My day quickly passed by with nothing much happening. I just did some house cleaning and spent most of my time indoors.
I noticed that mask wearing in pubic places was starting to be trendy, inspired of course by the Halloween season. Some people would do harmless pranks to someone to scare them and capture it on video. A lot of online videos was about halloween pranks and to be honest, watching it was somewhat entertaining.
I unconsciously picked up my camera and fumbled on it for a while. It has been over a month since I last used it. I went to an abandoned church on a rural town and did a video documentation of it. A lot of rumors about the place was circling in the social media. Mostly about the place being haunted with ghosts and demons living there. I spent a whole night on that place with my camera, only armed with a taser and pepper spray. I was so thrilled that my disappointment was over the roof when I reviewed my tape only to find some nocturnal birds and some stray cats doing their own business. I still did a proper documentation on tape but I was really disappointed.
Now it's halloween season. Ghost stories and conspiracy theories are flooding the internet and I can't help but smirked to myself.
"Ghosts and demons? If only the are really real." I mumbled to myself, twirling my camera lace around my hands.
I opened my laptop once more and searched about the fire on Erica and Amanda's school. Sure enough, there are theories about the supernatural being involved on the incident. Some even claimed that they actually saw a figure of a man burning inside the faculty room despite of the authorities denying any casualties. Some made a connection to the events on the recent past.
I can't help but think about it myself. Just a week ago, there was also a small fire about two blocks from my apartment. A car was abandoned and was left to burn on a deserted parking lot. No one was injured and nothing else was damaged. The authorities said that it was caused by an electrical failure and the owner chose to abandon his car to avoid legal repercussions. People didn't think much about it at that time, but the fire last night started new theories to circulate around the internet. Some said that people are being killed by burning them to ashes, getting rid of any evidence and remains.
"People these days sure have rich imaginations."I chuckled to myself.
I spend some more time browsing through local articles. There are actually five fire incidents in this month alone, although some are as far as a hundred kilometers away, it still caught my curiousity. The first fire happened in an amusement park, a ticketing kiosk was burned and it happened on midnight, when everything was closed and everyone was supposed to be asleep. The second one was inside a police detention cell. Few police officers were injured that time but there was no casualties. The official report was a failed 'attempted escape.' The third was inside a public restroom. What caught my curiosity was that all the fire broke out on the dead of the night and there were no fatalities.
"Okey, now I'm curious." I said, a small smile formed on my lips.
It was just about 9:00 on the evening, 'Who knows what I might see later.' I excitedly sprung from my bed and quickly changed to my jogging pants and a hoddie. I grabbed my camera and phone and quickly headed out. I just left my door key on my door mat as I usually do and jogged outside.
The night was still a bit early. The streets are still crowded so I just grabbed a drink from a vending machine and walked aimlessly around. I'm not expecting too much but I can't help myself but feel excited.
I sat on a park bench and opened up my camera.
"Hello! This is your girl Agatha. I'm here to do a random vlog and as you can see, it's already dark and I'm still outside. The fires that is happening around lately has caught my attention. As a curious girl, I will roam around tonight and see if we can capture something unexpected. Come, join me!" I said cheerfully, talking in front of my camera.
The first two sentences and the last two sentences was a part of my usual vlog introduction and I did a beckoning gesture, addressing to the viewers once I uploaded my video.
I turned off my camera again and walked around, killing my time. It's a good thing that I wore my jogging pants tonight. The cold wind doesn't bother me at all. I opened my phone and looked at the map, trying to make a pattern about the locations of the fires. Movies has usually this kind of patterns. Something will happen to an specific place and the next one in another place, finally forming a sort of pattern when you look at it in the map. I tried doing it on my phone only to find a random dots, not pointing to anything.
I sighed as I fumbled with my phone, it's almost midnight. The streets are mostly empty and shops are closed now with a few vehicles passing by. I waited about another 30 minutes before finally standing up. I have noticed that I walked a bit far already. I am almost at my school campus and I can already see our tallest school building.
I was stopped by a patrolling officers and asked if I was lost or in trouble, I answered politely that I'm not. I
bid the good officers goodnight and continued on.
I turned my camera on again as I passed the front gate of my school.
"This is my school during the night. It might not look much, but it looks more alive during the day." I said, talking to my camera.
