The notification on my phone pinged when I was in the middle of cooking dinner. Typically, when I’m in the midst of simmering a sauce, I ignore any calls from my phone. Perfection takes time and attention to detail. If I didn’t want a ruined sauce, I needed to ignore my phone at all costs. That goes double if the notice is from work.
My sauce was racing to the finish line, and it smelled amazing. This was the most critical time – if I kept it on too long, it would burn. Too short, it’s not as flavorful as it could be. It was all about striking the right balance. But then my phone pinged again. And again. And again.
Despite not wanting to let my attention drift, four notifications in quick succession seemed to warrant a glance. I put down my wooden ladle and picked up my phone. I was right. It was work-related. But it wasn’t a stressed supervisor emailing me about something that could wait until tomorrow. Instead, it was notifications from our security system.
As office manager, that did demand my attention, as much as I hated to admit it. I unlocked my phone and saw that four different motion-activated security cameras had gone off: the backdoor, the back hallway, the central office bullpen, and the storage closet. It was as if someone had walked through the backdoor and made a beeline for the storage closet but had never come back out.
“The fuck?” I mumbled to myself.
Then I heard a hiss behind me. I wheeled around and saw my sauce had boiled over. I dropped my phone and moved the saucepan off the burner, but it was too late. The sauce was ruined.
“Shit,” I sighed and shut off my stove.
I picked up my phone and dialed my boss, Jeff. He needed to be aware that someone might be in his building. He lived down the street from the office and could meet the police before I’d be able to get there. Plus, until I saw the person in the storage closet leave, I wasn’t too keen on checking anything out myself.
Two rings later, Jeff answered. “Hey, Nia. What’s going on?”
“Sorry to call you at home,” I started. Jeff cut me off.
“No, no big deal. Got me out of doing the dishes. What’s up?”
“Did you get the notifications on your phone?”
“Ummm, for what?”
“The motion detectors at the office.”
“I wasn’t aware I could get those,” he said, genuinely confused.
“Remember, we set them up when they came to update the camera software?”
“Oh yeah! I remember now,” he said, “I had turned off the notification setting in my phone because they went crazy one night a few months ago.”
“Excuse me?”
“Before you got hired on,” he clarified, “one night, they kept going off. I went to the office, but there was nobody there. I think they were malfunctioning.”
“What about now?” I asked, “Still think that’s the case?”
“Lemme look at the videos,” he said. “Can I call you back?”
“Sure,” I said. We hung up, and I slapped my forehead. The videos! Why hadn’t I looked at the videos before calling him? I glanced back over at my ruined sauce and shook my head. I had been so preoccupied with the sauce boiling over I forgot to check them out. I needed to fix that.
I pulled up the first video and watched the short, four-second clip. Or, I would’ve if there was anything on the screen. There was nothing but black. It rolled for four seconds and then ended. The remaining three videos did the exact same thing.
I was confused. I knew the cameras worked because the main console was in my office. I had access to all of them. But none of these videos showed anything. I chalked it up to a bug in the software. I made a mental note to call the alarm company again and check for an update.
My phone rang again. It was Jeff calling me back. “Hey.”
“Were your videos blacked out as well?”
“Yup.”
“What the hell caused that?”
“Maybe time for another update?”
“Think the footage is available on the eye in the sky?”
“Eye in the sky” was what Jeff called the security system console. I knew what was coming next.
“Maybe,” I said, trying to deflect, “I mean, probably.”
“Should we go take a look?”
There it was. Jeff wanted me to join him at the office. I put the phone away from my face and cursed under my breath. I sighed and returned to the call. “We could,” I said, “or we could just call the police and have them check it out.”
“Why not both?” he offered in a voice way too cheery for the situation. “How long will it take you to get there?”
“About fifteen minutes or so,” I said, less than enthused.
“Okay. I’ll meet you there,” he said. “I’ll call the cops so they can meet us there, too.”
“Sounds great,” I lied.
“Perfect, see you soon.”
He hung up, and I resisted hucking my phone into the nearby wall. In normal times, I’d dread heading back to the office after a long day of work, but this was worse. A potential person hiding in the supply closet? No thanks. I’m not a fighter, but Jeff is even less of one. If there was someone there, we were basically useless.
I sighed and made a mental note to update my resume.
