Time Has Echoes
Long shadows reached out to Samantha as she ran through an unfamiliar street. Behind her, she heard the echoing footsteps of her unseen pursuer. Her breaths came in ragged gasps as fear seemed to rise from the dark pavement to surround her. Faster, faster!
Ahead was the entrance to a hotel. As she came closer, it became clear the imposing structure was a once grand entrance, now long abandoned. She scanned her surroundings in a frantic search for a way out. The glass of the massive door lay in pieces on the ground as she almost leaped across the entryway to the lobby. She soon realized the old building was not the sanctuary she had hoped for. Samantha felt her feet submerged in shallow water, a numbing chill creeping through her as she stepped into the old building. Panic welled up within her as she could see no way out but ahead.
As she glanced at the water at her feet, the reflection was not her own, but that of a woman she did not recognize. Samantha whispered, “Who are you?” as she moved forward.
Hearing the sounds of crunching glass, she took in a deep breath and continued to the other side. Once there, she darted up a half-submerged stairway. Her breathless getaway led her to an upper balcony, her heart still pounding. The stalker passing by below, banging on doors and windows, seeking to scare her out of her hiding place. The man did not see her as he looked up to scan the balconies, but from her hiding place, she could see his weathered face and dark baseball cap.
And as abruptly as it had begun, Samantha’s ordeal ended, leaving her gasping for breath, and drenched in sweat as she sat up in her bed. As her familiar bedroom came into focus, the strange woman’s face from the old hotel still loomed in her mind. Samantha hugged her knees, unable to erase that chilling reflection. Nor could she forget the stalker with his predatory glare as he hunted for her. And who was the woman in the reflection? Why was the man chasing her? Most of all, how could Samantha be dreaming someone else’s nightmare?
***
Morning came all too soon. Still exhausted as she awoke the next morning, Samantha took a quick shower and stuffed a stale cupcake in her mouth as she dressed for work.
Samantha Wilson is a young woman in her mid-twenties. Her chestnut-brown hair falls in loose waves around her shoulders, framing her face. Her most captivating feature is her expressive hazel eyes, reflecting a mixture of curiosity and empathy. That is a useful asset in her job as a barista at the The Brown Bean Coffee Shoppe, on a side street of a tourist town on the coast.
Sam arrived at work and took her place behind the counter as morning crowds spilled into the small shop. She busied herself filling orders for customers until only a few customers remained. As she began bussing the tables left with empty coffee cups and crumpled napkins, she noticed a young woman coming through the door. Samantha turned to look more carefully at the young woman and froze as she recognized her. Moving to take her place behind the coffee bar, Samantha greeted her as she approached to place her order. “What can we get for you this morning?”
“I’d like a grande almond milk latte with a shot of vanilla syrup, please,” she said. The woman had ebony hair and appeared to be a little older than Samantha. As she held a credit card in her hand near the scanner, Samantha tried to be inconspicuous as she angled her head to read the name: Georgiana Phillips. She did not recognize the name.
“Do we know each other?” Samantha asked. “You seem familiar, somehow.”
“Probably not,” she responded. “I’ve only been in town a few weeks. I work for channel 29.”
“That must be it. I guess I saw you on TV! See ya tomorrow?” Sam asked.
Georgiana smiled, nodded and waved as she carried her purchase to the door.
***
The following day, Samantha was wiping down the coffee bar as Georgiana Phillips came in. As she approached the counter, Sam greeted her with a warm smile. “Welcome back!. The usual today?”
She smiled in return, nodding. “Yes, please, a grande almond milk latte with a shot of vanilla syrup.”
As Samantha prepared the order, she felt uncomfortable as she saw a man entering the coffee shop. She soon realized the reason. Her heart sank as she recognized the stalker in her nightmare. All at once, she realized this was the woman she saw in the water’s reflection.
Samantha needed a plan. As she handed her the latte, she whispered, “I need your help with something. Could you follow me for a moment?”
Georgiana raised a puzzled eyebrow, but she recognized the urgency in Samantha’s eyes. “Of course,” she answered.
Samantha waved at her boss, “I need a break, ok?” Her boss nodded approval and moved to take over at the coffee bar. Samantha made her way to the alcove of the restrooms, out of sight of the customers. Curious, Georgiana followed.
“I don’t want to alarm you, but I noticed someone… I’m pretty sure someone followed you here. I’ve seen him before, and he’s giving me the creeps.”
Georgiana’s expression shifted from curiosity to concern. “What do you mean? Who is it?”
“He came in after you and sat in a corner. He seemed intent on watching you. Have you had any, you know, nasty comments on your social media, scary emails, things like that?” Sam asked.
