Torn Apart

I was running. I’d been running a long distance for a long time, but no matter how fast I ran, no matter how far I went, the shadow man always found me. He was always a few steps ahead of me, a few steps behind me, and he surrounded me, knowing where I was headed, even when I dod not. I always ran into traps and dead ends, which made my pursuer laugh maliciously as he watched me scramble around. My heart was pumping so fast as I was scared, terrified of what may come next. I stopped to catch my breath as beads of sweat ran down my face. When I regained my breath, I studied my surroundings, scrutinizing every detail. There were huge buildings that were so tall, they reached the sky. They loomed over you, dark and abandoned, creating an ominous atmosphere. Short, fat buildings were also crowded into spaces next to the taller ones. All of these buildings were desolate and run down, falling apart from negligence. The street that I walked down had big, meandering cracks, and the sidewalks looked just as bad. Debris was scattered all over the ground from the materials that had fallen from the surrounding buildings. Plant life was nonexistent as the ground was full of debris. Trees that once stood proudly were now bare and hollow. Vehicles were still on the streets of this city with broken windshields and dents, and some were on their side as if a giant toddler just kicked them over in a rage. Some streetlamps barely work, emitting a dull glow to gave me limited visibility. The lights did help to a certain extent, but the towering buildings still cast shadows all around me, in which the shadow man stayed hidden. He was in all of these shadows, keeping a close watch on me.

As I hesitantly walked, I came to an intersection. I did not know which way to go, as I could not see far enough to tell if the roads were dead ends. I made a right turn and noticed a yellow taxi car turned over on its side with flames coming from within. Looking behind me as I stopped, I wondered if this could be a trap, as this was the only vehicle down this road. My heart started beating rapidly. I couldn hear its thumps in my ears as I began to walk closer to the vehicle. There was a strange noise coming from the car. Maybe someone needed help. Walking closer, the noise became louder, the sound reminding me of someone hyperventilating during a panic attack. I got down on my hands and knees to peer through the window of the taxi. It was unusually dark inside, but it was still apparent that no one was in there. If there was, there would be some type of movement within the car. But if no one was in there, then where was that noise coming from?

Climbing back up on my feet, I slowly made my way past the car and saw a naked body sitting down in the fetal position. The way that this person was positioned made it hard to distinguish if they were male or female. The person had their hands covering their face as they made that horrendous noise. The individual also had no hair on his or her head, arms, or legs. This person was trembling with fear, as if they had lost someone or something important. I stopped in my tracks to process this image. I had seen this person here before, but this scene scared me so badly that I usually just ran away. Maybe this person was trapped here like I was.

Mustering up some courage, I took a step towards the body. “Are you alright?” I asked as my voice quivered.

The being did not make a noise, nor did it acknowledge my presence. Maybe my voice was a bit too quiet for the person to hear. Clearing my throat and raising my voice, I started again. “Excuse me? Are you alright? Do you need me to help you?” There was still no reply to my questions. I took another step towards this person and said, “Please, let me help you.” As I said this, I was in the middle of reaching out to place my hand on the person’s shoulder, but before I could, the being whipped its head in my direction to stare at me. This sudden movement startled me as I let out a little shriek. What frightened me most was that this thing did not have a face. This poor soul’s skin was tan, but that was as far as my description could go. Its head held no eyes, no nose, no mouth, and no ears. It was still undetermined what gender it belonged to because there simply were no genitalia. It wasn’t as if this person was injured in a fire or anything because its skin looked to be as smooth as a baby’s.

I took a step back, not removing my eyes from the disfigured being before me. He stood up as he made those terrible sounds again, only this time, they were much louder and sounded more aggressive. The ear-shattering noise of his panic, from wheezing to shrieking, echoed off the buildings that surrounded us. He started to limply walk towards me while raising his arm to reach out and grab me. I took a few steps back every time he took a step towards me because I didn’t know what it would do, nor did I know how strong this person was. One thing was for sure: I was not going to stay here to find out, so I did the one thing that made sense to me: I ran away.

