The Shadow of Fear

 

The Shadow of Fear

 

Her eyes were fixed on the clock of the class.

 

It was impossible, but she could have sworn to hear every single 'tick-tack' the clock made. The anxiety of finally being able to go home, to be save, got bigger with every little tick. Was it just her or was the clock especially slow today? She hated it. It was mocking her. Making fun of her fear. The fear she had to live with all day.

 

Then, finally, the teacher dismissed the class. It was exactly 9 PM.

 

As soon as she heard his "until tomorrow and don't forget to study", she packed her stuff with lightning speed and dashed outside. She didn't bother to say goodbye to her friends. She didn't have many anyway. So why bother?

 

No, there was no time for unecessary things like that.

 

Without looking were she went or whom she accidentally pushed, she just ran straightforward outside of the school. But when she reached the main entrance, she had to stop for a while to look at the sky and weather.

 

It was already late and dark, but on this day something was different. The sky had a strange gray-violet tone, it was gloomy, but windless. The air had an odd feeling as well. It was like the weather knew about her fear and tried to feed it with the unusual creepiness of the night.

 

Was everything  against her?

 

A loud noise made her come back from her daydream. Somebody had dropped some books, yet for her it sounded like a person falling of the window.

 

She shook her head and tried to suppress that image. That was ridiculous. Dropped books could never sound like a falling person. Over the time, her anxiety must have made her crazy. She was already seeing things.

 

But eventually she was in her senses again and could proceed going home.

 

She had to hurry, after all she had no time to lose. If she wasn't fast enough, then he would find her. She couldn't let this happen today. For some reason the day today was not like other days. She could feel that something bad would happen if he would find her.

 

For a last time she looked around the campus. Carefully scanning every place to see if he wasn't hidden somewhere. Hidden just to follow her later on. But there was nothing. Just other students recklessly chatting about the day and teachers going home. They were all so carefree and without any worries.

 

After checking everything, she began walking as fast as she could. She didn't want to get attention for running, so she just walked quickly. It was necessary that she was invisible, so he couldn't spot her too easily. She couldn't make it too easy for him.

 

While walking, she could hear someone shouting he name ,but it was just a girl, so she didn't bother to turn around and look who it was. Her safety was much more important than some girl, she probably wasn't even friends with. There was no time to do some stupid chatting or gossiping.

 

As she was walking down the streets, she embraced her jacked tightly. It had gotten colder, which was very strange, considering it was still early fall. But she knew today was different. It was dangerous for her to be outside. Actually there was no valid reason for that assumption, but she just knew.

She felt it.

 

The coldness made her walk even faster and she could already hear her heart beating fast and irregularly. But the most part of that heart beating was created because of him.

 

Sakamoto Seiji

 

She couldn't even say his name without trembling of fear and desperation. He was so scary, so terrible scary.

 

It all began when she first entered her current school as a new student. She wasn't even in the same class as him, but for unknown reasons he had chosen her as his 'destined love'. It started with love letters, flowers and even recorded CDs, where he proclaimed his love for her.

 

When was the first time, she met him? She couldn't even remember that anymore...

 

First his whole love proclaiming was pretty flattering and sweet, but with time he got more demanding and creepier. She didn't feel the same way as he did and would never, but he just didn't give up.

He was persistent, obsessed.

 

He followed her everywhere, stalked her and ones he even beat a guy named Takumi Kou up, just because he was talking to her. Kou only had been a American transfer student, born and raised in the US, but with Japanese parents and spent a year in Japan for school. He had  just asked her for the way to his next classroom,but after the beat up he had been sent back to the US.

 

After that incident, she had told him to stay away and to never talk to her again, but of course that didn't work out. He got only scarier. One time she spotted him making pictures of her while she was changing for Sports. She had called the director and Seiji got punished for that and for a while it even looked like he was letting her go, but in the end he didn't.

 

A short time after his punishment she found him staring at her again, grinning whenever she accidentally looked in his direction. Her sucess had been nothing.

 

He often followed her home, but since her parents were there, he never dared to make anything worse than watching her going in. But sometimes,j ust sometimes when she was in her room, it felt like someone watching her through the windows. Quickly she looked then outside, but never saw someone, so she just closed the curtains, trembled and cried herself to sleep.

 

It was useless to tell her parents about it. They either weren't interested in their daughters' live or were too busy with their own. She could often hear them fighting from her room and knew that it was only a matter of time until they would get divorced. They had their own problems and didn't have time for hers.

 

She had to deal with them on her own.

 

That she was suddenly thinking about her parents made her feel dizzy. So many problems were piling up. Because she was sunken in her thoughts, she didn't pay attention where she was walking and tripped over a crack on the street and feel.

