Chapter 2:

Stalkers

Vampire Lanterns


Later as Yan did his short drive to his village, he came home distraught. He was really weirded out. After a long time, he felt something. An emotion he hadn't felt since early childhood... FEAR.
He was messing up his hair on the forehead to gain back his composure as he entered his dark apartment. He locked the door and after the sound of the light switch, he turned and looked at himself in the mirror. He saw the fright in his eyes and averted from it.
What happened this evening? He sighed and entered the kitchen to fix something for himself. As he was reaching out for that light switch, something out of the window caught his eye, and walked over to it.
He lived in a tall apartment building that had a view at a small park in front of a school and behind was a hill. Between the trees of the park, he saw red eyes shine. He could see the shapes of a guy in a hood and a huge wolf.
He immediately backed off of the window. Did they follow him? How could they do it? The feeling of fear returned and it made him even more uncomfortable and on edge. He knew they went after HIM, but why?
He looked back out of the window and again, now there stood a tall man next to the shorter guy instead of the dog or wolf or whatever it was. That confused him even more. He didn't really have the need to find out. Yan hoped they would just disappear.
The rest of the night he didn't dare to turn on any lights in rooms with windows so he would not attract the attention of the two strangers. Despite being tired he lay in the bed awake with his arm over his eyes.
At 2 a.m. he couldn't be motionless anymore so he peeked out of the window and to his shock, those two figures were still in the same spot. Despite that, he somehow fell asleep, probably out of exhaustion and stress.
In the morning he dreadfully looked out and that spot was empty. He sighed out of relief. It was another morning that he had to prepare for work. The weather was slowly changing, from a sunny morning to a misty one.
That meant that now the sun was shining in the town. That was always like a rule. It annoyed him because probably with the freezing cold, he would need to scratch the frozen mist from his car window.
He left his apartment earlier because of that specific reason and as he was pulling out a huge wolfdog jumped in front of his car. He stopped in time and realized how that thing had a weird human aura. It was literally staring him down.
He pushed the button and locked his car. Yan swallowed hard the lump that built in his throat. A whistle with an echo came through from the outside. Yan scanned the surroundings for the source. He saw the shorter of the hooded men on a small hill vawing to that wolfdog which ran after him and Yan booked it out of there.

With black circles under his eyes, he was sitting at work and slawed away like a zombie. His coworkers only silently passed by his desk with slight concern on their faces but didn't say anything to him.
During lunch, he sat near a window and looked out. Instant fear flooded his body. He could see them right outside of the company building. Why were they following him? What did they want from him?
His coworkers were chatting away and arranging another meeting at the bar after work. Yan's head whipped to them. Awkwardly came over and opened his mouth. He asked them if he could join too.
Everybody shut up immediately. It was the first time ever that Yan showed interest in spending time with them. The men were like brothers and embraced that idea and the girls began to squeal out of happiness and excitement.

Their handsome supervisor wanted to spend time with them. In reality, Yan already regretted his hasty decision but there was no more chance to back out of it. He would endure it at least for today and looked behind himself at the window.
He hoped to throw his stalkers off of him. Sitting at the bar silently clutching his non-alcoholic beer and watching how everybody chatted around him, he felt awkward, but a few more minutes and he would leave.
They tried to engage him in the talk, but Yan mostly replied with one-word answers or nods. The girls were seductively flirty with Yan, but he was adamant and coldly refusing them. It didn't take long till they got the hint and stopped with that kind of behavior.
There were still three girls who didn't give up completely and began to plot a plan. They made a pact among themselves. They will support each other to snag him and whoever gets him the rest will be okay with it.
Poor Yan, doesn't know what awaits him in the very near future. Those girls were just sipping their drinks and dreaming about digging their long acrylic nails into his back. Especially the taller girl with blond hair and green eyes. She was fully set on winning him over. She wouldn't mind playing dirty and menacingly looked left and right at the other girls.
After the night outing ended he went to his car followed by the trio, saying goodbye to him and Yan checked his surroundings. Nobody was there. He sighed out of relief, but still, he was worried that those men could wait for him at his apartment house now.
The night was misty again. It annoyed him to hell and back. It really creeped him out. Why it had to be like this? "That damn weather!" He just prayed to be left alone tonight.
Yan was driving home and he had to pass the damn park in front of the school. Suddenly a wolfdog jumped in front of his car like in the morning. He stopped the car with banged his forehead on the steering wheel. He looked up...


He witnessed an unpleasant sight. That wolf-dog slowly morphed into a tall man and the shorter guy stepped out from behind a tree. Yan was shocked and gasped out of fear.