It was a sunny day close to the end of the year, and I was headed off to school. I had a good feeling about the day, which should have been a giant red flag to me from the start; I had never experienced a good day in my life. I got on the subway train that I take for 30 minutes to get to school every day, and I was soon entering the small boring building. After 3 hours of sheer boredom, a lonely lunch, 2 more hours of wanting to claw my ears off, and a calm and enjoyable hour of art, which was my favorite subject, it was finally time to go home. Yay. Not that home was better than school, or anything else, for that matter; other than the fact my dad never took any notice of me because he was too busy with his alcohol to care, which meant that I could escape to the treehouse right outside my window to do homework and then draw without any trouble, it was horrendous.

But there I was, on the subway train, going home, when I first saw him. He got on the train the stop after me, and sat across from me, which was weird, since the whole train car was empty. I didn’t take much notice of him, because I was absorbed in drawing a Hydra on my sketchpad (I loved drawing, especially Greek mythology figures, and I take my sketchpad with me everywhere). But then, I felt, rather than saw, that he was staring at me. I looked up, and his hazel brown eyes met my blue-ish gray eyes. I felt as if he was staring into my soul, that he could see everything I was, could see my every single memory…

I couldn’t stand it anymore. I broke eye contact, and went back to the third head on my Hydra. But I couldn’t draw anymore; I could feel his presence there, right across from me. He freaked me out; and when the next stop came, I walked up to the doors and moved to the next train car, hoping he wouldn’t follow me. But what awaited me there was even worse...