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It's been awhile.

I thought maybe it was over, maybe he had decided to leave me be. It has been several months since I have felt that absolute surety that he was out there, waiting in the dark. I long ago stopped looking out the kitchen windows at night. I fear seeing that dark shape silhouetted against the security lights out there, beneath the spreading branches of the Louisiana live oak that shades the patio. Last night I am sure he was there. I got up to wash the few dishes I had to do before bed and as I reached for the light switch, I felt it. That malevolent aura that I've never been able to properly explain.

The back of my apartment faces an empty field and small wooded area. A small chainlink fence overgrown with ivy and honeysuckle separates the apartment property from the field, but it is no great barrier. The children of the complex routinely scale it to go into the woods to play in their own little slice of Terabithia, as have many before them. The woods are small, and traditionally have held no danger. 

But he was out there last night. He has been out there many nights, I think. Out in the woods, wandering that old circular path, just far enough away that I do not sense his presence.

Or is it just me? Am I imagining this hunted feeling? I seem to be the only one that senses it here. The others never seem to notice anything out of sorts. It could be that they, like myself, simply choose not to mention it, but I don't think so. So is it just me? Is it because he is singling me out, targeting me for his baleful intent? Is it only me that feels his presence just outside the boards of my patio fence?

Or am I simply going mad?