Her dreams were fragmented and frightening. Everywhere around her were black eyes, following her…watching her. She was back in the bar, and it was empty and bright white, with green lights lining the floor and strange objects in jars. The men that she and Helen had met were there, and they were trying to get her to drink something. She threw it on the floor, but they produced another one, and then another.
“Leave me alone!” she screamed at them. “I won’t drink it!”
When she woke up, she was drenched in sweat and there was a garbage truck outside of her window with a yellow flashing light casting a glow over her room. She sat up and leaned against the headboard. Her heart was pounding, and she was ice cold. She checked the clock, and it was six thirty am.
May as well get up, she thought as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and put them down onto the wooden floor. She recoiled almost immediately as her feet touched something wet and slippery.
“What the…” she said aloud.
She looked down and there was a pool of water on the floor. It glistened in the yellow light of the trash van.
“Gross,” she said as she looked up at the ceiling. She was sure the apartment above her must have had a leak, and she turned on the light and looked carefully to see if there were any drops of water still coming down. There was nothing and the ceiling looked completely undisturbed.
“Weird,” she said as she shook her head and went to fetch a towel to clean it up.
After making herself a quick breakfast and getting changed in front of the oil heater her mother had given her as an energy saver, she made her way out of her apartment and down the stairs. The air was freezing. More so than it had been lately, and she found herself running back up to her apartment to grab a set of gloves and an extra scarf. She layered herself up with them but still felt the chill as she walked through the halls and down the stairs.
When she opened the main door to her building and started down the steps, she first thing she noticed was how much warmer it was out there. Within seconds she felt herself burning up and she ripped off the gloves and the two layered scarves. She shoved them in her mailbox and told herself she would collect them later.
“Here’s to another day in paradise,” she said aloud as she made her way down the street, stepping over the mounds of trash that were scattered along the sidewalk.
The feeling gripped to her all day. Even when she was at work and busy, she still had the all too real sensation that a stranger was watching her every move. In the middle of the afternoon, she couldn’t take it anymore and found herself running into the restroom and slamming the door before sitting down on the seat and taking deep breaths.
“No one is watching you,” she said, “You’ve got to pull it together.”
***
When she finally left work for the day and began her slow walk home, she found herself making a small detour down a street that was well known for its doctors’ offices. Her eyes scanned the various signs and rested on one that said “Psychiatrist.” Even though it had only been a couple of days that Victoria had been feeling this way, she knew that something wasn’t right and being all alone made her fear for her wellbeing. She approached the building and took a small leaflet from underneath the sign and then hurried away. She knew she wasn’t crazy, but the way she had been feeling was so unnatural and bizarre, and she had no idea what was happening. It had all started on the night out with Helen, and it hadn’t let go of her once. She felt gripped with paranoia and fear and she had the sensation of wanting to crawl out of her body and run far away.
As she ambled slowly up the street towards her front door, the feeling was stronger than ever and she felt the familiar icy chill crawl back into her bones. She looked up and down the street, and she was sure for a split second that she saw the flash of the tall, slender outline of one of the men she and Helen had been chatting to in the bar.
Oh my God, she thought, I’m being stalked! She remembered the way they had both come out of the bar and stared, watching them both so still and sinister. Goosebumps burst out all over her skin, and she felt a tingling shoot up the back of her neck.
Get inside, Victoria, get inside now.
She slammed the door behind her and rubbed her hands together to try to get them warm. It was freezing in there, and even though she was trying to save money she had no choice but to turn the heat up full blast.
After an hour in the apartment, it was still ice cold and Victoria found herself in bed, quietly sobbing.
What is happening to me? she thought. Am I going crazy?
She gripped the psychiatrist leaflet and pulled her cell phone out of her purse and punched in the numbers. It was an answering machine, but she left a short message, trying the whole time not to sound too crazy.
When she hung up the phone, she pulled the covers around her and closed her eyes.
Just go to sleep, just switch off and rest…
And somehow, despite all of her fear and emotions, she managed just that.