Haunted by the Past (Original)

Chapter 5

Thankfully no one was around to witness this, or no one I could see. I began to wonder how long would be an appropriate time to wait before giving up and turning my phone back on. I felt like I was watching one of those troll videos where you stare at it expecting something to happen, but nothing ever happens. You just waste a good five minutes of your life staring at nothing, and those are five minutes you would never get back. At least I hoped for that and not some stupid jump scare meme. Oh hell, it better not be a jump scare meme.

I eventually found my way to the exit of the parking lot onto Route 91, which had a few passing cars even at that late hour, whatever hour it was. I promptly started begging for this not to turn into some sick hitchhiker slasher story. I always swore to myself I would never be so stupid, but here I was alone in fucking Jersey in the middle of the night with no phone, so who knows? Anything was possible by that point.

Suddenly the LED sign across the road caught my attention. It started flashing an arrow pointing to the left. Confused, I stared at it for a while wondering if it had always been doing that or if it was a message specifically directed at me, because I certainly didn't remember it having a flashing arrow a minute ago. Then it changed to the text, 'Yes you, Dani.' Just as quickly as it had appeared, it reverted to the arrow pointing left.

"He can read minds now too!?" I exclaimed out loud to nothing but the cold night air. I figured it was too late to start questioning my life's choices, so I turned left and started walking along the side of the road, following the advice of a random sign in the middle of the night.

The road was reasonably lit, that is until suddenly all of the streetlights in front of me went out, except for the streetlamp on the corner across the road. "I'm sure that's a normal, everyday occurrence for New Jersey," I told myself. As I got closer, I peered down the side road and noticed all of its streetlamps were still brightly lit. I paused and considered for a moment the likelihood that this was a freak outage or guidance from a higher power. I shrugged, "I'll just know."

First checking for road traffic, I dashed across the road and followed the lit narrow road. It led me between fenced industrial complexes. The further I headed down the road, the more the road degraded. Watching my step between deep potholes and broken glass along the road edge, I had to look back and confirm that I hadn't actually walked that far off Route 91. No, literally the county cared that little for its road maintenance. New Jersey truly is a poor, imitation New York, but don't tell any New Jerseyans I said that.

After several hundred feet I came across a gate leading into a building's loading zone on my right while the road seemed to just end at a patch of grassland. As I neared it, the gate suddenly started to slowly roll open. I was so shocked that I paused, but the strangest thing happened. Even though my feet had stopped moving, I still heard footsteps in the gravel behind me.

I'm not alone.

Someone's following me.

I don't think my adrenaline ever spiked so high in my life. As I was ill-prepared for fight, flight was my only option. Into the dense, dark grassland with only a sliver of a crescent moon to guide me, or into the strange, unknown, but well-lit industrial complex? Nature never left me much comfort so concrete it was. I high-tailed into through the gate and ran between the buildings with my stalker giving chase after me.

Within a few yards it was clear whoever was following me was faster, but then he wasn't lugging a backpack. I dropped mine off my back abruptly, and just as I had planned, it caught my pursuer off guard. He tripped on it, yelling and cursing behind me, but I didn't stay around to check on him. The road into the complex reached a three-way intersection amongst its buildings. With no clear path forward, I threw caution into the wind, and turned right. Weaving between parked containers, stacks of pallets and crates, I searched for a way in, or at least somewhere to hide. All I found was a solid steel door with no handle at a dead end. I snapped around and saw a hooded man sauntering towards me, carrying my backpack by its handle loop. My eyes darted around looking for anything I could use as a weapon. In the corner I saw a broken heap of a pallet leaning against the wall and I snapped off a plank from it.