As I ran away, I was running in the direction from which I came. Looking behind me, I saw the figure that I had encountered become swallowed by the shadows. Some of the streetlights turned off, making my attempts to escape more difficult. With the lights going out, I could not see where I was going and feared meeting the shadow man at any minute. Stopping to catch my breath again, I started having an internal conversation with myself. How do I get out of here? I thought to myself.

If there is no way to get out, then I need to at least find a safe place where I can hide, my thoughts responded.

There has to be a way to get out of here…

You know that you cannot leave unless he allows you to…

But what am I supposed to do? Where am I to hide? I asked myself as I scanned the environment around me.

Just hide before he finds you!

I frantically started searching down every alley and through every window for a place that felt even a little safe to me, but there was no luck in my search for a sanctuary.

Suddenly, an ominous laugh cackled, piercing through the shadows that surrounded me and echoed off the buildings and in my ears. I gasped as I froze, unsure of what to do next, unsure of what could happen next. My mind started reeling with the endless possibilities that the unknown shadow man could inflict upon me. My eyes were widened as I scanned the shadows for this man, as I could still feel his eyes watching me.

A light from one of the bottom rooms in the building to my left turned on. This was odd because I had never seen a light come from any of the abandoned buildings here. Curiosity overcame me as I walked toward the window where the light shone. My best friend, Ruth, was in the room. Black streaks of eyeliner ran down her face from the tears that were falling from her eyes. She looked to be very scared, and I could tell that she felt completely helpless as she searched the room.

“Ruth!” I yelled while banging on the window.

Ruth did not react to my yell or the banging noise on the glass, so I knocked on the window harder as I called out her name louder. She still did not acknowledge my attempts to catch her attention. She almost jumped out of her skin when the door to the room flew open with a ridiculous amount of force. My friend was standing in the middle of the room when she started slowly moving backward as her eyes stayed completely fixed upon whoever or whatever was standing on the other side of the door. As she fell to her knees, I could hear her pleading with an entity, begging them to let her go when there was suddenly a blinding blue light that engulfed the room. I was trying to keep my eyes on Ruth, but her figure became lost in the light. When the blue glow began to fade, I could see her lifeless body lying on the floor.

“Ruth!” I cried out while knocking on the window harder.

A dark laugh bellowed at my grief.

“Ruth!” I screamed, hoping to see her move, but she did not. As I stood there trying to grasp the concept of her death, I knew that I could not accept or admit it to myself.

The menacing laugh sounded again as the light from this room began to fade as if this were the end to a play. Staring into the pitch-black room, I couldn’t move or I think. It felt as though time itself froze, and I stopped with it. When the ominous laugh hit its last note, I felt a breath hit the back of my neck. Unable to move, there was a cold hand with unusually long fingers that grabbed my right wrist. My heart began to skip beats, and I was unable to catch my breath. I was suddenly spun around to meet my shadow man face to face.

This guy was huge, looming over my body at seven to eight feet tall. He had a black, hooded cloak that hid his face. His hands were pale, almost white, with a light gray tone to the skin. The fingers were long and spindly, and they were noticeably not disproportionate with his hands. He resembled the Grim Reaper without the scythe.

“Well, well, looks like the cat finally caught the mouse,” his deep voice muttered.

I just stared at him, unable to find my voice. I could feel his gaze burning through me.

“Aww, what’s wrong, Sarai?” He chuckled. “Don’t you understand why you are here?”

How does he know my name? I thought to myself in confusion and bewilderment. This guy that haunted me and tormented me had never presented himself to me before now.

“I know all about you, Sarai. I know more about you than you know about yourself,” the faceless man said with amusement in his tone.

Gazing up into the black void that shrouded his face, I still could not speak. My thoughts rushed back to the faceless individual that I ran into earlier, and to Ruth in the building that my back was now turned towards.

I heard a sneer in the shadow man’s voice as he spoke. “Your friend is of no importance. She was meaningless and pathetic.” He laughed a cold yet amused laugh as if he enjoyed my pain. “You have other more concerning matters that you must attend to, Sarai. Your little friend would only just get in the way.”

