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WARNING (this story contains depictions of stalking, be wary before reading)

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The water quickly rushing down to meet it’s mother earth was merciless and triumphant. 

“Oh that’s a good line,” I said to myself. 

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I quickly jotted down my passing thought into my writing journal and then stared back at the rushing waterfall. My writer’s block has been ruthless the past month. It’s been pretty irritating in all honesty. I got myself into the middle of my book and then it was just nothing. But I can feel it. 

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I can feel that what I need to write is just around the corner just at the ends of my finger tips but it just hasn’t quite reached where I need it to be. I looked next to me and saw some people taking pictures with their phones and then some with their actual really expensive cameras.

Maybe I can write something that compares the two? How would I do that though? I could compare phone’s reliability and convenience to those really high end lens cameras, do they really give you the same results as the advertisements say? I jotted the question down to research later.

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I looked over to the left of me and decided to try and gain some inspiration from the foliage nearest to the path. I’m kind of glad that my roommate forced me out of the apartment. Maybe I was just surrounded by too many familiar things that I grew a blandness to them. I can gain new experience here and then when I go back, I can have a new sense of gratitude to the things I once found routine. As I walked over to the flowers, I noticed a group of guys walking in the same direction as I was, but on the other side of the path. Out of the corner of my eye I could see 4. They looked around my age and were a lot taller than me, making me a little nervous. I smoothed my burgundy skirt down more, the suspenders attached to it resisting the movement. 

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I decided to focus on the roses and tulips, now in front of me, and looked at them in awe. My mom’s favorite flowers are tulips. I should buy her some and visit. I haven't visited home for a while so I think that would be a good idea, I can bake her some chocolate chip cookies too. I’ll see if Ashley can help too since she loves baking. I felt the weeds scratch against my black tights so I moved back a little bit. Don’t need a tear in these yet, I just bought these. I looked at the flowers and frowned not feeling anything. 

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I sighed, continuing to walk along the path to find something else. As I was walking however, the same group of guys started walking in the same direction again. I felt chills run down my spine. No, its okay they just so happen to be going the same way as you..at the same time. I breathed in deeply, stopping at a very large oak tree. I took my phone out of my black jacket pocket and decided to call Ashley to ease my nerves. 

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It rang 5 times before her voicemail answered me. I cursed at my phone, putting it back into my pocket and looking up at the tree. The stature of this tree is as large as my fears. I hummed, jotting it down in my notebook with the note “make it sound better”. As I closed my notebook, I heard the 4 guys from before laughing and taking their phones out. Are they laughing at me? Are they taking pictures of me?

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I decided that was enough inspiration for one day and started walking down the path back towards my apartment. The tiny pebbles on the ground crunching against my white combat boots. 

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I kept walking and felt my phone buzz. I took it out from my pocket and saw it was a text from Ashley that read,

“Sorry girl, stuck at work :( how’s the inspiration trip going?”

I heard crunching from behind me so I turned around but didn’t see anybody. As I turned to look in front of me again, I saw the guys still following me making my breath start to quicken. I decided to walk a little faster, clutching my phone in my hand.

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The guys kept walking the same way as me. 

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My breath hitched and I continued to walk.

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The guys crossed the path so they’re walking behind me. 

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I start jogging.

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The guys picked up speed. I start running.

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No please no.

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“Alright get him!” One of the guy’s yelled.

All of a sudden the 4 boys dove into the foliage off the path and jumped onto something. I heard a loud grunt come from the same area. Then a camera rolled over near me coming from where the guys were. 

“Get off of me!” an older voice yelled.

“Keep him on the ground! I’m calling the cops,” another guy’s voice boomed. A guy with a green collard, button up shirt and big blue jeans started walking over to me. I moved backwards out of fear and he put his hands up above his head.

“Hey hold on okay? Let me explain,” he said bending down and picking up the camera I was just near. 

He pressed a few buttons and then offered it to me.

I still stood frozen.

“I said get off of me! And give me back my camera!” The same older voice shouted, making me flinch.

“Don’t worry he won’t hurt you, we won’t either. I promise. Here, look,” he said motioning the camera to me.

I gulped and slowly walked over to him. He ran his fingers through his blonde hair and bit his bottom lip, letting go once I was in front of him. I took the camera from him and saw a picture of me, more specifically of my legs and skirt. I covered my mouth with my hand as I pressed the arrows on the camera, seeing multiple pictures of me and even some up my skirt. I gave the boy the camera, feeling shocked nauseous.

“I saw the guy taking pictures of you when you were at the waterfall. He was standing behind you and with everyone else taking pictures you probably didn’t realize. I pointed it out to the other guys but they thought I was just seeing things. But then when you started walking away to the flowers, he started following you and since there was still a bunch of people nearby with cameras I think he thought that you wouldn’t pay him any mind. Then my friends started to notice so we started following him just to be sure. Then when you went to that huge ass tree, he ducked into the woods near the path to try and hide himself. We couldn't tell where he was until you started running and that's when we got him," the boy explained.

“Oh..yeah okay that…yeah I’m sorry I thought all of you guys were following me,” I said pointing to him.

“Yeah we figured that out when you kept glancing at us and started running. We saw him starting to run to catch up to you so that’s why we were running."

“Dereck! Cops are coming,” one of the guys said from in the woods to the boy standing in front of me.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be here to talk to them but I’m sure they’ll want to talk to you about what you want to do about this whole thing.”

“Y-yeah,” I stuttered. 

I felt my hands shake and Dereck put his on my shoulders.

“Let’s go over there and wait for the police. Don’t worry, my buddies got him, he won’t get away. We’re actually all on the wrestling team," he said proudly.

“That’s good to hear,” I smiled at him.

As he smiled at me, my eyes widened in realization.

Him.

He’s right around the corner, he's on my finger tips, I can feel it.