Fifteen minutes later, I was pulling into the empty parking lot of the office. Our building was only about ten years old, and Jeff had bought it outright in an auction. The previous owner had paid to build the place and then skipped town. No one heard from him, and eventually, the construction loans came due. It went up for auction, and Jeff snapped it up.
The building was run-of-the-mill as far as office buildings go. A single-story rectangle with storefront windows facing one of the busiest streets in town. Jeff thought we’d get more street traffic in this location, but that never really panned out. The parking lot was a cramped afterthought that sat behind the building. Most days, you needed Bartholomeu Diaz’s navigation skills to get your car in and out, but that wouldn’t be an issue tonight.
I saw Jeff’s big wheeled, raised truck parked near the back entrance. The fact that Jeff had this truck was so ridiculous. It was made for off-roading, but Jeff was a notorious neat freak. It was too big for the lot, but Jeff liked to stand out. Jeff thought this beast gave him a presence his body didn’t. I couldn’t help but chuckle each time I saw Jeff – a five-foot-five sliver of a man – hop down from the elevated driver’s seat.
Watching him climb up was even funnier.
I parked my beat up Nissan next to him, and he gave me a friendly little wave. He was on the phone – I assumed he had finally called the cops – so I waited for him to finish before I stepped out. After a few seconds, he hung up his phone and rappelled down to the ground.
“Thanks for coming,” he said, “I know it’s not ideal.”
“Part of the job,” I said, not believing a word of what I was saying.
“Cops said they’re sending a cruiser over in a few,” Jeff said.
“Sure,” I said, again not believing a word of it.
“You get any other notifications?” Jeff asked.
“Nope. Not since the camera leading into the supply closet went off.”
“What’s so attractive about the supply closet?”
“Maybe he knew we keep snacks and coffee in there?” I offered.
Jeff chuckled, “He needed printer paper and staples, too.”
“Can never have enough printer paper.”
We stood there for a beat, not knowing what to say or do. I liked Jeff, but we weren’t exactly close friends. We worked together and were friendly but it kind of ended there. I shifted uncomfortably, waiting for the cops to show up and break up the monotony. I suddenly realized this was the first time in my life I was actually glad the cops would be coming, and I stifled a laugh. First time for everything, I suppose.
“Should we go in?” Jeff asked.
“Let the cops take the risk,” I answered.
“Not a fan of ‘back the blue’ I take it?” he asked.
“Not really,” I deadpanned.
“Maybe we can peak in through the windows?”
“Might be hard to see anything,” I said.
“I’m gonna try.”
He walked around the corner of the building to head towards those front windows. As he left, it dawned on me that I was all alone in the dark back parking lot of a building where a potential criminal was hiding inside. I sighed and called out, “Wait up, Jeff.”
I started to jog to join him when the light in the back hallway lit up. I stopped and glanced at the back wall like I could see through the brick. There was a little porthole window on the back door, but I couldn’t see anything where I was.
“Jeff,” I yelled, “the light is on back here.”
A few seconds later, he came jogging back around the corner. He stopped next to me, and I pointed at the window. He clocked the light. “What the heck?” he said.
“What’s weird is that the motion sensors didn’t send us a video.”
“Are these lights on timers or…?”
“No,” I said, “they aren’t.”
“How did it turn on?”
“I’m not sure.”
As the words escaped my lips, the lights went out again. I pulled out my phone in anticipation of a video coming my way, but nothing did. I shook my head.
“What is going on?” I said more to myself than Jeff.
“I’m going to go take a peak in the window,” he said.
“Be careful, please.”
“I’ll be fine,” he said with the confidence of a man twice his size. I’ll give Jeff this, he didn’t back down from anything. That could be both a blessing and a curse.
He walked over to the window and stopped. Looking back at me, he smiled, “If something happens to me, run.”
“I will,” I said. I wasn’t joking.
Jeff cupped his hands and stared into the little window. I watched, anticipating running away but not going anywhere. After a few seconds, Jeff turned back and shrugged his shoulders.
“I didn’t see anything.”
“Weird,” I said.
As I did, the lights started flickering inside. Jeff turned and looked back in but didn’t see anyone still. He was shaking his head in disbelief. “This doesn’t make sense,” he said. He turned back towards me and said, “Go around to the front and see if you can see anyone inside.”