Rage grew inside of me as he talked of Ruth as if her life didn’t matter as if she were a nuisance. “Don’t you dare talk of her that way! You do not know her because if you did, then you would know that she is not meaningless or pathetic!” My voice trembled with anger. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

He laughed with amusement. “My, my, look at who suddenly grew a backbone!”

I glared at him. “You have no right to decide who lives and who dies in this world.” Or does he? I wondered. He is the walking epitome of Death.

The shadow man chuckled and said, “Oh dear, I am far worse than Death.”

My eyes widened, and my mouth almost dropped open. “How do you know what I am thinking?”

As soon as I spit this question out, his whole demeanor changed. He let go of my wrist as frustration washed over him, and he turned away from me. “This is why I cannot stand humans! Everything, all of the potential that you people hold, is completely wasted upon your entire species! The human race is so feeble, so ignorant to what lies in front of your noses! If any of you were smart enough, you wouldn’t be so weak! Wasteful!”

“If you hate our kind so much, then why am I here? Why do you keep following me?”

Looking back at me, the shadow man said, “Because you are a very valuable asset to my success.”

This guy is completely crazy.

“Do not call me crazy!” he began, enraged by my thought. “You are just a puny and sorry excuse of your dimension. Centuries!” he yelled. “Centuries I have wasted upon you, watching you grow, learning your secrets, waiting for you to gain the strength to carry out my plans!”

“What do you mean, centuries, and what makes you so sure that I would even help you?”

He laughed. “Don’t you ever think that you are capable of deceiving me, Sarai. I know where you are, I know what you think, I know what breaks you and what makes you give in. I know all of your failures, even ones you have forgotten. So don’t you dare even think you are smart enough to mislead me.”

“Well, obviously, if I am the only person that can help you, then you have no choice but to take my word for what it is. And if I choose not to help you, you may lock me up, you may torture me, but you cannot kill me.”

“Me? Not kill you?” He laughed uncontrollably. “My dear, I honestly do not care whether you live or die. It is rather an annoying inconvenience when you die, but you always turn back up. Even so, you make it rather easy for me to find you.”

Perplexed, I just stared inquisitively at the figure standing before me. “What do you mean I always turn back up?”

His amusement started to become overshadowed by irritation with me and my questions. He turned away from me again, maybe trying to grasp his sanity, I didn’t know, but since he had his back to me, I decided to take this opportunity to run. I ran down the street, trying to find a way out of this place. There at least had to be somewhere I could go to get out of this abandoned city.

As I ran, I took many turns into alleys and streets, thinking that this would make it even more difficult for the shadow man to keep up with me. When I felt that I was a good distance away from this man, I stopped running and walked as I scrutinized my surroundings.

A deep, hysterical laugh sounded from all of my surroundings. I could feel his stare watching me. “You cannot run from me, Sarai. You cannot hide from me.” His voice and laugh chased me everywhere I went.

Suddenly, I ran right into him. His hand gripped around my throat as I gasped for air. His grip tightened as he raised me by my throat and slammed my back against the building behind me. Laughing his wicked chuckle, he then said, “Found you!”

“Who are you?” I croaked, trying to breathe as my hands grabbed at his wrists.

“My name is Silas, and you, Sarai, are coming with me. You are mine!” His voice grew dark as he claimed me as his.

“No!” My voice croaked again at his possessive command.

He brought his face close to mine. “Why do you say no, my dear? Don’t you want to live with me as you cater to my every demand?”

I said nothing to Silas, as I could not breathe. Struggling for air, panic overcame me as my mind started racing through everything that had happened throughout my whole life that had led up to now. I was now convinced that this guy was going to kill me, since my life started flashing before my eyes.

Silas started laughing again at my pain, at my struggle to stay alive. “You humans are so entertaining when you are inches away from death. The way you squirm, the way your minds wander as you cannot keep a clear thought in your little heads.” Suddenly, he grew disgusted as he said, “So pathetic.” And he let me drop to my knees. “My people can tear through yours like you are nothing but tissue paper. How can someone like you be placed in a world like this? So filthy and dishonorable. No pride, no strength—only weakness and beggary.”

