The Girl and the Black Hoody Figure

Somewhere in a city. Nighttime. Rain coming down. A Young Woman in her 20s is walking down the street. She is wearing a purple hoody listening to music minding her own business. She walks over to a drug store, takes a beat, then continues walking. Suddenly, a Figure who appears to be a person wearing a black hoody walking slowly behind her. The figure is giving her the creeps. She is a bit nervous but continues to walk. However, the figure continues to follow her which makes her even more nervous. She walks faster and the figure walks faster, she turns to another street, the figure follows.

To this point, she’s a bit scared so she decides to run. She ends up in a dark alley hiding. She takes a moment to look to see if the figure person is still there. No one was there. She continues to walk down a different street. Suddenly, the figure person appears out of nowhere following her. She walks faster, the figure walks faster, and she runs again. She finds another dark alley to hide. The figure person is continuing to find her. The figure is almost close to her. She finds a loose metal pipe on the floor, picks it up, waits for the figure to come close. As when the figure is near, she hits the person, and runs off.

She heads towards a bus stop. The bus comes in time, and she goes inside. She sits down feeling relieved. The bus is traveling. She closes her eyes for a little bit. As she opens her eyes she turns around and we see the figure person sitting in the back. (We don’t see their face because of the hoody). The bus stops and she gets out and continues to run. She finally heads to her apartment building. She is only a few blocks away but stops to take a deep breath. She hears footsteps behind her, and the figure is walking towards her. She runs again and goes into the apartment building. She is in her home, locking the door, and grabs a baseball bat. She turns off her lights.

We hear footsteps outside the door and see two feet standing. She says, “Who are you? What do you want from me? If you don’t leave me alone, I’m calling the police!” The figure is just standing outside the door not saying a word. She threatens to scream if he or she doesn’t leave.

Silence.

She checks under the door; no feet are shown yet didn’t hear the person leave. She slowly opens the door. No one is there. She closes the door. Turns the lights back on and the figure is inside standing in front of her. She’s startled, drops the bat, and screams. The figure doesn’t say anything. She starts crying backing away expecting something terrible to happen. The figure finally unveils the hoody. The figure is the Young Woman. The difference is the girl in black hoody is a washed-up version.

We get into a series of flashbacks a young woman wearing a black hoody heading to the drug store to purchase liquor. We see her with her liquor and some drugs in her pocket. And we get see her home filled with drugs, alcohol, and overdue bills on the floor. Some nights we see people in her apartment doing cocaine. And some nights she is recklessly driving at night. Finally, we see her parents having an intervention sitting her down concerned. We see another flashback where the young woman is in the hospital. There was a car accident and she accidentally hit somebody on the road.

This was a turning point for her to check into rehab. After rehab, she has been struggling to avoid alcohol and drugs. She’s taking one step at a time. She starts listening to music because it’s therapeutic. She realizes the moment she passed the drug store the figure of herself appeared. Her old self is coming back to haunt her. Now she’s face to face with her addict persona. The old her says, “You know you miss me”. The old self figure is taunting the new self. The old self keeps pestering the new self to come back to the way it was before where life was fun, life was exhilarating.

The new her is nodding no she was an awful person, she almost killed somebody. The old her argues the victim lived, so it’s all good. The old self offers their hand to come back to the old says. The new self is struggling to get away. The old self keeps repeating, “You miss me, I know you do.” The new self keeps saying no she doesn’t. The old self is making fun the new self being goody, goody sober. Making remarks about being goody, goody is boring. Cannot go a day without a hit.

The new self is backed into corner being harassed by her old self. Keeps offering the hand. She hesitates for a few seconds. Almost considers taking the hand but backs down. The old self magically has liquor in her hand saying, “You want this? It’s really good.” The new self is struggling trying not to take it. But she refuses the imaginary drink. The old self is annoyed and continues to mock. Then throws in insults she’s pathetic, no one likes her, she’s worthless, she’s ugly, and doesn’t deserve happiness. The new self closes her eyes shouting, “Go away!” Her eyes are open, no one is there. She begins tearing up.

Finally, lies in bed and starts to smile. She sees an old photo of herself with her parents. That girl in the picture looks so happy. It’s clear she misses that girl. It’s been a couple of months and even though she’s been clean and sober, an occasional figure pops up now and then, but she is tougher than she realizes. It’s never easy to start all over. We see her lying on the couch telling this story to her therapist. Now, did it really happen? Or was it all an illusion?