Flickering
The Storm has passed. It finally ended. I could feel it as soon as I woke up. The overwhelming sensation of being over. As soon as I got up, I checked the news and it was true. After some days of being locked up I had my freedom again.
I barely dressed and ate before going out to see what happened and how everything was. The days that I was stuck because of the Storm made me anxious to see something outside of myself and my own thoughts.
I didn’t have any place in mind to go, so I just started to walk and see.
Surprising.
Even though we faced a really bad Storm, there wasn’t much damage to be seen.
Some trees fell.
Some cars had their windshields broken.
But nothing more.
All the fear that I had was for nothing? It seemed like.
I kept walking and watching all the wreck but it was a little disappointing to say the least. Some places seemed like only a rain fell down and nothing more.
That didn’t matter anyway and I kept looking.
It was early, so I couldn’t see many people on the streets, but soon a lot of them would go out. We finally could get out of our houses to see the sky and the streets.
That Storm was so bad that we couldn’t see anything from the window. It was all black. Like a never ending night that got too comfortable being there. Like it found a cozy place to stay and wanted to keep there as long as it could.
Dark and rainy. All you could see from the windows.
But now it was sunny, the sun rose up not too long but it had given a life to everything and seemed like good days ahead.
I got caught in my own thoughts before realizing I arrived at the park. One of the parks in the city. It is a nice place to take a walk and it was a perfect day to see nature and other people.
I could see all the trees and plants of the park and it was a very nice view.
It should be calming, but something felt different.
It wasn’t calming at all for me.
Like an unease feeling.
Odd.
I was walking in the opposite direction of all the other early morning people that were there to enjoy the park. Only me.
Only me was walking in a direction that no one walked.
The feeling of unease grew and it started to feel off-putting.
No one looked at me.
No one walked in the same path.
Just me.
My eye got a glimpse of a bird flying and was able to see one feather falling from it.
The feather slowly moved towards me, like it was chasing me for some reason.
It got closer and closer, until the moment that it should hit me, but it only passed through me. Like it wasn’t a real feather.
That gave me chills and then I started to notice the light lamps.
It was bright and sunny but for some reason they were flickering. Flickering in a chaotic and random pattern.
I don’t know why, but that made me worried. The flickering seemed like it shouldn’t be there. Something off and weird about the day. Like something that still lingered there and it was signaling that there is still more.
I kept walking in the same direction and never saw another person looking at me. I was the only one noticing all the weird behavior? Were people ignoring me?
I just kept walking until I started to see some areas with yellow tape.
Yellow tape.
Like a crime. A crime scene that was isolated from possible intruders. A horrific view hidden by the trees and the bushes.
I could almost feel the taste of blood and the stench of death coming from the place, but it seemed like it got very close, almost tickling my senses but not enough to really feel it.
I tried to trespass the tape but it felt like an invisible wall was there. A force that pushes me out and wouldn’t allow me to go beyond.
I kept going forward and no one noticed all the weirdness that surrounded me.
Was I the only one seeing it?
I was walking and walking and it should by the time made a lap at the park but it was different. Like the road led to nowhere. A road that kept going on and on and always changing. I have known this park for a long time and it isn’t so big that I would spend so much time before making a lap. I should have started to loop it but it never happened.
Then I realized that person.
One person that would stand out of everyone.
A photographer.
That always smiled when I looked and took a picture in my direction with a flash that didn’t bother me. The person always smiled. A mysterious smile. A smile that creeped me out.
I was walking and I decided to stop. I needed some time to collect my thoughts but for some reason my body couldn’t stop. Just kept going and going no matter what I told it to do.
I was stuck inside my own body. With no control at all.
I could only observe everything through my eyes.
The people.
The trees.
The bright light in the corner of my eye… bright light in the corner of my eye?
I hadn’t noticed that until now. Where it came from?
Then I realized that I hadn’t seen the sun until now.
It was bright and sunny. A lot of light. But no sun.
No sun that I could see.
But I felt the warmth of the sunlight on the back of my head. It was there. I could feel it. The sun was behind me. But between all those turns and directions that I took since I started to walk I should be able to see it. But for some reason, it never appeared. Why?
Then I started to feel the warmth was more than just on the back of my head. It penetrated and pierced my head until it reached the corner of my eye. Like a looming presence that was always there and I could not look carefully. It only showed that it was present. As if it was watching me all the time from my back.
Why was all this happening? The Storm has passed. I was finally able to be out and see all things that I couldn’t. I just wanted to have a nice walk but it turned creeper and weirder at every second.
The photographer. They were always appearing and smiling before the shot. But I wasn’t looping the park course, I was just going forward and forward with no end in sight and no clue of where it would lead me. But they still appeared like I just took a lap in the park.
The photographer and the sun. The only consistency in all the weirdness.
The lamp lights were giving a sign. Almost speaking to me that something would happen.
Were these both weird presences?
And why could no one see? There were so many strange things and they kept walking and living their life like I wasn’t there at all.
Panic started to grow in my body and I could not do anything to stop all of it.
Here I was. Stuck in a never ending walk that started to feel more like hell than calming.
The Storm has passed but it never felt better. It actually felt worse.
It felt that all the darkness and rain were better than being out in the sunlight.
My eyes started to see things moving quicker and quicker as the time passed.
Like I was walking fast, then running, then something even faster and it never stopped. It didn’t stop and just felt like blurred spotted vision that I couldn’t make out any detail or anything.
It felt like a vortex.
It felt like a swirl.
It felt like I was in a Storm.
The Storm never ended.
I was just inside the Storm and I couldn’t see that I was dragged so much that I can’t get out of it anymore…