“Well, yes, but that often comes with the exposure of my job. Some of them have been a little scary, now that you mention it.“ Georgiana answered. “You say you’ve seen him before?”
This would be the challenging part. Samantha tried to think of a way to reveal the real reason, but decided on a different strategy. She framed her concern in a more general way, focusing on Georgiana’s safety and privacy.
“We don’t know each other and I don’t want to scare you, but I think you need to be especially aware of your surroundings. Be careful when you are out on your own; keep looking for an escape route. Watch your back, that sort of thing. You know what I mean?” Samantha advised.
“I think you are scaring me, but I welcome your concern, and I will keep your advice in mind.”
Samantha continued. “The man I saw watching you? He didn’t buy anything. It was the same thing when you were in yesterday. He just came in and sat in the corner until you left, and followed you out.”
“What does he look like?” Georgiana asked.
“Well, for one thing, he’s the only one who doesn’t have any coffee. He’s in the back corner, wearing a baseball cap and a leather jacket. He’s got a bunch of tattoos, I think.”
Samantha watched as Georgiana left the alcove and glanced discretely around the coffee shop, looking to see the individual Samantha had described. She looked back, latte cup in hand, and waved at Samantha as she left the coffee shop. Once outside, Georgiana drove off in a TV news van. Just as before, the strange man soon got up and left behind her.
***
Samantha came to the end of her shift and went out the back of the coffee shop to the employee parking lot and got into her car. As she reached the main street and turned toward her apartment, she noticed traffic had come to a complete stop. She would need to find another way home. She followed the detoured traffic down an alleyway and then left onto a street in a rough part of town. Just ahead, she spotted the Channel 29 news van next to a sign with a picture of a new construction project. She recognized Georgiana, standing in front of a camera, doing what reporters call a “Stand-Up.”
As Samantha slowed to go around the news truck, her eyes detected movement ahead. A dark figure seemed intent on eyeing the reporter, a man wearing a dark baseball cap. Sam slowed to a stop behind the news van and got out to wait for Georgiana to finish her broadcast report. Facing in Georgiana’s direction, her eyes obscured by her sunglasses, Samantha’s peripheral vision to see the man in the distance. She was now certain it was the man in the coffee shop, and the same man she had seen in the bad dream.
As Georgiana finished her report, she nodded to Samantha to come forward.
Samantha stepped closer and smiled as she lowered her head and whispered, “Please don’t turn around, but that guy from the coffee shop is hiding behind a car and he’s watching.”
Georgiana whispered back with a determined look, “What should we do? If I leave, he’ll just wait for another opportunity.”
Samantha smiled, and without moving her lips, she said, “I have a plan, if you’re up to it. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want to confront both of us, so we’ll just stay here. I’ll get 9-1-1 on my phone. I don’t want to lose sight of him by texting. When I’m sure the police are listening and before our friend over there is close enough to hear, we’ll have a little conversation, describing the situation and giving the police our location.”
Georgiana nodded in agreement. “I’ve still got my mic on. I’ll leave the camera feed going so the crew at the station will see what’s going on. Just for insurance.” Then she added, “You should try being a ventriloquist!” Sam smirked briefly in response.
As the menacing stalker remained in the shadows, the girls pretended to be holding a conversation. Samantha described the location of the lurking stalker behind a car in the next block, again without moving her lips. Georgiana then repeated the address of the old building. Sam smiled and nodded, looking over Georgiana’s shoulder to see an unmarked car with two police officers pulling up half a block away. As the officers got out, one went to the far side of the street and the other approached the stalker from behind.
Still focused on the girls, the stalker pulled out a long knife and gripped it in his fist, as if about to leap forward. In an instant, the two officers made their move. Seeing the first officer, the stalker turned to face the second officer. After a brief struggle for the knife, the man was finally subdued, cuffed, and placed in the back of the police car. One officer stayed with the prisoner while the other approached the two women.
“Are you two OK?” the officer asked. Seeing their relief, he continued. “You took a big chance, but that was pretty clever describing your situation while the 9-1-1 operator was listening. We were just going to ask that guy what he was doing there, but when we saw him pull a knife and move toward you, we had our probable cause. Your station called and said you left the camera on and they told us about the threats on social media. I suspect those could tie back to this guy.”
Wiping her brow in relief, Georgiana spoke up. “It’s like a bad dream.” She stopped and turned to Samantha, and asked, “But how did you know?”
To which Samantha replied, “If you only knew, if you only knew… I’ll have to tell you about it sometime. Over coffee, maybe?”