I wanted to say, “fuck off,” but I swallowed hard and said, “Sure.” I spun on my heels and walked around the building. The last thing I wanted to do was peer inside the office when weird shit was happening, and it wasn’t fair for him to ask me. In my head, I made a plan to get my revenge and call out Friday.
There wasn’t much traffic on the street at the moment. It was to be expected. This town is sleepy in the best of times. In the later evening, it was a ghost town. I walked to one of the windows, cupped my hands, and leaned against the glass.
It took my eyes a second to adjust, but everything inside looked undisturbed when they did. Off to the right, I could see the back hallway light flickering, but no one was near the switch. It was still odd as hell that the light was freaking out. It didn’t make sense.
I was about to head back to the parking lot when something caught my eye. Near the supply closet, I saw an office chair push out from a desk. It rolled a few feet before stopping in the walkway. Either someone was hiding under that desk or….
WHOOP!
I nearly jumped out of my skin as the police siren went off behind me. I turned around and was greeted with a light in the face. I raised my hands to shield my eyes.
“What’re you doin’ out here?” a gruff voice called from inside the car.
“I work here,” I said, “can you move the light from my eyes, please.”
“You the one that made the call?”
“My boss did. He’s around back.”
“Why are you peering into the building?”
“Ask him,” I said. “It was his idea.”
The cop opened the door and stepped out. Internally, I sighed. I knew this was going to be a whole thing. Cops gotta cop.
“You have ID on you?” he asked.
“In my purse. Which is in my car. Which is in the back parking lot. Where my boss is.”
“No need for an attitude, ma’am,” he said, “we got a call that someone was possibly inside the building.”
“And you thought that, after committing the crime, they would hang out in front of the building, on a busy street, and peer into the window?”
“I’m gonna need you to step away from the building,” he said. I shook my head. Of fucking course, I thought.
Before anything could go any further, Jeff came jogging around the corner and hailed the cop. “Hey, sorry. I’m the owner. We thought we saw something inside and were taking a look.”
“Have you entered the domicile yet?”
“No, we were waiting for you,” Jeff said. “We weren’t sure if there even is someone inside, but we weren’t going to take a chance.”
“Understood,” the cop said, “did you see anyone enter?”
“Our motion cameras went off, but the footage was blacked out.”
“Affirmative. Who all has a key to this location?”
“Just me and Nia here.”
I nodded at the cop. He looked away and back at the building.
“Anyone tried to break in before?”
“Nope.”
“Any signs of forced entry?”
“Not that I saw. Nia?”
“None.”
The cop turned and faced Jeff with a serious look on his face. He pulled out his gun and flashlight and nodded at the door. “Can you let me in so I can take a look?”
“Yeah, sure,” Jeff said, pulling out his keys to unlock the front door.
The cop and I locked eyes for a beat. I smirked, “By the way, domicile means place of residence, as in where you permanently live. This is an office building. Nobody lives here. Just a head’s up for next time.”
The cop looked away and grabbed his gun and flashlight. Jeff held the door open, and the cop walked in. Initially, I stood back and watched as the cop walked through the office, flipping on light switches as we went, but when I noticed Jeff starting in after the cop, I grabbed his arm.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
“Any area he’s walk through is clear,” he said. “I want to follow him to see if anything is amiss. He wouldn’t know what our office should look like.”
Neither would you, I thought but didn’t say. Jeff was here a few days a week – hobnobbing with clients on the golf course colored in the rest of the days—but I wasn’t sure if he was ever truly present. He always seemed to be going a million miles a minute. Would he even know if something was out of place?
“Maybe, but maybe we just let this guy do his job.”
Suddenly, all the lights went out in the office. The cop turned back towards us and yelled out, “Why did you shut off the lights?”
“We didn’t,” I said.
“Well, what happened?”
“Maybe we lost power?” Jeff said. I nudged him and pointed at the nearby computers. They were all still powered up. Jeff stared at the computers trying to puzzle out what was happening, when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket.
I pulled it out and saw we had a new video from our cameras. I didn’t think too much about it, as we were now moving inside the building, but I decided to check it out anyway. Assuming it’d be another black screen, I didn’t have high hopes of seeing anything.
I clicked on the icon, and the video came up. Instead of being greeted by a black screen, I watched the real video feed. But it was from a section of the office no one was near. It was by Jeff’s office.
