're gone.
As the figure looked down on you, hot streams of tears were forming again. No. You can't afford to show weakness, nothing happened. Nothing happene- you thought to yourself.
This felt all too familar.
A dark glove was suddenly outstretched towards your face, with a crimson bloodstain.
You closed your eyes.