The Murder of the Lurking Visitor

The Hallucination

Holly was embarrassed to go back to school after her incident in English class as she knew people who have something to say about it. Her friends only wanted to know if she was okay but her other classmates found it funny. Word of the incident has spread around the school and it was a topic of interest for everyone. It was a strange thing to happen so Holly could understand why but she hated that she was the centre of the story. It made her look forward to her weekend even though this weekend she would be going back to work at her part-time job after a couple of weeks of holidays.

She worked in a supermarket in the warehouse and stacking shelves. It wasn't great but it gave her some extra money and work experience. She was surprised that the night before her first shift back, she had a great sleep. No nightmares and no waking up in different parts of the house. She was glad and hoped that this was the end of the nightmares at least. She still felt on edge and as if she was being watched.

On her bus, to work she sat with her earphones in not paying much attention to the rest of the people on the bus. She could feel eyes on the back of her head and knew someone was staring at her. It was almost like the back of her head was burning. She didn't want to turn to see as she knew it was probably in her head. Just before her stop, she decided to look behind her casually before she stood to get off the bus. She was surprised to see the bus was completely empty behind her apart from one woman at the very back. She knew there were more people on the bus before and not enough people had gotten off for it to be this empty. She stared at the woman at the back, getting a feeling she knew her from somewhere. The woman was looking down at her hands before she looked up and smiled at Holly. It was Mrs Addington and she stood to walk towards Holly before the bus halted to a stop.

Holly lost her balance as the bus stopped and fell to the floor. She was startled and embarrassed and grabbed her bag and stood up very quickly. She looked at the bus again but it was full now. Everyone was looking at her, not sure if she was okay or not as she was just standing there staring at them.

"Are you okay?" The bus driver asked as he came out of his seat

Holly was confused and embarrassed so she smiled at him.

"I'm fine, thank you," Holly said quickly getting off the bus.

She was confused as to why this had happened when she was awake. She wasn't sure if she had fallen asleep on the bus but she didn't feel tired as she had slept great the night before. She now felt very on edge and as she walked the short distance left to her work she felt like everyone was staring at her. She began to sweat as she walked faster to get to work, hoping to feel a bit less flustered.

Holly felt a little better going into work. She was greeted with smiling faces from her friends and some customers she knew. It eased her mind a little as she made her way to the back of the shop to the staff changing room. The changing room was empty as was the toilet when she went into one of the cubicles. As she finished her business the toilet door opened and someone walked in. They never entered a cubicle but Holly instantly felt uneasy. The person walked in front of the cubicle door she was in stood facing the door.

"Sorry, this one is in use" Holly stated politely

The figure didn't move until Holly stood and flushed the toilet. The figure moved away from the door and Holly heard the toilet door open and close. She was scared for a minute to open the cubicle door but she knew she couldn't just sit in there all day, her shift was due to start in a few minutes. She hesitantly opened the door for the toilet to be empty. She peered into the other two cubicles to make sure she was alone. She took a deep breath, washed her hands and left the toilets trying to calm herself down and keep a sane state of mind.

Holly's shift was slow but she was very busy which felt unusual for her. Usually, her busy shifts were fast but she felt the day dragging. Her boss was in a bad mood, the work was heavy lifting and customers were annoying. She was glad when she was sent to the back to open the back door for a delivery. The warehouse was eerily quiet which made Holly uncomfortable. Usually, it was loud and filled with voices of the rest of the workers. She made her way to the back of the warehouse where there was a big metal shutter that she would have to open to collect the delivery from the lorry driver.