Throughout his speech, I was coughing until I was finally able to inhale the air that my lungs desperately craved. I finally was able to speak. “Why do you speak as though you are so different? Look at everything you have just done and what you have been doing to me since I was four! What are you compared to me? A demon?”

This tickled Silas as he laughed uncontrollably. “My dear, I am far worse than what you humans consider to be demons.”

Anxiety washed through me by this statement. Something inside me told me that his words were true. My eyes never left the tall, shadowy figure that stood before me. I began to feel sick as this man laughed at my weakness, at my whole existence.

“You people do not even realize the things that are around you. All of you are certain that you are the only living beings throughout the universe. When I, my darling, live in a place much like this, tucked right beside yours. That is why you are important to me. You will help me rise to greater power, as well as bring me greater strength. My abilities will be something that no one can imagine and all will envy,” Silas carried on with his speech proudly, but I wasn’t listening.

My mind was trying to process this information. What is he talking about? How do I have the ability to carry out what he wants? I would love to know how I could harvest such an ability, but at the same time, I do not want to know. If I knew how to do these things, then it would only benefit him. If I knew what I was capable of and how to use these abilities, then I risk the chance of putting everyone and everything in danger. “What do you mean you come from a place that is tucked beside mine? Are you talking of a different dimension?”

Silas became amused. “My dear, haven’t you wondered why you are so different from everyone else?”

I did not respond. Of course, I always wondered how and why I could do the things I was able to do.

As Silas was about to start another speech, one of the streetlights began to flicker to the left of us. We both looked toward the flickering light and noticed a figure standing there. It was obvious that this person was a male by his height and build. “Let her go!” the stranger demanded. The man looked to be about my age with shoulder-length black hair. In the way he held himself, you could tell that he was a leader and feared very little, if anything at all.

Silas grew angry and irritated at this man’s presence. “What are you doing here?” he hissed.

I wondered how these two knew each other.

The mystery man walked closer, and I could now see his eyes. They were a beautiful green with a dark yellow that bordered his pupils. His head slightly tilted downward, and his eyes grew dark. “I said, let her go. NOW.” The stranger’s voice rang with power.

As he grew nearer, I felt safe. I felt as though I could relax, as though he were someone who I could trust. There was something different about this man, and I felt that there was some sort of connection between us that I could not explain. It was as if there were this invisible tether that pulled harder as he drew nearer. I began to take a step closer to him, hypnotized by this mysterious person and feeling, when Silas pushed me against the building, smacking my head against the wall.

He ran off, and my stranger went after him as I dropped to my knees, grabbing my head. My head ached, and my heart felt like it was beating in my head. The sound echoed in my ears while every beat crippled me with pain.

Suddenly, there was a hand on my shoulder. It startled me, but I didn’t move, ignoring everything around me as the pain in my head consumed my full attention.

“Are you alright?” my handsome stranger asked with his tone filled with concern.

“My head is killing me, but I’ll be fine,” I replied before looking up at him.

“Wow, you have a pretty good-sized bump on your head already.”

Blood rushed to my face as I became embarrassed by this.

He smiled, showing his straight white teeth. His smile was contagious, as I started smiling back at him.

“Thank you for running Silas off,” I said. There was a moment of silence as he didn’t respond but just looked deeply into my eyes. “What is your name?” I asked, trying to break the awkward silence.

“Rory.”

“I’m Sarai.”

Rory smiled and said, “I know who you are, my love.”

“How does everyone here know who I am?” I asked, perplexed with a little aggravation.

“Right now is not the time nor place to answer that,” Rory responded as he looked around in the shadows that surrounded us. Rory put his hand out to help me to my feet.

When our skin touched, there was an intense, electrifying sensation that ran through my body. It was exhilarating, and even though I did not quite understand it, I did not want it to stop. Before I could question this feeling out loud, Rory began to speak.

“You are still so beautiful.” My heart skipped a beat as he caressed my cheek, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

Clearing my throat, I struggled to find what to say. I knew I wanted to ask about this feeling that occurred when we touched, but between that and him telling me I was beautiful, I could not make any words come out of my mouth.

