Do you see it too?

I first saw it out of the corner of my eye as I disembarked from the train. I didn’t think much of it, though. This is the city. There are tons of weirdos – people dressed in unique ways.

Then, I started to see it more frequently in areas I wouldn’t have expected. Living an hour outside the city by train, I thought that these people would stay in the city. I mean, that’s where I first saw it.

But then, I started seeing it at the train station in the suburbs. That dead look in its eyes. It’s almost human but there’s something off. All I can really see are its eyes. The rest of its presence is something I can only feel. When I look in its direction, it’s like I can see it but not. The feeling is what completes the outline to fill in the details that my eyes cannot detect.

The one thing that stood out about it is that it never moved. Not until that night.

______

I took the crowded elevator down the high-rise office building and stared at the little screen in the top left displaying the same news story from three weeks ago. As the elevator reached the bottom floor, I walked through the lobby - heels from my dress shoes clicking with the marble floor as I went through the new age turnstiles. The masked being was there to greet me at the building’s exit, and while I avoided it, I could feel it’s breath on the right side of my jaw as I began walking down the street. I looked back and it never moved, but I could feel it.

It’s still back there, so what was that breath on my face?

The trash covered, loud, and somewhat dangerous city streets brought me some comfort as a means of distraction from the apparition. Each person bumping my shoulders, the smell of urine on literally every block, and the random shouts from distraught passersby distracted me from my stalker.

As the train pulled into the station, I saw it appear next to the doorway. Unfortunately, I had no choice but to walk through.

Obviously, it either has an understanding of base traffic flow, or it appeared there because my mind said that was the best place for it to go.

There were no breaths on the right side of my jaw this time but the presence existed just the same.

The train rides were never that bad after I got used to it. The masked apparition usually sat in an empty seat one row behind me, close to the opposite window. I was pretty used to it now, even with the eeriness of it all.

Finally, the feeling of walking through the door of my empty house gave me relief. No more sounds, danger, and grime from the city – and no more of it watching me.

After taking my brown, pleather shoes off by the front door I walked over to the kitchen. The floorboards of my New England style home creaked with each step. Opening the kitchen door rattled all of the glass condiment bottles as I reached for my container of filtered water. Turning to pour the water into a fresh glass, I saw it standing in my living room.

Then, it vanished. I’ve never seen it disappear. It just stays in the same place until I turn my head away or the train takes off and it is out of my line of sight.

As it disappeared, the eerie feeling went with it. It was as if the being possessed the ability to influence the vibrations that it and I shared. Our shared space on the conscious plane was seemingly influenced by a being only I could see.

What was it? Am I losing my mind?

Picking up the glass of water, I could feel the cool condensation on my hands. The sensation was slightly unexpected and brought me back into a more normal headspace.

Taking a sip, I looked off into the dark living room – only illuminated from the light of the kitchen. I could see a blurred version of my reflection in the TV but there was something else there. I looked to my left and right in the kitchen but couldn’t see it. I couldn’t feel the presence either.

The more I focused on this unknown object in the reflection of the TV, the more blurred it got - twisting and turning in the reflection like a top-down view of a tornado.

Is this just my mind again? Why would it become harder to see as I focused on it? Does it understand my intention?

Let me try unfocusing.

Unfocusing my eyes, the object started taking a more familiar shape.

Towering over me was a twisting and turning bipedal being. The more unfocused I got, retreating deeper into the recesses of my mind, the more I could make out the shape of a head and two legs.

How far in would I have to go to see what it really is? How does this make sense? It’s definitely in my mind. Do I even want to know what is there?

I retreated completely into my mind, imagining the living room instead of looking at it. My body, still in the kitchen, slumped back on the chair with my neck craning backwards and my arms now behind my torso.

Where was the glass I was holding? What is this imagery? Is this imagery or is it me?

Wait, am I the being? Did I see in the reflection of my deep conscious in the reflection of the TV mirror? Why would I only see it in the reflection? The only being was right there. The feeling was so palpable I could touch it.

Is this astral projection? Am I outside of myself? What is this battle with my mind?

Then, the being that followed me in the city came back. It stood right behind my physical body, draped over the back of the chair. The eerie feeling returned, but this time I could watch the being as it interacted with the husk that contains whatever I am.

I could feel its breath on my face, but it was the face of the man slumped in that chair. That man, now seems like he’s different than me.

Where was the glass of water? I don’t see it. Wouldn’t I have dropped it?

Through the same observational state of being in my mind, I tried to ask, “What are you?” to the being. But it just continued staring at me and breathing on my face.

Then, I felt my husk – my physical form – pull me back in. I jolted up in the chair and went back to normal. The glass had dropped onto the floor, shattering and spilling water on the hardwood. I quickly stood up, went to the bathroom, and looked into the mirror. There were stars all over my vision as I struggled to walk upright. My hands pushing me against either side of the hallway to ensure that I moved forward.

Looking in the mirror, I saw that my eyes were completely bloodshot and my nose was bleeding. The stars still persisted, and now a migraine became more present.

What’s going on? It looks like I’ve had some sort of… I’m not sure. Maybe a heart attack? Is that what was happening when I unfocused my eyes?

Taking my phone out of my pocket, I dialed 9-1-1 and called over an ambulance. As soon as I ended the call, I saw the phone drop to the floor and I blacked out.

Gaining consciousness for a moment, I saw large, alien cables attached to my arms, and a few nurses wheeling me on a gurney. This place didn’t seem like a normal hospital, and I couldn’t really place the type of building.

“We must get him back there. It’s not his time yet. It says so in the carvings. His role in all of this is too important,” I heard one of the nurses say through the material of her face mask.

The doctor replied through his mask, “Well come on, breathe the life back into him. It shouldn’t be this hard to revive him.”

“What if they interfered? They’ve been meddling in our process. Meddling in the prophecies. We, the purgatorial hospital physicians, decide if he has fulfilled his duties in life,” The nurse replied.

“Don’t think, make him breathe! Give him the breath of life!” The doctor replied in a panic, his violet eyes piercing everything he looked at.

Taking on a sterner tone, he followed up his panicked command, “We’re next if we don’t keep this guy alive.”

The nurse nodded in agreement and turned the dial on the machine the cables in my arms were connected to.

Then, my vision faded again.

This time, I was able to see myself on the ground where I fell – seemingly back to the world I was born into. The EMTs were around me, trying to revive my unconscious husk. But then I felt the eerie feeling. The being in the mask returned.

It transversed through the EMTs and stood over my body. Heaving in deep breaths where I imagine its chest would be, I saw a cold wind emerge from underneath the mask. I could feel the pureness of the air quality on my face, like an icy wind high up in the mountains.

Then, as the being stopped heaving, I was instantaneously transferred back into my husk. Using its vital organs, I took a deep breath before coughing up a moderate amount of blood.

The EMTs paused for a moment in disbelief before loading me into the back of the ambulance.

After I had stabilized, one of the EMTs looked over at me and said, “Someone wants you to be here. You must have a guardian angel looking out for you.”