Following Him Home. - Help.com

Following Him Home.

By Pollyanna B

This is a short story I wrote tonight. It’s not based on real life or anything. Just an insight into a character mostly. I hope you read it and enjoy. Constructive critisism is welcome and so is praise xD

I walk from the building and close my eyes, so that it’s easier to ignore the crowd of people swarming the path. Opening them up to the grey late afternoon sky is a treat compared to the flurecent lighting I had endured minutes ago. I feel no hurry to get home like everyone else, I just want to enjoy myself and bring some positivety to the world. It doesn’t seem like I do here though. People seem to dislike me. I see that girl watching me again. Her eyes always bear into my back. If only I dared stare back for once.

He is intelligent, with a handsome face and slighty sunken eyes. People don’t approach him because he seems withdrawn, an outcast from society. I see him everyday and yet I have never spoken to him, maybe it’s because his head is always a little bowed or perhaps it’s the way he strolls along as if we are nothing is his life but I think it’s probably because deep down I am terrified to be rejected with a simple cold stare.

I don’t know why today is different, why I’m following him home. I can see his dark hair being blown across his face by the fierce wind and his tall figure pushing through it on his way to, I don’t actually know where. We are turning a corner and I breathe deeply as he stoops to pick something up. I wonder if perhaps it’s money or something of value but as he straightens up he is simply holding an empty can. My face is transformed into a confused expression. Why is he bothering to pick up an old can? But I have no time to ponder this as he is continued on after dropping it into the nearest bin. It isn’t a nice neighbour hood we are walking through, infact all I see is dirty graffiti covered buildings and overflowing rubbish bins.

Ten minutes we have been walking, and not once has he turned his head. I don’t know if he knows I’m only a few steps behind him, if he does he doesn’t care. My mind was starting to wander, imagining where he might be heading, I can’t see him living here. Again he slows to a hault but this time he is pulling out a folded over twenty dollar bill from the pocket of his dark overcoat, he hands it to a dirty young guy wearing only one shoe and I wait to see a small bag handed bag, but it never comes. He isn’t buying drugs as I first thought, he’s simply giving money to a stranger in need.

As we walk on I wonder what I thought I was going to see by following him, certainly I wasn’t expecting anything like this. I feel drops of rain begin to land on my hair and face and I quickly pull my hood up to protect myself from the infact harmless water. Distracted as I was I now notice the way he reacted to it compared to myself. He’s staring up at the heavens large droplets falling onto his smiling face, the water falls down harder and he walks slower savouring the rain for some unknown reason. His hair is soaked through and his coat is drenched by now, but it has had an odd affect on him, the wetter he got the happier he was.

We must have been walking over half an hour now and it was showing signs of darkness. I was going to be late home, but that hardly seemed to matter. All that mattered was following him, wherever he was going. A car raced down the street and I was blinded by the sudden light in such gloomy lighting that I tripped over. I lay on the concrete for a minute or so and a tear stung my eye as a felt blood trickle down my leg. I looked up, craning my eyes through the darkness for him, but I could see no one. I got up slowly and started to run down the dark street, I turn the corner at the end and am in a silent alleyway.

I was now very aware of how loud my footsteps were and my breathing pattern. I slowed down and began to walk on hoping to see his silouette in the distance. I didn’t have a clue where I was now and I was giving up hope on catching up with him. I jumped as I heard the distant sound of a cat yowling, but stumbled onwards. It seemed like years later when I finally heard the sound of footsteps, I turned around but saw no one. After a long look I realised that they had stopped and I turned to face forwards again. He was right infront of me.

Neither of us said anything at first, until he suddenly spoke in his confident voice ‘I came back when I realised you weren’t behind me.’ I couldn’t utter a single word, I was completley drawn into his face. I had never seen it so clearly before. His face broke into a rather distant smile. ‘I’ll walk you home’ he told me. I still said nothing, but when he walked on, I followed. Soon we were walking at the same pace and although we felt no need to say anything it was a comfortable silence.

He walked about a step ahead of me and I wondered for a second if he was leading me in the right direction, but I found my trust for him was intact. I think we walked forever. I can’t seem to remember anything else. Eventually I saw something familiar but it was no where near home. I was glad. I had no desire to go home and it seemed neither did he. Nothing felt normal. Then again, nothing was normal. I was walking along with someone I hardly knew, yet trusted completely.

We stopped abruptly and he took a silver key from his coat pocket and slotted it into the keyhole of a small, shabby looking house. Opening the door he walked in, I followed, not quite knowing what to do. No one spoke. He took off his heavy coat to reveil dark blue jeans and a black tshirt. He lead me into another room which was furnished with a simple sofa and small table in one corner. The walls were empty and it needed a good coat of paint. It differed so greatly from the house I normally went home to that I hardly recognised it to be a home.

I awoke that night alone. I was in his home, and had fallen asleep on the sofa but I saw no sign of him. It took me a few minutes to search his home and I found no one there at all. Everything looked the same as it had the night before though. His coat still hung from the peg in the hall. Where he was I did not know, but I did know that I couldn’t stay here. A sweeping glance around the room, and I was out. Within an hour I was in my own house, in my own bed. I felt like I was recovering from a strange dream, but I knew all too well that it was real.

I pulled the key from my pocket again and slotted it in the lock, only to find that it was already unlocked. I knew the minute I walked inside that she was gone. A feeling of sorrow swept over me like a storm and I buried my head in my hands. Oh I cared about her so much. Was she safe? Eventually I looked up and I saw something hanging on a peg next to my coat, it was a simple dark grey scarf that belonged to her. I picked it off the hook and breathed into it. ‘I love you’ I whispered outloud in a quivering voice.

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