I walked with my head down, carefully pulling the hood of my sweatshirt firmly over my head hoping to slide past people unrecognised. If there was anything I would want right now, it most certainly had to be the power to be invisible. The power to just vanish and re-appear when things seemed settled. I was the average girl next door, with unsurpassed love for life and everything beautiful. Like all girls my age, I loved going out, hanging out with my friends, eating at the various places across the city.

One fine day all that changed. I woke up in fear, I felt like I was being looked at. I could feel someone in the room, could smell the person close to me, and felt like I was being ripped apart by merely a pair of eyes.

I could feel his eyes pierce into my back, I saw him lurking around in corners, I felt him looking at me when I left the house and walked the streets, I assumed he was sitting in the seat behind at the cinema, I felt his presence at the restaurant I ate at, I was convinced that he was following me into the quaint little book store far away from the hustle-bustle of the city,  I even thought I caught him staring at me as I haggled with the vegetable vendor in the market. He was everywhere I went; I was becoming afraid to breathe lest he sees me do that.

I jumped everytime the phone rang, every ring made my heart beat faster. I trembled everytime I had to answer a call from an unknown number, what if he was calling? What if he had somehow found my number? What if he had finally tracked me down? I had forgotten how to be happy. Everytime a small smile appeared on my face I would quickly wipe it off. What if he saw me smiling? That would most certainly anger him. I willed myself to not feel happiness, to lead an austere life, to not smile, to not enjoy the little things in life. I wasn’t the girl I once was.

I begun detesting all social networking sites, they made me nervous. I felt like he was stalking me through them. Reading into my life, peeping straight into my heart, piercing through it and then leaving me devastated. I was tip-toeing around my own life. I was living a life of fear.

I can’t seem to remember when I became this, this neurotically insane person. Afraid of everything and everyone. Afraid of darkness, of people, of phone calls, of e-mails, of social networking sites, of happiness, of laughter, of crowds, of loneliness. I was turning into something I never was. And there he was……

The Author
 Vidya is a lawyer by choice, a proud homemaker, a friend with a ear for anyone and everyone, a passionate cook, a believer in the stars and its powers, a tarot reader, a mushy movie lover who can never write a happy story. She melts when she sees children, loves watching television especially all the reality shows. An avid scrabble player who loves winning ever game she plays, gets high on seeing her work published. A child at heart with a mind of an adult.

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