Rory just smiled at me.

“Why do you call me ‘love’?” I finally managed to say, even though this was not what I truly wanted to ask. The fact was I did not care that he called me this. Whenever Silas was calling me ‘dear’ and ‘darling,’ my blood began to boil as I grew angry. But when Rory called me his ‘love,’ my heart skipped a beat.

His smile was still upon his face, not offended by my question in the least. “You will find out soon enough, my love.” He paused for a second before continuing, “When I find you.”

I was confused by what he said and just stared at him like an idiot.

Rory started to slowly lean his head towards mine, as if he were about to plant a kiss on my lips. As he grew closer and closer, my heart started to beat faster and faster. My face grew hot as blood rushed to it again. Butterflies started flapping their wings at an immense speed in my stomach. Rory’s lips were almost touching mine as I waited in anticipation when suddenly, I woke up.

My eyes flew open, and I realized that I was now staring at my bedroom ceiling instead of Rory. Why do I always wake up before the good parts? I looked over at my alarm clock. It was four o’clock in the morning. Deciding to get up, I was struck with a nauseating pain in my head that made me fall back onto my pillow.

I placed my hands over my eyes, mostly from habit, to see if this would help alleviate the pain. After a few minutes, I still had sharp, shooting pains running through my head but decided to get up and go for a walk.

Walking into the bathroom, I brushed my long blonde hair and styled it in a side braid. When I finished, I looked at myself in the mirror for a minute, staring into my own jade-colored eyes and trying to keep myself calm. I tried not to think of anything, but the house was so quiet, I needed to hurry and leave. After brushing my teeth, I got dressed and made sure to grab my cell phone and my MP3 player.

In the dark hallway, I could hear my father snoring in his room, so I had to tip-toe through to the living room and sneak out the front door. I did not want to disturb my parents because they had already been through a lot with my nightmares, and there was no need in worrying them about something that could not be fixed. Usually, after I woke up from these types of dreams, I snuck out and went for a walk to try and clear my head.

Time is a funny concept because as it moves, it inevitably distorts your perception of reality. Three months seems like years behind me now, yet I can still remember the day my whole life changed. There was something different in the air that fateful day. I could feel that there was some type of energy that was foreign to me.

The weird sensation, I know, had nothing to do with my nightmare that woke me up that morning because there was nothing unusual about it. I had lived that same hellish dream sporadically since I was four years old, with its occurrence becoming more and more frequent as the years went by. My parents were always worried about me because of my night terrors. They had brought me to doctors to see if there was anything they could do, but no matter what we did, nothing helped. Since there was nothing that could be done, I stopped telling my parents about the dreams. They knew that I still had them, but I never told them when I did because there was no point in worrying them about something that could not be fixed.

I can still remember the cold winter New Jersey breeze that cut through me like daggers when I walked out of my house. It was mid-January, so I made sure to bundle myself up in a few layers of coats and my favorite scarf. As I walked alone, the snow beneath my feet crunched loudly with every step I took. Everything still looked as if Christmas was about to arrive, and the joyful energy was still fresh in the air.

The neighborhood houses had snow covering the rooftops, and many had snowmen that their children created in their front lawns. Everyone was still fast asleep in their homes, all bundled up and warm, having beautiful dreams. The moon and stars were hiding behind the dark, overcast clouds that hung heavy in the sky. My only light came from the streetlamps that lined the roads and sidewalks in the little suburb. As I walked, the city started to come into view, so I decided to listen to my MP3 player.

Usually, it was not a very good idea to not pay attention to anyone while in a city alone, but there were very few people awake at this hour, so the traffic was very little. Another reason I felt comfortable not paying attention to those around me was that I can hear people’s thoughts. As if I wasn’t different enough with nightmares that continuously repeat themselves, I also was burdened with other people’s prying thoughts invading mine. My best friend, Ruth, told me that I was fortunate to have this ability, but I did not want to hear what everyone thhought. Most people believed that this would be useful, especially as a teenager in high school because tests were easy, and you always knew what was going on around you, but the truth was it was hell.