In the video, nothing happens for a few seconds until Jeff’s office door slowly swings open. The video shuts off just after that. I clicked it again and watched it. Then again. I scanned the edges of the screen each time, looking for anyone sneaking out. I didn’t see anyone.
“Jeff,” I whispered, “did you check your phone?”
Jeff shook his head “no.” I handed him my phone and watched his face as he saw the door swing open. His face turned white. “Did you see it?”
“The door open?”
“No,” he said, “the face.”
“The what?” I said, confused, but Jeff just ran over to the cop.
“Officer, I think there may be someone near my office. Look.”
The cop looked down at the phone and then up at Jeff. Jeff couldn’t help but smile, “I think they’re by my office.”
“Where was the rest of their body?” the cop asked, his face getting whiter by the second.
“What are you talking about?” Jeff answered.
“That’s just a face but…but where’s the rest of them?”
“In my office, probably.”
The cop reached under his uniform and pulled out a small cross hanging from a necklace. He held it in his fingers and quietly whispered some prayers. The tough guy demeanor he arrived with was washed out like the tides. He was just a quivering bundle of nerves at the moment.
Not that I blamed him.
“I…I don’t think anyone is in here,” he finally said out loud. “I think it was just the equipment malfunctioning.”
“We should check, right?” Jeff asked.
“Can you call for backup?” I suggested.
“I…I could, but I don’t think it’s warranted here.”
“Can you at least come with me to check out my….”
There was the sound of someone running from Jeff’s office towards the central bullpen. We all turned in that direction but didn’t see anyone running. But we heard it. We all heard it. As quickly as it arrived, it went. We were all alone in the dark and quiet office, utterly perplexed.
“I…I don’t know what that was,” Jeff offered to break the quiet. “I think maybe it was the building settling. Or street traffic?”
“That was a ghost,” the cop said. For the first time in my life, I was inclined to agree with law enforcement.
“We should go,” I said. “I don’t think there is a threat here that can’t wait until morning.”
“I think she has the right idea,” the cop said.
“We should at least check the storage closet, right? I mean, someone set the sensors off when they went into the closet but never set them off again. So either someone is still in there, or the cameras are on the fritz.”
I saw the look in Jeff’s eyes. He was going to check regardless of what we said. I nodded. “We can look. Worse thing, some deranged psychopath jumps out and stabs us all. Best case, it’s a ghost. Where’s the downside?”
The cop looked like he was going to vomit, but he wasn’t going to leave. He was holding his cross in his trembling fingers and muttering a prayer, but he stayed put. We walked down the hallway towards the supply closet, not knowing what to expect to find but dreading it all the same.
We stood outside the door, and the lights in the building started flickering again. I sighed, “Probably a good sign,” I deadpanned.
Jeff didn’t vocalize a response. Instead, he grasped the door knob, twisted the handle, and pushed it open. I glanced over at the cop, who had closed his eyes as the door swept open. If it wasn’t for the severity of the moment, I might’ve laughed.
“What the hell?” Jeff said. My attention snapped back to the closet, and my jaw went slack. Jeff turned to me and asked, “Is this some sick joke, Nia?”
My heart started beating like I was in the middle of my nightly jog though my legs were cemented to the ground. If I had my druthers, I would’ve listened to my heart and broken out in a sprint. On the floor in front of us were about three dozen pens laid out to spell one word: Nia.
“The fuck?” I whispered.
“Is this a joke?” Jeff repeated.
“I didn’t do this,” I said, trying to find my bearings. “If I did, you would’ve seen me on video.”
“Not if the videos aren’t working,” the cop added. “The videos that got sent to your phone weren’t working, right?”
“No, but why would I do this? I have no motive.”
“Maybe you want something else? A raise? Thought this might be a way to get it,” the cop said, truly throwing darts at anything. It was clear that his fear had been replaced with embarrassment and growing rage.
“That makes no sense. Jeff, you can’t honestly believe this shit? I didn’t even want to come down here tonight! I ruined my sauce for this nonsense!”
“But why your name?” Jeff asked.
“Don’t you think I’m wondering the same fucking thing?”
“Do you know it’s a crime to file a false police report?” the cop said, regaining his bravado from earlier.
“Bitch, no one has filed shit!”
“Watch your mouth!”
“Guys,” Jeff said, trying to calm things down.
