Walking the same familiar route can feel comforting since you know exactly where you are going. But what happens when someone else knows that same route? I sadly have had this experience and I’ll tell you, it’s good to mix up your schedule.
As a child I always took the same route from my bus stop to my house. I did this because it was routine and felt familiar. I continued this pattern of having one specific route all the way to college. Only then did I even consider taking a new way.
My freshman year of college I took one walking path to all my classes. I’d leave my room at 8:00, walk 10 minutes to Spanish and arrive by 8:10, leave Spanish and arrive at English at 9:20, leave English and arrive at gender and woman studies by 10:40 and finally leave GWST at 11:40 and arrive back at home by 12. I even allowed time to get lunch or hang with friends after class.
On Wednesday nights I’d walk on the outskirts of campus with my friends. There we talked and enjoyed each other’s company. On Thursday nights I went to choir and usually took the long more quiet way back home. This all changed when I began to notice him.
I didn’t know who he was but I did know that I’d seen him on more than one occasion, usually when I was alone and rarely when I was with others. He was a shadow, at first I thought he was a student but I soon realized there wasn’t a student on campus that looked like him. He seemed to know where I was at all times and late at night I’d notice him follow me.
One night, I was heading home from choir when I had a gut feeling. I’d never felt this before, it was like a deep feeling of dread. And there was this little voice in the back of my head telling me “DO NOT go this way!” I cautiously looked around and there he was. The man, my shadow…my follower sitting on a bench which I passed after choir regularly. He didn’t look at me but he was different. His demeanor was off. Whenever he followed me before I felt no fear but I did feel observed. This time, I felt deep unnerving fear when I saw him. It made my stomach fill with dread and my heart beat fast. Luckily he was turned away from me so he didn’t see me.
Before he noticed me I turned on my heal and quickly walked into the cafe hall. I stayed there for a bit, hoping he’d have left by now so I could head home without him seeing me. It was about 10pm this time and the hall was closing so I had no choice but to walk home alone at night. As I stepped outside I still felt uneasy and very very jumpy. At first the walk home was fine as I kept checking behind me scared he’d be there. Suddenly the gut feeling was back and worse than before. I turned and looked around frantically searching for him. And then I saw him, waiting in the thick overgrown cultivated area. It was dense but I saw him waiting there, his body barely showing as he crouched down.
I was only 5 minutes away from home and I had two choices, I either stayed on this route and would run home or I could take a different route which would add on another 10 minutes to my route. I sighed and decided that I would take this route home but I would run. I knelt down and set my bag next to me making it look like I was tying my shoe when in reality I was grabbing my keys out of my bag. The minute I stood up I felt the dread subside and was replaced by pure fucking adrenaline. I took a deep breath and took off running. I ran past the cultivated area and heard the rustling of leaves and the breaking of branches as he pursued me.
I heard him behind me following me as I ran but I didn’t look back. I kept running, I ran until my lungs hurt and I found myself in front of the dorm doors. I unlocked and wrenched them open. My friends looked at me confused as I raised my finger to my lips and ducked down out of sight. After 10 minutes I peaked out of the window and saw no sight of him. I asked my friends if they’d seen someone a man looking for me. They told me they had. He had come into view seconds after I ran inside, he was breathing heavily and most concerning of all he had a knife. They watched as he looked around searching for something, searching for me. They told me he’d done that for 5 minutes before walking out of sight. That night I told them EVERYTHING!!
They believed me and for the next week took to escorting me around campus. They took turns walking me to class and to and from choir practice. My friend even accompanied me as I talked to the school and gave them a description of the man who’s followed me. The school assured me that I was safe and that they’d take care of it. Luckily my schedule changed a week later and I found myself exploring different routes. I still checked behind me to see if he was there but luckily he never was.
A week later my friend pulled me aside and showed me a news article. It described that a man had been caught after robbing and murdering a young woman just a mile or so away from school. They also described how he stalked his victim and knew her schedule before robbing and murdering her. My blood ran cold as I saw the perpetrators picture, it was the man who followed me. I shudder to think that had I taken my usual route that night I would not be here today. As I now knew that if I had, I would have been his victim that night.
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