The only thing that kept me a little sane even with lack of sleep and my telepathy was that I had found a way to block others' thoughts. It was not an effective method because it took a toll on me and led to horrible migraines. This was why my MP3 player could be useful, as long as it was turned up loud. It did not cut everyone’s internal dialogue completely, but with the volume turned up, it gave me something else to focus on, and everything else became a low lull.

I walked to the park and took a seat on a bench. The sun started to rise, and the number of passersby began to increase as they started on their ways to work or to purchase breakfast. I sat there and watched them without thinking of anything and trying to ignore the unusual feeling that I was having. Listening to my music, I watched the sunrise and decided to get up and walk around until I became tired or was ready to go home.

Over the years, I had had numerous jobs since I was seventeen, but my telepathy made it hard for me to keep a job. While working, I did not always have the means to block out everyone, and some people’s thoughts could make you feel completely uncomfortable. I had had bosses who had disgusting thoughts about wanting to have sex with me, and some co-workers had the same thoughts and would also have terrible thoughts about each other. Some of these people made me feel like I was in high school again with their fake smiles and dreadful thoughts. I just found it easier to quit than to listen to what they could not vocalize.

It was about eight o’clock in the morning when I decided to leave the park and wander around the city, still listening to my MP3 player. The streets and sidewalks were now crowded with people trying to go on with their lives. While I navigated the city ignoring everyone around me, I can remember thinking about how I needed to find myself a job and trying to plan out how I would even be able to manage this with my gift.

While I was walking, a strange building I had not noticed before caught my eye. It was a one-story building made of bricks and had very large floor-to-ceiling windows in front. Some stairs led up to a front door that was extremely old. The building was new to me, but what made me really look at it was the vibe I was getting from it. I started to feel like the reason I walked mindlessly to this place was that it gave me the same feeling I woke up with that morning. The building looked almost like it was abandoned, but it was kept up well.

I began to venture up the stairs after examining the outside for a few minutes. This place did not fit in with all the other buildings that surrounded it. I knew that I needed to investigate. As I started to take my third step on the staircase, I did not realize how icy the ground was and slipped. Before I was able to grab hold of something, hands were grabbing my sides from behind, and my earbuds fell out of my ears.

“You should really be more careful,” a familiar voice said coolly.

I turned my head quickly to see who it was. “Asher, what are you doing out here?” I asked with astonishment. “Last I heard, you moved away—without telling me, I might add,” I replied with joking annoyance.

Asher smiled the same mischievous smile that I had grown accustomed to. “I’m sorry about that. It was a last-minute plan, and if I would have waited, then I never would have left this place.”

Smiling, I hugged him. “I forgive you,” I replied teasingly. “You must tell me all about where you went and what you were doing!”

Asher’s eyes dropped for a moment. Is he upset about something? It almost looks as if he doesn’t want to tell me something.

I had known Asher since our freshman year in high school. He was the new kid in town back then, and everyone seemed to be intimidated by him. All the guys were threatened by him because of his strength. He was a stocky guy, and they were jealous of this and his good looks. His muscles, high cheekbones, short black hair, and piercing blue eyes made him a very attractive person. The girls in school were interested in him, but they were so afraid of his beautiful eyes that they blushed and tried to run away from his gaze. Asher could look at you and make you feel guilty for doing absolutely nothing wrong, and other times, it was almost as if he was looking straight through you. While everyone else was feeling unsettled by the new guy, I was intrigued by him.

Asher was the only person who I had ever met whose thoughts I could not hear, even if I tried. At first, this frightened me because there was something about the whole situation that was off. I could remember he would follow me around, almost as if he were watching me closely. A few times, I did try to listen to his thoughts, but nothing came of it but silence. I felt as if I were trapped, as if the only thing useful for protecting me had been stripped from me. After a few weeks, I decided to take a leap of faith and befriend him; if I couldn’t hear his thoughts, then at least this way, I would be able to figure out what he was up to the same way everyone else had to, and if he wasn’t up to anything, then at least I had a friend who did not have every detail of their life laid out on the table. The latter detail of our friendship was a bonus for me because he made me feel normal. I could not hear anyone else while he was around. While Asher was my friend, I never told him about my nightmares or my telepathy. Something inside me always told me that I shouldn’t tell him about any of it.

