I have no idea how much longer I'll be able to do this. If I can no longer continue my aimless escape from simply running out of money, I could at least count my blessings. It's too difficult for me to say in confidence why the visions I've been having are persistent. Either they're a way for her to "salt the meat" per Se, or a way for her to persuade me to keep my distance. However, they've become increasingly more vivid, so the best hypothesis is probably that she's been toying with me. Calling for help doesn't necessarily appear to be the smartest choice. Why? I don't know if there are others like her, and such a claim is too far fetched for the police to believe.
I really should've just kept to myself. If only... Yeah, it wouldn't have ended up like this. Why was I so stupid? It's probably just that one person though. Otherwise, I may have seen more of them in the visions by now.
My first encounter with her was just earlier in Autumn this year. Of all times, it was during my first semester at Dourmsburg University. Where I first met this person, if that's even an accurate term, was a place most people like myself would go because of the necessity. Like every other freshman in college, it was mandatory that I'd attend English 100 at some point to obtain a degree. Walking inside the classroom for the first time, it was already filled with people my age who I never met in my life. She was no exception.
Just as I sat down in this room full of strangers, the professor, with an extra dash of enthusiasm in his voice, introduced himself as "Professor Robinson." Probably as an exercise for the students to begin getting to know one another, we would stand up one by one, tell the class our names, and one thing about ourselves. The teacher grinned, raised one eyebrow at me, and said that since I was late, I'd go first.
Standing up, the small sea of faces turned to me. With a tiny quiver in my jaw, I told the crowd, "Um, hi. My name is Billy Wisenor, and I don't know anyone here." Sitting down, my eyes caught several other students smirking and nodding. Other members of the class stood up as well, giving their names, and telling us things like their majors, hobbies, and more irrelevant facts about themselves.
The last of them, just one row in front and two seats to the left of where I sat, was more hesitant to stand than the rest. Where some of them took maybe a second to rise before the class, this ebony-haired student took a few seconds longer. Looking around the room as though she was scanning the room, she told us, "Hello." She turned her head around the room once more, looking at us all individually. "I guess, um, I'm Allison Baker." I've been noted in the past for my keen sense of hearing, so it's not certain to me if others caught her murmuring, "I, I think... Allison."
Usually, the lack of eloquence would've made me feel no such thing towards her. However, from the second when she first stood before us, I felt a strange fixation on this person. It was nothing remotely romantic, or even sexual. There was absolutely no desire on my part to even touch. It was her very lack of eloquence that repelled me from the thought. The attraction was more "magnetic," so to speak. Somehow, she implanted something into my brain. It was unnatural because I've never felt this form of magnetism before. There were no urges to do, but only to follow.
At the second, stuttered mention of her name, her face began to redden. Initially, it seemed to be simple shyness. Her behavior sprouted confusion in me, and probably the other students there at what followed. We watched as she clenched her temples, and began to hyperventilate. With her extremely heavy breaths came tears going down her cheeks. Covering her face, she ran out of the room. Giving expressions of awe and confusion, the rest of us turned to one another, as if someone would have an answer to the obvious question.
We briefly debated among ourselves whether or not it was best for someone to check on this person. It was almost involuntarily that I shot up, insisting to go. Typically, someone like me would be slow to interacting with others. Thus, it struck me as especially odd since I had no arguing with myself about it. Somehow, it was like the instinct to search for food to quell hunger. If anything, this kind of response felt even more necessary.
At telling them that I'd go, that's when my mind let in only a little bit of second thought. I knew not of her personality, so there was no way that could've compelled me. Hell, it wasn't even the stranger's appearance, as shallow as it would've been. If anything, this person appeared pretty plain, dressing in the current fashion of my still-teen age group. The only uncommon features of such were the locks of ebony, and a somewhat pale tone of flesh.
Still, I found myself leaving the classroom despite my waned sense of logic struggling to persuade me not to. Its efforts to persuade me that doing so would only end badly was quickly hushed. Only a moment of roaming through the hallways, and that hungry magnetism took over.
There was no way for me to know her whereabouts with my eyes, even though the whole campus was brightly lit with fluorescence. However, something else kicked in. It was a sense I never knew of before. It's safe to say that it really wasn't quite human. This was similar to tracking by smell, where there was somewhat of a given path before me. This track was really more of the feeling of the air. Everything else around that given path was left to be as is. The invisible road before me was that of a low, metallic sound that gave a scratching, electric pulse to the center of my brain. The consistent scraping against my pituitary gland was wearing out any ability to think cognitively. That magnetism was the only, and the closest thing to thought I was experiencing. Where this electric pathway felt colorful in nature, everything else was greying. It was a slow, crawling decay spreading from inside out. All sound was muffled nearly to the point of perfect silence as well, with the exception of a faint ringing.
As I continued to follow this trance-inducing road to the main lobby, my ears picked something up. Over the continuous ringing sound, there was a series of breathing that became louder while I walked. They were deep and sickly, as those of an old man with a terminal illness on his deathbed. The volume of this strange noise stopped increasing once it dominated the ringing. It wasn't the only, or probably the strangest thing I've heard then.
