Snippet: Youth-level Horror Story

Prompt: Write the first few paragraphs of a horror story for young adults.

Have you ever had that feeling like someone was walking behind you, watching you? Usually it’s when you’re alone in the dark in a hallway with lots of open, dark doors, or a street you don’t know when the power’s not quite right and the streetlights are flickering like they’re blinking back tears. You slow down and speed up and no matter what you do, you can hear their footsteps matching yours beat for beat, and every time you try to glance them when you pass a window or mirror, all you see is the wall behind you. You know there can’t be anyone there- it’s totally illogical and massively improbable, but you also know what you feel, and at that moment it seems like you’ve never been more aware of anything in your whole, entire life.

That’s kind of how it feels to be me, except not only in the dark and scary places. For me, it’s also in the hallway at school or the mall or the grocery store or the movies. No matter where I’m going, it always feels like I’m being followed by something I can’t see, that’s always gone whenever I turn around to look at it. For me, all those paranoid little feelings you get when you’re walking alone and you’re scared, the ones you don’t let yourself think about, the ones that seem silly when you’re back safe in bed or have the front door safely latched against your back - all of those feelings you say aren’t real? Well, maybe they aren’t for you.

Maybe you’re one of the lucky ones.