NO MORE THAN an hour passed, and I

was already starting to become

impatient. I was tired of sitting silently,

waiting for the man to move. If he

wasn't going to move, I would.

And if he followed me, I would run.

The lamp posts illumated the street

sidewalks, making the busy strip look

vibrant with color while the darkening

sky turned a gloomy shade of grey.

I didn't see the man move when I got

up.

Perhaps he wasn't going to follow me

anymore.

Yet that still didn't wash the concern

away.

I kept glancing behind me, as if

expecting to see him suddenly there,

head down and hands in pockets,

following me casually. But not once did

I see him behind me anymore.

I sighed mentally in relief.

Maybe I was overexaggerating.

Maybe he wasn't following me.

Maybe we were unfortunately on the

same planned path.

I pushed the thought away and headed

my way to the bus stop.

So much for a 'me' day.

However, I did pick up a small necklace

from one of the stores. It was small and

simple, but if you looked closer, the

necklace was deep in detail.

It was a golden chain with small

sculpted turtles decorated into the

gold; tiny blue sapphires resembling

each of their individual eyes. Nothing

big, but at least I did get something

instead of sit on a bench with a

random guy for the rest of the night.

I got on the bus once it arrived, which

was fairly quickly, and rode home.

After about 10 minutes, I got let off and

headed straight to my apartment.

Aunt Jodie wasn't exactly the richest

type of person, so we had to live in an

apartment.

After my uncle died, she didn't get a lot

of money handed to her, since at the

time she was a alcoholic and wasn't

responsible enough to take all the

money.

So, for about three years now, she's

been trying to get back to her normal

self, so she can finally inherit the full

amount of money that was rightfully

hers. I'm not sure what she did with

the little amount of money that was

given to her in the beginning. Rent,

taxes, food, maybe even more alcohol.

. . .

I quietly slipped into my apartment

door, careful not to wake my aunt,

since it was already 9:30 pm and she

went to bed at 8:00 pm.

I dumped my bag on my bed and my

shopping bag on my dresser, then went

into my closet to change. I looked at

myself in the mirror, slightly damp

from the rain that suddenly decided to

shower down at me.

  My hair was long, to the tip of

my tailbone, ordinary dishwasher

brown.

My face was small, but my eyes big and

poppy. My eyes had a circle ring of

hazel carassing the pupil of my eye,

then blended into green, which mixed

into blue, creating the outer ring

turquoise.

I wasn't fat. I wasn't a stick either.

My upper half was small; my shoulders,

waist, everything.

And my bottom half was where all the

weight went when I ate a

cheeseburger.

. . .

I climbed into the comfort of my bed

and wrapped myself up like a burrito.

In seconds, I had fallen asleep,

unaware of the bright light shining

into my window, until I turned over,

the light shooting me in the face. My

heavy eyelids popped open, only to be

blinded and forced to close again. I

jumped out of my bed, almost tripping

on my own feet as I put my arm up to

shield my face from the harsh light. I

got closer to the window, my eyes on

the blinders. Perhaps the lighthouse

light jammed up and got unfortunately

stuck to shine right through my

window.

I grumbled.

The lighthouse was old, and the light

wasn't replaced for over a year,

making the light shine a grimey

greenish color. However, the light

shining in was a piercing blue, so it

couldn't have been the lighthouse.

Nonetheless, I just wanted to pull the

blinds down and go back to bed.

Because heaven knows I need sleep.

I reached for the blinders and

attempted to pull them down, when

just above the pupil of the light, I saw

two crazed eyes staring back into mine.

I froze, wondering if it was just the

misplaced gleams of the light, but I

knew instantly they weren't, when they

blinked.

I must be hallucinating.

I rubbed my eyes roughly with my fists,

I didn't see anything, really, it was just

my imagination. I reached for the

blinds again and pulled them sharply

down, the light instantly disappearing

once it was shielded from access into

my room. I waddled back to my bed,

plopped down, not even bothering to

climb under my sheets again, and fell

asleep in a snap of a finger.

I couldn't get the imagine of the two

crazed eyes out of my head, however,

because I swore I saw them stare back

at me again through a crack in the

blinds before I fell asleep.