“It’s really not important, Sarai,” he stated. “What have you been doing since the last we saw each other?” It was fair to say that Asher was not particularly a loquacious person. He never really spoke of himself, nor would he talk excessively about anything.

I decided not to nag him about what he had been doing for the past three years and answered his question. “Nothing much. I have just been looking for a job and quitting multiple jobs.”

He smiled. “Do you work at this place?”

I looked up at the building that had piqued my interest before Asher had caught me. The building still gave me a weird feeling, and I had completely forgotten about it until he had pointed it out. “No. I just thought this place seemed different from all the other buildings, so I was just going to see what was inside it.”

“How does it seem different exactly? This place has always been here. It has been abandoned for years. There really isn’t anything special about it.”

“I don’t know how to explain it.”

Asher grabbed me by the hand. “Come on, I’ll show you that there is nothing important about it.”

We walked up to the building, and my heart started to race for some reason. I was not feeling scared or anxious, yet my heart felt like it was about to jump out of my chest. First, Asher peered through the window, and then I followed. There was nothing inside the dark, dusty place except for old furniture that was turned on its side. It looked like it had been ransacked years before.

Just as I was about to turn around, I thought I saw a dark shadow flitter from the big open room through a hallway. “What was that?” I asked aloud, not expecting Asher to know what I was even talking about.

“What?” he asked in return. The tone of his voice sounded slightly curious but mostly bored.

“Nothing…Let’s get out of here,” I replied, wanting to get away from this place as soon as possible. If there were something in there, I did not want to stay and figure out who or what it was. I wasn’t afraid of getting in trouble; hell, we weren’t doing anything wrong, but I certainly did not feel the need to stay with every fiber of my being telling me to get away.

“No, now, I’m curious. We should find a way inside. Maybe there is some cool stuff that we can grab,” Asher replied, looking for a way to get inside.

“You can stay and look if you want to, but I’m leaving,” I said bluntly as I started to turn to walk away.

Asher grabbed me by my arm. “Don’t leave me here alone! You were the one who thought this place curious enough to investigate.”

“Well…I changed my mind.” I couldn’t possibly tell him why I felt the need to get away from this place now. He would just laugh at me, call me crazy, or just tell me that I was just letting my imagination run wild.

“Come on, let’s find a way inside,” he replied, pulling me behind him as we walked around the building.

“Asher, I do not feel comfortable doing this.” Just as I finished my sentence, my phone started to ring. “Sorry, Asher, I need to take this,” I told him after looking at my phone. It was my mother.

“Where are you?” my mother’s worried voice asked when I answered.

“I’m hanging out with a friend. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I was just seeing where you were. Did you have a bad dream again?”

I paused for a minute. “No…I just needed to go for a walk is all.”

“Alright,” she said with a sigh. I knew my mother did not believe me.

“I’ll call you back after a little while. Bye.”

After I got off the phone with my mom, I turned back around to see where Asher had got off to, but he wasn’t outside the building. There was no sign that he had walked off or even found a way inside the place. I couldn’t find any footsteps in the snow that led away from where we were or anything. After a few minutes of looking and waiting, I figured he may have ditched me and felt that I should just leave.

Walking down the stairs back to the sidewalk, I felt as though I were standing in the middle of a roaring stadium as everyone’s thoughts started to blend. My eyes started to dart back and forth as I couldn’t focus on one thing. People began to stare at me with judgmental glances, and their voices engulfed me. I started to feel trapped and panicked, standing alone on the sidewalk. My breath became short and rapid with every inhale becoming harder to grasp. I felt as though I couldn’t move, and my heart started beating rapidly. Pain shot through my chest as my heart began to beat out of rhythm. Tears started to fill my eyes, and my hands felt cold, then started to sweat and shake. I needed to leave. I needed to get away from everyone before I passed out, but my feet felt as if they were cemented to the sidewalk, and my legs felt like jelly.