Jesus Christ, I can't tell if that was her peering from just out the window. If this is the last part of my story I'm able to tell you, please search for my remains at the Motel 6 in Stantron, Ohio. The Motel is on Oak Street, seven miles Northeast from the university. Even if I've completely disappeared, and I'm not able to complete this, you might at least find strands of DNA. I don't see anything out my window now, but I think that was a silhouette looking at me from the distance. It's too dark out to make anything out, but the shape looked distinctly like her. God, those eyes... Those glowing eyes shining at me... The tiny specs of lime green I saw through my window for just a moment, they were watching me! I've only started praying for my life. I don't know what else I can do, but maybe continue my futile escape. I just hope someone heard me praying. I don't see that alien figure now, even if it was pitch black outside. I'll have to check out early, and run in the rain so hopefully, this "journal" of sorts isn't lost.
At the moment, I'm continuing this from the lonely table of the mostly empty Denny's I drove to. Other than the night staff, a couple other people eating and keeping to themselves, and me sitting at my booth, it's pretty much dead in here. The only other sounds consist of clanging and sizzling from the kitchen, and the television broadcast being changed from the news to pure static. The broadcast itself died out from the very instant I sat down, and a pudgy, frizzy-haired waitress seems rather dumbfounded by it. With a frustrated look on her face, she keeps insisting that by changing the channel, the static will stop. Given that I know nothing about weather, I can't make any educated guesses. However, given that there's only a stream of heavy rain, it seemed uncanny to me. Where I'll go after eating to help calm my nerves, I haven't planned. Although I'm a bit soaked from running to and from my car in the heavy rain, my laptop is at least safe.
I continued down the hallway of the university. Along with the stream of breaths, my ears picked up bits of her voice. It was much like turning a dial to tune in to a radio station, but with no static. There were light, indistinguishable groans of hers going in and out, and then words.
The groans drifted into her saying, "Bake-ker... Servant of the... Its cry calls us."
About to turn the corner to the next hallway to my left, I saw a shadow lurking against the wall of that hallway. Given how the lights in the school smothered every surface, how this occurred still makes me wonder. My pupils couldn't catch a decent glimpse at its form though, seeing its dashing speed further down the hall just beyond me.
The strange, electric sensation to the core of my brain came to a sudden cease. A rather small, warm breeze that etched through the first layer of my skin approached me just as she did. How she appeared before me was beyond my expectations though. Even though she left the classroom red in the face with water going down her cheeks, she didn't look as such in the halls. Her face was as pale as it was when class started. Her face was perfectly expressionless. It was as if she was never upset at all. As she came closer to me, I instinctively asked what happened. There was no reply from her, or even a passing glance.
She was walking at a far quicker pace than I could follow without going into a sort of light trot. I followed her back to class, and while she gained more distance from me, I heard another of those whisperings. Although she was several feet in front of me, it sounded as though she was centimeters from my ears. "Humankind does-sint know...surroundings. I see...all...time." In between the words I could make out were more unintelligible murmurs, too vague to repeat. "Awaken, my... Awaken, and...demise."
The inexplicably alluring girl closed the door behind her, allowing it to shut with a startling bang. Going back inside, my body rested back into where it sat before my search. I found myself staring at her more closely that time around, unsure if perhaps others felt that alien magnetism as well. Considering all the other students were seated, I couldn't tell.
A few other students who were sitting near her asked how she was doing. With an oddly whimsical smirk, she assured them that she was fine. If anything, there seemed to be a hint of confusion in her voice as to why they were asking to begin with.
After so many confirmations, the professor continued with whatever lesson he had planned. I was still unusually fixated by this stranger's presence. As intense as it was, I still couldn't figure out why. Somehow, she beckoned me to come closer. It was perhaps a similar attraction a raccoon has to grabbing a shiny object before realizing its hand's been caught in some painful trap.
Maybe I wasn't the only one though. Near me, another guy in the class (whose name I'll refuse to mention for respect of his family) was murmuring back and forth with her. Also trying to hear what the professor was saying was more than likely what hindered me from really picking up what they were saying. To my futile attempts, I could only try to give some of my attention to the lesson. The best I could do was eye contact, and hearing a quarter of the things he was saying. I'm not sure what it was, but I believe it was something regarding a persuasive paper.
The majority of my focus was hearing a proposal by the young man, roughly the same age as me, about dinner after school. She agreed. Be mindful that I never felt an ounce of jealousy. It only struck me as odd because to my recollection, the majority of young women were typically very selective. This one though, was definitely not typical. It also seemed odd that he'd have interest in someone so unstable, but then again, reason doesn't always stop hormones.
After class was dismissed at roughly noon, everyone rose, Allison being the last. Something about her smile towards the young man she agreed to go with looked artificial. It was only a slight curl, but it wasn't the way one would really smile. One side of her mouth was curling upward, but the very edge of that side pointed directly down. It even twitched here and there like some sudden spasm. It didn't strike me until after certain events of their "date" that her agreeing could've been for some strange, other motive that no witness would be able to explain well afterwards.
