FACING THE HUNTER
Headaches are the worst. It hurts. It hurts so bad. I could focus on nothing else to take my mind off of it. The headache was the only thing my thoughts were clouded with at that time. And that made it hurt even more. I often wonder if I am the only one with severe headaches like this. I should have asked for some water at the pharmacy, taken a pill and rested for a while. I needed to reach home as soon as possible. I should not have been outside.
The leather shoes I wore, tapping on the road with each step I took, was the only audible object at the time. Everything else in the night was silent, and empty, and this emptiness helped me to keep calm. If it was daytime, I could have fainted already with all the city noise and the scorching heat of the sun. But the sun had gone to sleep and the sky seemed like a dark cloak with little shiny twinkles and a big silvery white moon button. The street I was walking on did not have any lamps, but the light reflected by the moon upon the earth was bright enough for me to see my path ahead.
I should have taken my shoes off. The sound echoed by its tapping only added to the pain. My hard heeled leather shoes stomping against the black pitched road grew louder and louder each time like a horse galloping away with iron heels.
Rustle, rustle, I heard. What was that? My hearing had become so sharp, no thanks to my headache, that I was able to hear something more than the sound of my own footsteps. I stopped walking to focus on it. It sounded like leaves or paper crumpling. But it stopped after a few seconds.
I started walking again with brief pauses and the rustling followed. I was able to figure out that this was not the sound of leaves or paper but rather like slippers dragging against the pitched road growing closer and closer with each step I took. I turned back to check if someone was there. The road was just the way I saw it before. “Someone there?”, I shouted just to check if I missed someone walking by. But the street was empty. I turned again and started walking faster. Once again, I could hear the rustling behind me.
Sweat beads had started dripping down my face as the rustlings got louder and louder. I understood I was being followed.
I needed to escape. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I knew some narrow lanes and alleyways in the area, and one was just a few meters ahead. I paced faster and took the alley to escape my pursuer. A few seconds in the alley and I knew I had made a big mistake going in there. Although it was a full moon that night, the alley was dark due to the shadow of the 3 to 4 storied building on its either side. To add to my despair, the fear of being followed had begun affecting my headache more and I could feel my brain pushing against my skull.
I took out the mobile phone from my pocket and turned on the flashlight to see my path. The rustling I heard earlier had now turned into hard slapping footsteps. I could hear it just a few feet behind me. I turned around to check it with the flashlight.
There he was. The hooded stranger I saw earlier at the pharmacy was standing in front of me, holding a small knife. This time he wore a mask to hide his identity. But I had seen his face already before and I knew it was him.
“I saw you back at the pharmacy. Why are you here?”, I asked with my eyes locked on to his knife. It was a Swiss army knife. I could tell as I had seen it before many times. Those are usually multipurpose knives equipped with scissors, bottle openers and other utilities. It is only a lethal weapon in the hands of an expert. I assumed that a young thin guy like him shouldn’t have any experience using it.
He pointed the knife towards me and shouted in a loud voice, “I am the Night Hunter. Do as I say, or you will be the next one to die.”
I was frozen solid. My headache started to thump loud like a hundred sharp pointed nails hammering into my skull. “Please, you don’t have to do this. Take whatever you want and leave me alone.”, I begged him.
He grabbed me by the shoulder of my coat and pushed me against the wall. Then, he pointed the knife on my stomach, touching my belly from outside the shirt with its tip. “Give me the meds that you bought earlier from the pharmacy.”, he shouted to my face.
I began crying with tears rolling down my face. I knew that this was not going to end well. I reached into the inner pocket of my coat. And then, I blacked out and fainted. What happened after, I do not remember.