“I don’t fucking need some asshole sweating me when I’m already dealing with some next-level ghost shit, okay?” I yelled, pointing at the pens.
Just then, all the power in the building went out, and we were swallowed in the darkness. If I wasn’t horrified, I would’ve unloaded the snarky comment I had in my chamber. Instead, I was paranoid that something evil was in the room with us.
“Niiiiia,” a disembodied voice said near my ear, confirming my feeling. “I see you. I always see you.”
I snapped around, but there wasn’t a soul there. “Did you just hear that?” I asked.
“No,” the cop said.
“Me either,” Jeff concurred.
“Someone said my name.”
“Come on,” the suddenly brave cop said. “I don’t buy anything….”
The power came back on. You could hear all of the computers restarting at all the desks. The light over us turned back on, too, but it was dimmed. I found that odd, as none of our lights are on dimmers.
“Niaaaa,” the voice said.
“Did you hear that?” I said, my eyes wide with fear,
“Are you feeling okay? Jeff said sympathetically.
“I’m fucking fine!” I snapped. “How are you not hearing….”
“Niaaa…Watch the flooooooor, Niaaaaa,” the voice hissed, drawing out my name.
Before I could tell the others, I saw the pens that spelled out my name roll and take the shape of an eye. Stunned, I pointed down, but before the cop or Jeff could look down, the pens flew away.
“Did you kick those?” The cop asked.
“AHHHH!” the voice screamed directly behind us.
“What the fuck?” I yelled out as I fell back into the closet. The cop and Jeff also stepped deeper into the closet until we were all crammed inside. The door slammed shut on us, and the light blinked out again.
We heard footsteps running away from the closet, down the back hallway, and out the back door towards the parking lot. We heard the door slam against the wall as whoever it was ripped it open. Then there was quiet.
For about two seconds. The cop grabbed the handle and ripped the closet door open. In a full sprint, he called out from over his shoulder, “Call a priest!” He got back into his squad car and hit the gas. Just like that, he was gone and guaranteed not to come back.
Jeff helped me up off the floor. His hand was clammy, and I thought I might lose grip of it. We stood there for a beat, unsure of what to say to each other. I finally broke the silence, “What the hell was that?”
“I… I’m not a hundred percent sure,” Jeff said. “But…”
“But what?”
He sighed. “When I bought the place, I got it for a steal.”
“Yeah,” I said, “You’ve told me that before.”
“Have I ever mentioned why I got it for a steal?”
“The guy who built it left town, right?”
“Well, that’s not actual story,” Jeff said slowly.
“What do you mean?”
“The guy did suddenly leave town,” Jeff said, “but it wasn’t because he wanted to.”
“What happened?”
“He…he was murdered. Here.”
“In the building?”
“Yes, but also, literally, here. In the supply closet.”
I ran out of the closet like the floor was lava. I wanted to punch Jeff, but I remembered my rent was due and held back. I still balled my hands into a fist, just in case my “fuck it” switch got flipped.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I haven’t told anyone. I didn’t see the point. It happened in the past.”
“How did he die?”
“Someone killed him,” Jeff said, looking away, “they might’ve mentioned something about ritualistic something or other.”
“He was killed by a cult?”
“I don’t know that. No one does. All I knew was that the building was finished, big enough for my growing company, and WAY underpriced. I didn’t have a choice, Nia. It was a steal.”
“Is this the first time…”
“Yes and no. There’s been weird stuff before – papers moving, doors closing, stuff like that. But nothing like we saw and heard tonight.”
“You’ve had weird things happen and never bothered to tell anyone? Never bothered to tell me? I close up the building most nights…alone!”
“If you would’ve seen something strange, I assume you would’ve told me. I never heard from you, so I assumed things were kosher.”
“Is everything kosher now?” I asked.
“I…I don’t know. You heard that thing run out of here, right?”
“I heard something run out of here,” I said, “are we safe?”
“I think so. You want me to go check?”
“It’s the least you can do, Jeff.”
He didn’t argue. He walked out of the supply closet and went to check if the coast was clear. After a few minutes, he came back and said we were good. We walked out together into the back parking lot.
“If you need to take tomorrow off,” he started.
“I’m gonna need the rest of the week.”
“Like I was saying, the rest of the week, that’s okay. No penalty on my end.”
“Jeff, we should probably tell the office.”