At the entire class leaving the room, the odd magnetism began again. Following her seemingly frail being through the front door of the building, going to other classes I had that day didn't matter. Attending them didn't even go through my mind. The only instinct was to simply follow. The similar electric path before me was what lead me to my car. The entire time though, I watched as Allison got into hers without company, in another parking space just a few away from me.
Beginning to follow where she drove, the greyness of the infinite space around me greyed more than before. It darkened and dimmed by the yard. With that, a cease to my stream of thoughts took over, guiding my hands through each turn and such. It became apparent that whatever force did this didn't quite have the capacity to signal, or even stop if she didn't do so first.
The whispers from earlier came back, seeping through the radio in my car which I never had playing in the first place. They always spoke to me in riddles. Unlike moments in the past though, they were clearer. They were finally starting to be in complete sentences, only sometimes interrupted by indistinguishable mumbles. "Oh, little, unknowing Wise-seh-nor boy. You find yourself so fascinated. I can tell."
This odd encounter while I was driving was different in another way as well. With the fading into a lifeless grey, my conscious mind felt as if it was shutting down. It was just like falling asleep, but immediately dreaming. Although I found myself in that sort of paralyzed state, my hands and feet still moved to drive along with her car. I saw something else in front of me. Just a few inches away from me, a translucent image of her face gathered from billions of tiny particles from above my head until they took a complete form. With the vague translucence of her appearance were some details of the highway I was swerving on to. As she resumed speaking, that faint ringing returned. It was a sound that accompanied her voice during this particular kind of encounter from that time forward.
Nearly sideswiping another car while changing to the lane just at my left, my skin tingled at her breath as she told me, "It wasn't my intent-shin, but it happens almost at least once with eh-ver-y new place I go to. Perhaps it comes with what was given to me by..." The remainder of what she was saying went off into more mumbles, although I could see her lips moving in just the same fashion.
All I was seeing immediately disappeared. It was in a flash of time, but felt like far longer. My field of vision was engulfed by an odd face I couldn't dare to call human. To my assumption, I didn't see the entirety of the face. Perhaps I should be thankful I didn't witness more of its form. It was pale as white paper. Staring directly at me were a pair of scowling, veiny, pure ebony eyes. They glared into my essence, planning something. Just below them was a nose-like appendage, though in shape, it looked to be more a beak. I didn't see any kind of nostrils, or opening along it anywhere. It still hung down, shaped much like a sort of hook. It glared at me with such disdain, but needing at the same time.
At first, I couldn't tell if what I'd hear was coming from the ghastly image I was seeing in my pseudo-unconscious state, or somewhere else entirely. To give the terrible image company though, for the first time, I heard a soul-shaking, horrified river of a single man screaming. It sounded like this person was driven completely out of their mind in terror that one could only imagine. I couldn't pinpoint where it came from at first, but to my shock and misfortune, it would be a sound I'd recognize in the very near future.
Someone in the kitchen's shouting. It's a man's raspy voice. Probably the cook. A loud burst from the kitchen with some kind of enormous splatter. Shit, I can't see what it is. The waitress, the one with the frizzy hair... She ran back to the kitchen. Oh God, her screams... They're so frantic. Mortified. Wait, no. What the Hell's going on? They've gone silent, followed by the same sound. That burst with a huge splatter. Still can't see. I hear her humming. Don't forget where I've been.
Jesus, I don't know which township I'm in. I know I'm being followed. There's no way to reasonably deny it anymore. I hauled ass out of there. I'm sitting in some other motel I managed to find. I think it was about an hour's worth of speeding, but I'm not sure. I think I spotted a couple roaches crawling across the floor, but it'll have to do. It's not like I'll be sleeping here, like I'd be given enough time. I'm probably further from Stantron, Ohio, and a bit closer to Bumblefuck Nowhere. Judging by the significant lack of buildings compared to say Dourmsburg, yeah. Bumblefuck Nowhere sounds right. Would've been smarter to ask, but someone in this shit hole's bound to remember me checking in as long as she only comes for me.
The vision of that hideous, unknown, pale face though... It couldn't have been one of a man. Thank God though, I at least didn't have to see it for very long. It vanished into nothing. The only things before me were black. Perfect black, and her piercing eyes staring into me.
Her cryptic murmurs kept moving into my ears like an unwanted guest. "...by The Raven." She breathed heavily, and shouted at me. It sounded like Allison was clenching her teeth. "You don't know the consequences of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time, do you?" Speaking to me in a far more pleasant tone, the girl gave me an innocent giggle. "Then again, maybe I kinda wanted you to follow me. I like it when people have an interest."
The abnormalities of my field of vision flashed into nonexistence. The feeling was that of sleeping in a position that would end up hurting your neck after a full seven hours. It was essentially that, but the sensation smothered my body. There was a bit of difficulty moving about in general from the beating soreness, and a small pool of sweat along my chest. Looking around, I didn't find myself on the highway, or any road at all. At first, there was a lot of shock merely at realizing my car wasn't even in motion. However, I found myself in the sun-dressed parking lot of some nearby park, surrounded by lively, green grass.
Layered
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