A Sad Murder

I'm being Followed

Anna went on her knees and gently picked up the frame. She gasps when she saw how badly broken it has become. "Oh my God, how did this happen?" she cried out touching the picture of the broken frame and then a tiny piece of the broken glass pierced her right middle finger. "Ouch" she squealed and threw off the frame on the floor and held her right middle finger tight and blood gushed out.

She stood up and rushed to the kitchen sink to wash it off. "s**t!" she cussed as she washed off the blood but more kept gushing out. She off the tap and walked out of the kitchen to her room. She searched in her cupboard for some first-aid kits and luckily she found one. She hastily clean it up and put on a plaster on it.

"Oh no, I pray it goes before morning, I can't afford to take a day off from work over a silly mistake like this one" she puffed an air and shut her eyes closed for a moment. When she flutters it open, her gaze narrowed down to her window, it was half-opened. She stood up slowly her gaze never leaving the window and she walked towards it.

"I thought I shut it closed before I headed out earlier, how come is open?" she wondered aloud halting halfway to the window. Fear was beginning to crept in to Anna's mind, body and soul. "No, I think I'm imagining things, no one could have open it. I must have forgotten to lock it up before I went out earlier" she shut the silly thoughts trying to build it way to her mind and she walked over and shut the window closed and locked it up.

She went to her closet and changed to her pajamas and she went to bed. "I'll just clean up the mess in the living room tomorrow" she sighs and relaxed her back on the bed. She tried to sleep but sleep wasn't coming, her mind kept driving her to what must have been the cause of that picture falling off like that without someone touching it. "Oh sleep Anna and just forget it, would you? It's just a normal thing for stuffs to fall off sometimes especially when you didn't fix it up well" she thought inwardly and she heave a deep breath and changed her sleeping position. She shut her eyes closed and begged for sleep to come.

**

Two days later, Anna closed from work and it was almost midnight. She was walking alone on the road path that leads to the ice cream shop she was working to get a cab to take her home since Drake couldn't pick her up today as usual. As she kept walking on the lonely corners of the street she began hearing footsteps behind her. She halted and glanced around but found few passers-by going their own way and no one was looking at her way.

She continued walking and the footsteps again kept approaching her from behind. Fortunately for her a cab was coming her way so she hailed it and it stopped right in front of her. She glanced around again but found no one. She hopped in and told the driver where she was going.

Immediately Anna left, her stalker appeared on the same spot she had left with a mask on his face and his clothes were pure black costume. His breathing was fierce and aggressive like a wounded lion seeking to devour his prey and his fist was so firm. He turnaround and took just one step and he was gone from that vicinity.

Anna got out of the cab halfway to her house since cars are not allowed in to the that path. She tipped the driver off and she began walking down to her house, it was just a two minutes walk. She was trembling as she walked her way to her house, the freight of she having the intuition that someone was following her before she took a cab was still there. A rushing sound came from across the bush and a rat ran it's way to the bush, Anna squeals her longs out thinking it was her imaginary stalker. Her squealing attracted her neighbours attention and they were out running towards her before she knew it. She had two neighbors, one is Mr Oscar and his wife, an elderly couple, while the second neighbor is Mrs George also an elderly woman with her young grandson Leo who is ten years old of age.

The elderly couple and Mrs George have jogged their way to Anna who was shivering in fear. "Ma'am are you okay?" Mr Oscar asked.

She buried her face in her palm and held it for a moment without answering Mr Oscar. "Can you tell us why you were screaming so loud already because we need to get back to our sleep?!" Mrs Oscar yelled.

"Take it easy on her, Laura, maybe she saw someone and the freight was too much for her to bear so she lost her voice" Mr Oscar said and Anna reluctantly removed her hands from her face. "Tell us what happened ma'am, what did you see?".

"I... it was just a rat, I'm..."

"A rat?!" Her neighbors exclaimed in a gasps and stared at her in disbelief.

"You mean you were yelling because of a rat?" Mrs Oscar asked in a high-pitched tone.

"I'm sorry, it didn't occur to me it was just a rat" Anna apologized.

"It didn't occur to you? Really?" Mrs Oscar barked at Anna once more.

"Calm down Laura, she's only a young girl, being afraid is a normal thing" Mrs George replied.

"She should remember that before walking out here alone at this hour of the night. Goodness! I need to get back to sleep, I'm done with this midnight drama!" Mrs Oscar scoffed and stormed her feets back to her house leaving her husband, Mrs George and Anna.

"I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to scare you all like that" Anna apologized again.

"It's okay, just don't be staying out this late if you don't have someone to guide you home" Mr Oscar advised and walked back to his house.

"Are you okay?" Mrs George asked and Anna nods slightly. "Okay, you should go on in now, it's not really safe out here I guess".

"Thank you. Goodnight" Anna replied and walked hastily to her house. She quickly unlocked the door and got inside and she locked it back. She relaxed her back on the door and her panting was heavy as she stood there trying to play the events that just unfold right in front of her. While she was yet to get herself from the shock, her phone buzzed, she digs it out from her purse and saw the caller was Drake. She picked up and placed the phone on her ear.

"Anna, are you home yet?" his voice came asking on his end.

"Yeah I just got home" she answered her voice quivering.

"Anna are you okay?" he asked sensing her voice wasn't clear and vibrant like it used to.

"Uhmm yeah. I've got to rest now, I'll be having a long day tomorrow. Goodnight" she replied.

"Okay, goodnight" he said sounding unconvinced.

Anna dropped the call and dragged her feets to her room and she gently sat on the bed. Her body was feeling weak and she was still trembling. "Was I really being followed today or was that all an imagination?" she asked to no one but herself. "There's no way I'm being followed, I have nothing worth anyone's attention. If I was really followed then my stalker should have followed me down to my house right? Oh my God! What if he did and right now he's hiding somewhere just like in the movies?".

Chills ran down Anna's spine and her throat suddenly went dry. She rushed to her window and glance around and found no one in sight. She came back to her bedside and sat down on her bed. "Am I okay? Maybe I'm just stressed, right? All that happened wasn't real. If it was real it wouldn't have been a rat that would have scared me but a stalker if there was any. Enough of this false imagination, I need to rest my head for tomorrow" she glanced at her phone and it was already past 12am.

"It's morning already, I have just five hours left to sleep. Don't think I can eat tonight, I'm full already with all this crazy thoughts jumbling my mind".

Anna took off her shoes and lay down on her bed and covered herself with her blanket to catch some sleep.