Watching...

• Yolandy Lu, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2021

Have you ever felt like you’re being watched sometimes? Well, I knew I was being watched. How can I prove it? Well, here’s the recount of my day:

I was just walking home from school as I would any other day, when I heard footsteps. Tap-tap-tap...I increased my speed and started to run. I heard the footsteps tap faster too. I knew my friends wouldn’t play a prank on me like that, so fearing for my life, I ran back home.

Panting, I locked the door behind me and flumped down on my sofa. Beads of sweat coursed down my face as my mind went through everything that just happened.

I turned on the TV to watch the news, but something was wrong. The screen turned blank and a crimson bloody colour kept on flashing on the screen saying ‘I WILL COME AND GET YOU…’ and then the screen flashed back to normal, but the news wasn’t. It was on a ‘Breaking News’ screen (which rarely happened) and it said that there was a stalker on the loose in my suburb.

The news also said that he’s been known to steal and erase memories from people and make those memories materialise in front of your very eyes...

Later that day, when my parents came home, I told them what had happened and what I’d seen on the news. They thought I was mad, but because I was their daughter, they decided to ring the police anyway.

A few moments later, they drove up to our house. They started to question me and my nerves started to show. My legs shook, and I hoped that the police couldn’t see it and after about 1 hour of questioning, they finally released me and I relaxed.

The following day at school I got picked up because of what I had experienced yesterday. I sat in the back seat of the car, with my bag resting on my knees, and my dog curled up in my lap, snoring away without a care in the world, when it happened…

My head started to tingle, and as I looked back out at the rear window, my worst fear was confirmed. The memory-stealer was back and this time he looked determined…

“GO!! GO! GO!!” I yelled to my mum. Confused, she looked back, but when she saw what I had seen, she immediately stamped her foot on the accelerator and we zoomed forwards.

Looking back, I saw policemen chasing my stalker down the street, into a narrow alleyway, I saw some of the policemen suddenly stop in their tracks and crumple to the ground as a terrible scene formed in front of me.

Wisps of smoke erupted from their mouths as their pasts started to form. A policeman was sneaking up from behind… was he going to catch him??? SNAP! The sound of that handcuff echoed through the now-empty street like a beam of light, flowing across the deserted and eerie street.

I was finally safe!