The Watcher
Everyone in Ashridge knew one thing.
Peopel disappeared.
Not every week. Not every month.
Just enough that parents started calling their children inside before dark, girlfriends sharing their locations with each other, and college students stopped walking home alone.
No one ever found the missing people.
No eviedence.
No witnesses.
No explanation.
Delilah Jones, twenty years old, had no idea someone knew everything about her.
She lived in apartment 3B.
She loved rainy mornings because they made the world quieter.
She hated tomatoes, collected old vinyl records, and always tied her hair up whenever she was nervous.
Someone knew every detail.
Silas Walters.
Twenty-nine years old.
A man almost no one had ever truly seen.
Whenever security cameras caught a glimpse of him, all they recorded was a tall figure dressed in black.
A matte-black mask concealed every inch of his face.
Gloves.
Boots.
A hood.
Only his gray blue-eyes ever showed.
Cold.
Expressionless.
Except when he watched Delilah.
Then..
He smiled.
Silas stood on the rooftop across from Delilah’s apartment, binoculars lowered as she laughed with one of her classmates outside the coffee shop.
A boy.
He watched him tuck a loose strand of Delilah’s hair behind her ear.
Silas’s smile disappeared.
His phone vibrated.
He unlocked another phone, a device with no contacts except one.
Unknown: “Who’s he?”
Delilah frowned as her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
|~Who’s the fucking guy, Delilah?
Her stomach tightened.
She ignored it.
Another message arrived.
|~He makes you smile too much.
Delilah slowly looked around the busy sidewalk.
No one seemed to be watching.
Another text.
|~Don’t worry.
|~He won’t be here to bother you tomorrow.
Her heart dropped.
She hurried away without replying.
Across the street…
Silas watched her leave.
He whispered to himself.
“Good girl.”
The next morning the campus buzzed with rumors.
The class mate hadn’t shown up.
His phone went straight to voicemail.
His roomate said he’d went on a walk in the middle of the night.
No one knew where he went.
No one could prove anything had happened.
Only Silas knew the truth.
He simply smiled beneath the mask.
Days turned into weeks.
The texts never stopped.
“Don’t skip breakfast.”
“You forgot your umbrella.”
“Red looks prettier on you than blue.”
“You should take the bus today.”
Every prediction was correct.
Every message arrived seconds before it happened.
Delilah became convinced someone was watching her.
She just never imagined the man behind the messages wasn’t trying to scare her.
He belived he was protecting her.
Even if no one asked him to.
Late one rainy evening, Delilah noticed someone standing beneath a flickering streetlight.
Black clothes.
Black gloves.
A featureless mask.
He didn’t move.
Didn’t speak.
Just watched.
Instead of running…
She walked toward him.
Each step echoed through the empty street.
When she stopped only a few feet away, the stranger slowly tilted his head.
For the first time…
Slilas Walters was standing directly in front of her.
Neither of them spoke.
Neither looked away.
The rain fell harder.
Behind the mask…
Slilas smiled.
And for reasons Delilah couldn’t explain…
She didn’t feel fear.
She felt curiosity.
She had no idea this silent stranger was about to change everything.