“Are you alright, Sarai?” Asher’s voice asked from behind me.

I couldn’t respond. The voices had stopped, but when did their thoughts disappear? How long had he been standing there? I started to calm down. My hands stopped shaking, and my breathing became less erratic, but I still couldn’t take a deep, good, fulfilling breath.

“Sarai?” Asher replied, standing in front of me and placing his hands on my shoulders. He looked into my eyes for a moment before saying, “Come on, we need to get you out of here.” Placing his arm around my waist, he slowly walked me down the street, away from everyone.

After a few blocks, I finally started feeling better. “Asher, where did you go?”

“I went inside that building you wanted to investigate.”

“But I waited for you a long time.”

He didn’t say anything at first, looking straight ahead to avoid eye contact. “I had just gone inside. When I came out, I saw you having a panic attack of some kind. Everyone was staring at you like you were crazy, so I hurried down to help you.”

“It’s not the first time I made an ass of myself in public. But I figured you snuck off while I was on the phone, so I thought I should leave.”

“Why would I do that?”

I didn’t say anything in response. The truth was Asher seemed like a flaky person. Even though we were friends in high school, we never really hung out in our spare time. Ruth and I tried on multiple occasions to get him to come out with us, but he would never go. We didn’t know each other all that well, and because I couldn’t hear what he thought, I knew less about him than the stranger walking ahead of us.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Asher stopped and searched his pockets. “I found this in a room while I was looking around.”

My eyes grew wide when Asher held out a beautiful white-gold locket with a blood-red jewel placed in the center. It looked very expensive. How could he have found something so valuable in a ransacked abandoned building that was falling to pieces?

“It’s beautiful,” I responded with a gasp, taking it into my hand to inspect it closer. “Why would something like that be in that place?”

Asher just shrugged his shoulders and nonchalantly replied, “Maybe someone dropped it, or someone who stole it had hidden it there.” He paused before adding, “It was just lying on the floor in one of the rooms.”

“Well if it was stolen, then I certainly don’t want it.”

“Why not?” he asked offensively.

“What do you mean, ‘why not?’ What if I run into the person it belongs to? This looks like something that was custom designed; it certainly looks one of a kind. I have never seen a jewel that looked like this before either.” I handed the locket back to him, not wanting to hold it any longer.

We walked in silence for a while in town until we reached a little coffee shop. Asher and I bought ourselves some coffee and sat at a table inside, where the cold, snowy weather couldn’t reach us. Our conversation was very dry and short. It was very awkward, as he wouldn’t respond to any of my questions or add anything to carry on a conversation of any sort.

Taking a sip from my coffee, I looked into Asher's beautiful eyes and stared for a minute or two. He is hiding something, I thought to myself. Even the Asher I knew from high school wasn’t so quiet, secretive, and passive. He looked at me for a split second, and then his eyes started to dart around the room, as if he were looking for something to discuss or something to use as a distraction.

“What’s wrong with you?” I finally asked. “You have hardly said a word since I freaked out. Did something happen to you in the past three years?”

“People change, Sarai…” he replied in a bored voice. “Maybe this is who I am now.”

“But you won’t tell me what you’ve been up to, or where you’ve been. People don’t keep secrets like that, and if they do, they make up a lie just to please the person they are talking to,” I responded.

“Maybe I don’t want to lie to you. Maybe it’s better that I just don’t give any explanations.”

“Well, you are making yourself look guilty and like you are up to no good.”

A smile played across his face.

“Only proving my point!” I exclaimed, half-jokingly.

Asher grabbed the locket out of his jacket pocket. “Sarai, I want you to have this. I have no use for it, and you are the only person who has ever tried to be my friend. You don’t have to wear it…but just remember me when you look at it.”

“Is this some type of red flag scenario? Do I need to call someone to have you under a 72-hour watch?” I questioned half-heartedly.

He chuckled. “No, I am not going to kill myself, Sarai. Now, I’m being serious…Please, just take it.”

I exhaled loudly before extending my arm and taking the locket from him. “Alright, Asher, but if this bites me in the ass, then I’ll come after you.”

“Understood,” he replied, smiling.