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I felt caught in the middle of it, though I put my head down and forced myself to keep moving.
Covertly, my gaze darted all around as I walked, searching every direction.
The cars.
The sidewalk.
The buildings.
Nothing seemed out of order, but the sense wouldn’t abate. It was the same sense that normally would send me packing my things and leaving town. The same sense I’d gotten a couple weeks ago at the festival.
Was it paranoia?
Nothing less than a coping mechanism that clicked into action when I slowed for too long?
When my spirit warned I’d spent too much time idle?
Demanding I put one foot in front of the other since it was the only way I knew how to survive?
Except I didn’t want to leave. Couldn’t.
Drawing in a steadying breath, I kept my head down but my attention keen as I hurried down the sidewalk.
At just after five, the street was busy with those leaving work, and a ton of people were coming in and out of the buildings I passed.
I could find no comfort in the numbers, though.
The safety I’d been feeling a moment ago had been ripped out from under me.
I increased my pace, hustling by the commercial buildings that surrounded on each side.
Medical clinics, the lab, and a few offices.
They soon fell away as I headed in the direction of my apartment.
When I got to the intersection, the crosswalk light was red, and I paused, keeping my head low but trying to inconspicuously glance around at my surroundings. I scanned through the faces, over the cars, trying to understand what it was that set me on edge.
The problem was, the tiniest thing could do it.
Only this time, I swore I saw the shape of someone duck behind the wall of the building just in the distance.
Dread washed through me on a current, a crashing of desperation that dumped into my stomach. The red light changed, and I rushed across the crosswalk to the other side.
Though rather than continuing down the block to my building like I normally would do, I hurried across the intersecting road.
If someone was there? After me? I couldn’t lead them back to my apartment. Raven would be at Moonflower, watching for me out the window.
There was no way I’d bring danger to her door. And if it was nothing? I couldn’t stomach the idea of her seeing me this way again.
Shivering and afraid.
Running.
I kept peeking over my shoulder as I hurried by the buildings that ran along Broadway, which was the street that connected 9thand Culberry.
I silently chanted, praying that I was only making things up.
Letting panic set in the way I’d done for years.