"I wonder if I can slip inside. Obviously I don't have my school ID with me right now. Let's try not to get caught!"
I secured my camera on my neck and approached our school gate. It was so dark and eerie inside. For a short second, I felt my knees shake.
I laughed to myself. 'I spend most of my time at school, there's nothing scary in here.' I said to myself.
There are usually guards that are posted by the entrance but now it was deserted. I peered inside the big gate, looking at the corners to see if there are actually no guards at the moment. I noticed the side gate opened slowly and a man stepped outside. he was wearing a dark tracksuit and a black cap. I quickly hid behind a nearby lamp post.
The man was minding the phone on his hands and have earphones on, so he didn't notice my presence at all. I stepped out and walked briskly, following him.
I was a bit anxious to enter our school campus so I decided to follow the man instead. He was was walking casually walking on the roadside, with me about twenty meters behind him.
He seemed to be absorbed on his phone but i still kept my footsteps quiet. 'I am actually stalking a stranger on the dead of the night.' I cringed at my own thoughts.
I kept my constant distance from him, ready to walk the other way in case he turn around and noticed me. My camera was in my dominant hand, and my taser on the other. I really feel like a stalker with bad intentions. I cringed once more.
I was debating with myself wether I should just stop following the man or not when he turned into the corner and disappeared from my sight. I hastened my steps and followed on.
I turned to the same corner and almost fell on the ground when I saw the man just few steps from me, looking directly at my face.
"You have been following me fow quiet a while now. Are you offering yourself to me?" He said in a cold voice.
He removed his cap and I saw the green slits in his pupils. Fear instantly filled my entire system but I was too shocked to react. I was rooted on the spot.
The man pulled a small bottle from his side pocket and slowly twisted off the cap.
"It's strange, you are not running away. Well, maybe you really are here to offer yourself. That's so sweet of you."
I can see the nails of his fingers grow into sharp talons. The small bottle on his hands produced a sweet fragrance.
"Take a small sip so you won't feel too much pain." He said and offered me the bottle.
That's when I finally came back to my senses. I quickly made a step back and raised my hands, pointing my taser to him.
"A sudden change of heart? That's too bad. What am I going to do now? You have already seen my face." He said softly and took a step towards me.
I took another step back.
"Sorry, but this is the end for you. Blame it to your fate or something." He said and took another step and grabbed my arms.
I quickly hit him with my taser and he fell to the ground in an instant. He twitched of a few seconds but calmed himself and stared at me with a furious eyes.
"You will me mine tonight!" He said in a low voice, trembling with fury.
I tried to hit him with my taser again but this time, he seemed to absorb all the shock. He slapped my hands and my only weapon was thrown to the mud a few meters away.
He tried to stand up on his shaky legs. His eyes were radiating violence and hunger.
"You are mine!"
I quickly turned the other direction and ran. It was that time I realized how foolish I was, following a complete stranger into dark alleys. I ran as fast as my legs could carry. My heart was pounding too hard that I can hardly breathe. I didn't dare to take a single look back. I just kept on running, wishing silently to meet the patrolling officers I met earlier this evening.
I was starting to gasp for air but I still continued running, I can feel the man just a few steps behind me, ready to grab me as soon as I stop.
I reached the park that I sat on earlier and quickly hid myself in the flower plants in the area. It was relatively dark so I felt a little safe at the moment. I just needed to catch my breath or I would collapse on the street out of exhaustion.
I ducked under the foilage and turned on my camera. If everything comes to worst, I need to alteast take a video recording of my assailant. I already lost my taser so I am technically unarmed, with nothing to defend myself with.
It didn't take a full minute until I saw the man that was chasing me. His cap was long gone. I noticed that he have this blonde hair and caucasian look.
'Bea's type of guy.' I grimaced.
The man crouched to the ground, as if trying to sniff out my location. I gripped at my camera tightly, making sure that everything was captured.
The man walked in circles for about a couple of minutes before stopping in the middle of the park. Then he looked at my direction and started walking towards me.
It was dark in the area but I can somehow see his eyes through his messy hair. I was too exhausted already and scared. My calves were already swollen and my whole body was shaking. I just thought about screaming on the top of my lungs once he get me. I braced myself for the worst, my camera pointing towards him.
"Hey, you need help?" From the road, I saw a man shouted, catching the attention of my assailant.