So this happened back when I was in high school. I had just left my boyfriend’s house and was going to walk home. It wasn’t too far away and it was only 1 in the afternoon. Despite being a very petite 16 year old girl I didn’t see any reason to be on guard. Though I should have been.
As I was walking down the street I started to hear footsteps behind me. Kinda slow and shuffling. I glanced behind me and saw a middle-aged man going the same direction as me. He looked gruff, with lots of stubble on his face, and he was wearing a stained white shirt, black pants, and heavy work boots. At first I didn’t think too much of it, it was probably just a guy heading back to work from his lunch. This wasn’t too far from the industrial part of town after all. However, as I rounded a couple of corners, I looked back again to see that he was still there. That was when I started to get a little freaked. My house was getting close but I figured it’d be better to just keep walking so that this guy didn’t know where I lived.
As I got to the intersection past my house, I bumped into someone. As I looked up, I gasped as I realized it was the same person who was following me. Not similar, the same person, right down to the stains on his shirt. He didn’t grab me or anything, he just glared, in that “why can’t kids look where they’re going?” kind of way. I awkwardly apologized and quickly crossed the street. I glanced behind me and the man was still standing, perfectly still, staring right at me, while, at the same time, the same man was still following me a bit further back.
I started walking faster. At the next intersection was the same man again, this time on both sides of the intersection, both glaring at me, while the man from earlier kept following me. I kept moving down the street and saw more and more of this same man all around me. Standing on the sidewalk, glaring at me from windows, stepping out of houses and leaning on balconies. Everywhere I looked I saw this man, all the while he continued to trail me from behind. Each time I looked at a new one of him he seemed angrier and angrier.
I started to run, but as I ran, I started to hear more footsteps. I looked behind me and screamed. All of them were following me now. I was sprinting as fast as I could, yet this army of doppelgangers was matching my speed walking.
I stopped at a fork in the street. The doppelgangers were behind me, they were to my left, and they were to my right. I had nowhere to go. I looked at the building I was in front of, it was the old Catholic church. I rushed to the doors but they were locked. I cursed and looked around; they were getting dangerously close. My eyes frantically darted around looking for an escape when I noticed a small trail to the side of the church. That was my only option.
I booked it down the path only to come to a statue of the Virgin Mary and heavy forest surrounding every other direction. I had ran to the church’s shrine and now I was stuck at a dead end. I turned to face my stalkers and watched as they steadily walked towards me.
However, as soon as they got to the gates of the shrine they disappeared. One by one they would enter the shrine only to vanish in a puff of smoke. I stood there in shock as the sea of doppelgangers vanished. Until finally, the last one, the first one, made his slow shuffling march into oblivion. I stood there for a while, shocked at what had happened and then ran home as fast as I could.
It’s been 20 years since that happened and now I’m married with two kids. I’ve never had anything like that happen to me since, but now I always make sure my family goes to church every Sunday.
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