 

Lucky her.

 

Fortunately, she didn't get hurt, but all of her school things were scattered over the place and she had to kneel to get them. The street light made it easy to find the stuff again, but she froze when she noticed one thing on the ground.

 

It was black and huge. In the light of the lamp,it appeared scarier than it actually was. It wasn't expended, it was perfectly clear and she could immediately see who it was supposed to be.

 

Right in front of her was  Seiji's shadow.

 

She stared at it and didn't dare to turn around to face him. She could imagine his creepy smile, thinking that he had won his little game. She hated his smile with burning passion.

 

"What are you doing my angel?"

 

She shivered when he called her with his favorite nickname for her. His voice was loud and deep. A bit raspy too.

 

"Don't you want to turn around to see your beloved boyfriend?"

 

Her heart was beating more than before. It was so scary.

 

She slowly got up from her knees and turned around. As expected he was standing there with a smirk on his face. His curly black hair was lightly waving in the air, his huge dark eyes watching her eagerly. Yearning for her.

 

He looked crazy. Everything on him was insane. Today it was even worse than usual.

 

"I-I'm not your girlfriend and you're not my boyfriend..."

 

She was trying hard to sound strong, but all came out was a weak whisper. Seiji's smile got brighter when he heard her. She was weak and he knew it. She was an easy prey for him. He loved it, when he was like that. It was too cute.

 

"Aww, how I love my angel's voice. It's so lovely."

 

His deep voice was beaming over to her as he stepped closer. She flinched and naturally stepped back from him, making him only smile more, showing all of his perfect, white teeths.

 

"My angel, what's wrong? You don't have to be scared, I just want to help you."

 

To show her, he bend down and picked up her pen on the ground. He played with it and tried to come closer again, but she went back every time he neared her.

 

"S-stay away from me you psycho...!"

 

He stopped for a moment and laughed. Even his deep laugh was crazy and scary. It was the first time she had heard it, yet she hated it so much. His laugh was making fun of her too.

 

Suddenly he stopped laughing and dashed forward. She was so taken aback, that she jumped back and hit her hear on something hard and tall.

 

A wall.

 

"Oh, my poor angel. Does your head hurt? Honestly it wasn't nice to call me a psycho. That hurt my feelings."

 

If that wasn't such a crazy situation, then she might have laughed at him. His feelings? What feelings? He was just a crazy stalker ,nothing more. How could he complain about his hurt feelings? What about her feelings? Her pain, her fear caused by him?

 

She looked at him, her eyes narrowed. He was too close and kept coming closer to her. She was in a deadlock, she couldn't escape anymore. Desperately she looked around, but there was no one, who could have helped her. It was deserted except for her and Seiji.

 

Alone.

 

Her glance to all sides was noticed by him and he shook his head as she was some silly little kid.

 

"Hm, there is no one out here. You know this place is pretty much deserted all the time. I know because I've been studying every single street you take to go home and this is the one where really no one lives. Isn't that wonderful, my angel?"

 

Yes, it was wonderful. Wonderful for him, but for her it was one of the most frightening thing she had heard in her whole life. Alone. And nobody would come to help.

 

"G-go away. Please! Leave me alone!"

 

She was in verge of a mental breakdown. How could he be so scary to her? He was just a normal teenage guy, right? He hadn't done anything too. Just his pure presence made her scared. He was...normal, right?

 

No, he wasn't. From his eyes she could see that he definitely wasn't normal. Those eyes which emanated pure craziness and obsession for her.

 

He threw the pen in the air, caught it and then suddenly rammed it right next to her head in the wall. She wanted to let let out a shriek, but he quickly covered her mouth with his big hand.

 

"My angel...How could I leave you alone? Don't forgot we're destined for each other! You're my everything! I can't live without you!"

 

He came closer to her, so that his face was just inches away from hers. With his other hand he started caressing her hair and face. He smiled to himself as he soaked in the scent of her shampoo.

 

"Ah ,how I love this smell~ Coconut, right? Did you use this shampoo just for me?"

 

Since his hand was still covering her mouth, she couldn't respond, but even without what should she have said? Her eyes were directed to him. They were watery and she only thought one thing: Please don't hurt me...

 

Even though he couldn't hear what she thought, he chuckled and ran his fingers through her hair again.

 

"My angel, don't worry. I would never ever hurt you! That's absolutely impossible for me! Don't forget,"

 

He bend down to reach her left ear and whispered the only words,which she made her almost go crazy in complete fear.

 

"I love you."

 

Some of the last words she would every hear again.