This world is full of paranoia. People afraid of living, and they have good reason to be, as I discovered not too long ago. I’m not talking about the paranormal or monsters here, or not even the dead. No the dead, the dead, won’t hurt you. It’s the living breathing people that we see every day that we should be afraid of. People who lay in wait for you in the shadows as you walk home late at night, the rapist, the online stalker, the burglar… these are real threats, more real than you could possibly understand. Never overlook these things, never underestimate them. Don’t think twice, question everything. Report it to the- Okay, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.


I, like my parents, have never been really “paranoid”, per say. I live in a calm estate in a peaceful gated community, surrounded mostly by the elderly. There is a neighborhood watch and guards who patrol the entrances and walls surrounding the area. So, we really had no reason to be afraid of anything within those walls. It’s when I leave those walls that my dad always told me to be on my guard. Never let the securities I feel on the inside affect my judgment of the outside.


Now, like most well respecting communities we have rules. These rules were created by the neighborhood watch to protect the residents within the community. The rules were simple; there were three: 1. Have your community I.D. on your person at all times; 2. No non-I.D. individuals are allowed within the premises without first checking in at the front gate; and 3. Don’t be out late at night, past curfew. I broke all three in one night, it seems, and I suffered the mental damage it caused me. Now understand that the story which I'm about to tell you is completely true. It still give me chills to think about it.


I go to a magnet school a little ways away from my development. On usual days I would take the bus to school just outside of the front gate. If it was a club day my father would pick me up from school afterward or I would take the evening bus. This day in particular was a club day, and we were preparing for a school event in which our club was participating in. It was also the night my parents went out to some fancy restaurant or movie for a “date night”. No big deal, I would get out of school at around 1:25, hurry to my club and get out at maybe 3:30 early enough to be able to still call my dad and have him pick me up before he goes to his date; or I'd take the evening bus at 4, get home around 5 or 6.


I went to my club directly after school and began working with some friends on decorations and posters needed for the event. A couple of hours passed before I looked up and realized that I had worked a little too long than I planned. Damn it. Good thing my dad was a reliable means of transportation. I finished up the poster I was working on, cleaned up, and left. I walked outside and pulled out my cellphone immediately and called my dad.
……..ring.
……..ring.
……..ring.
No answer. Crap, why wouldn’t he pick up? I tried calling again and again, still no answer. He usually picks up the phone quickly or at least upon the second call, that’s when it dawned on me. I looked down at my phone, it was 4:30. Crap, he must’ve already left on his date with my mom and assumed I took the evening bus. Where did the time go? I began to start to walk home, I knew how to get home, no problem. The thing was it was about an hour out from my development and the sun was setting quickly, more importantly my school wasn't in a very “good” part of the neighborhood. I pulled my jacket on closer and walked.

The light began to fade quicker and quicker as time approached 5, it started to get cold as I remember. Just as I was about to pass the third house from my school, I looked down to zip my jacket up and then looked back up… I froze. Something caught my attention in the corner of my eye. A figure stood next to me, almost close enough to touch me, I could hear it’s breathing. I dared not to look at it. We stood there for a good long while, I was frozen in terror. I got ahold of myself and put my arm through the other strap of my backpack and pulled it tight, “Excuse me s-sir,” my voice quivered as I choked out those words. The man stepped aside and I moved on. I walked for a block or so when I realized that my footsteps were making more noise than one person feet could make. I stopped. I remember hearing something stop behind me a second after I did. I was being followed, I shrieked in horror at the realization and began pounding down the street. Whatever was following me, WHOever was following me was now running behind me.

I realize now I should’ve joined cross country because I ran and didn’t stop running until I got to my development. The man who was chasing me stopped a long time ago once I ran into more populated streets, but I just wanted to be sure. Heart pounding I reached into my pack for my I.D so I could check in at the front gate, nothing, I had forgotten it at home before I left this morning. Damn. I moved along the outer wall until I reached a spot where a few bricks had come loose. The older kids would use this to sneak their friends in after curfew without having to go through all the BS at the front gate. I pushed aside the bricks and stepped into the development and replaced the bricks after I was inside. Home free. Man, wouldn’t this be a story for my friends tomorrow. I proceeded home.
Several hours passed it was roughly 7:00 and pitch black out when I finished my homework and changed into my PJs. I was still shaken up from the whole “being followed” thing and couldn’t help but feel that I was still being watched in someway. I double checked the house to make sure all the doors were locked. After going down into the cellar to get a soda, I settled down in the living room to watch a movie until my parents returned at 9. I turned off the light and snuggled under a blanket and eventually nodded off to the movie.

I woke up sometime later to a kind of rattling sound not to far away from me, my parents must be home. I opened my eyes and gripped my blanket. There was a man standing just outside of the living room window and moving along the semicircle structure of the room window by window. I watched him pass by on the outside of the glass, never looking in at me. He passed the last window and disappeared into the backyard. By heart was pounding. I reasoned with myself, maybe it was just a guy taking a shortcut through the backyard or something. Or maybe it was a guard, being vigilant with his duties, yeah, they can do that, right? I forced myself not to think about it. I forced myself not to move.

I stayed there frozen for 30 minutes until my parents returned home at 9. I sprang up from the couch and ran to greet them. “Wow you’ve never been this excited to see us!” my dad hugged me and began to follow my mom upstairs, he was cut off as my mothers scream cut the air. Her room had been ransacked. The bed was torn apart, and jewelry and other items were strewn about. When had our house been robbed? The police arrived and did an investigation. Apparently someone had made it into the housing development via loose bricks on the outside wall, then made it to my house down the street and broke in through the window in my cellar. Which means, the man following me...the man, who I saw pass by on the outside of the house, he...was actually inside.