“Probably,” he said with a nod, “but let’s sleep on it, okay? I’d rather wait for Monday when you’re back to do it. They’ll think I’ve gone loco if it’s just me.”
I agreed, and we went to our cars. I watched Jeff slip and bash his shin on the running board while climbing into his mondo-truck. I laughed and didn’t care. It was karma, as far as I was concerned.
I started up my car and headed home. I knew it was too late to make dinner, so I was thinking about what to grab when I glanced into my rearview mirror and nearly had a heart attack. I swear I saw someone sitting in the back of my car. It was only for a fleeting few seconds, but I saw a pale figure grinning like he was pulling a fast one on me.
I slammed on the brakes, and my car came skidding to a stop. Thankfully, there wasn’t another soul on the road, or it would’ve been a major accident. I checked the backseat and didn’t find any trace of a person there. I chalked it up to being scared from earlier and headed home. The rest of the ride was uneventful.
However, as soon as I crossed into my apartment, something seemed off. Things felt…heavy. Oppressive. Unsteady. It was as if I wading into a still-looking ocean only to have the underwater currents knock me down.
I dropped my keys and wallet on the counter and quickly scanned my apartment. Nothing seemed out of place, but my brain didn’t agree with my eye’s assessment. My brain was telling me to leave and not come back. I should’ve listened.
I glanced over at my pan of ruined sauce, now stone cold. I sighed. My stomach reminded me that I had eaten anything since lunch. I plopped down on my couch and pulled out my phone. I was destined to scroll new restaurant options for ten minutes before settling on one of the three places I usually order from, so I might as well be comfortable while doing it.
I was checking out a new Pho spot I probably wouldn’t order from when the lights in my apartment flickered. Typically, this wouldn’t be anything I’d be worried about, but considering the last few hours, it had rapidly climbed up my “shit I need to worry about” list. I put my phone down and looked around the apartment.
“If you’re here,” I said, “let me know.”
Nothing was going to happen, I told myself. You’re being paranoid. For about thirty seconds, that was correct. Then my microwave chimed, and the door swung open. I stood up from the couch, unsure of what the hell was going on but knowing in my reptile brain that the thing I saw in my car hadn’t been a figment of my imagination.
Something had followed me home.
“I’m sorry that something bad happened to you,” I said, spinning around, “but I didn’t have anything to do with your death.”
Just then, the saucepan started to shake on the stove. I swallowed hard and gave myself a second to comprehend what was happening. After a beat, I said, “What happened to you was tragic, but I don’t know anything about it. I didn’t have anything to do with your death.”
The saucepan flipped off the stove and slammed into the ground. I let out a fearful little yelp. I was shaking. Just then, the lights went out in the apartment.
“Niiiiiiaaaaa,” the voice said right near my ear. “Watch the floor, Niiiiaaa.”
“Leave me the fuck alone,” I screamed, “I didn’t have anything to do with your death!”
“Watch the floor,” the voice said again, and the lights came back on.
I glanced down at the floor but didn’t see anything different. The saucepan on my kitchen floor jumped up like a firecracker was under it and landed with a bone-shaking crash.
“I didn’t hurt you,” I said softly, catching a cry in my throat.
“I know,” the voice hissed in my ear. “I’m the one who hurt them.”
Then it clicked. This wasn’t the ghost of the man that had been murdered in the office. This was the person or thing that did it. My blood ran cold.
“Watch the flooooor,” it said again, this time with a laugh.
I walked around the counter and looked down at my kitchen floor. My heart stopped. On the floor, written in the spilled sauce, was a message meant for me: “You’re next.”
“Oh my god,” I croaked out. Suddenly, the pan flew up from the ground and came screaming towards my head. I dove out of the way as it slammed into the wall behind me, punching a hole into the drywall. I scrambled to my feet, my heart racing.
The laughing started again and filled the room. I saw a knife in my knife block beginning to shake. I grabbed my car keys and wallet and bolted for the door. I heard the knife plunge into the wall as I slammed the door behind me.
That was several hours ago. I’m not sure where to go or what to do. I need help, and I don’t know who to turn to. This thing, whatever it is, is following me. I don’t know why or how it’s chosen me. I don’t even know if it’s here with me now. It could be hiding, waiting for a moment to attack. Pray this thing stays away from me.
Pray, I stay safe.