Leaves in the Wind
A dry rustle makes Nicholson turn. Leaves, caught up in a breeze, gliding lazily across the sidewalk before settling back to the ground. The muscles in his neck and shoulders tense.
Just leaves. Relax.
He turns and continues down the street.
Not a big deal, he thinks, though he’s started to walk faster. It happens every October. The leaves fall, dry like shed snakeskins, and are blown about by the wind along the street.
Once more, he can hear them behind him, skidding across the concrete, a hollow rattling whisper.
Nicholson turns again. The wind is still gusting, and the leaves, suspended in the air, twirl and dance as if alive.
As if alive.
Nicholson bolts. This is silly, he thinks even as he picks up speed. The spirit he encountered all those years ago is long gone, a forgotten phantom that Nicholson escaped decades ago.
Only it isn’t silly. He has too much experience with his old nemesis to think it’s a coincidence.
The leaves stop and he glances back. It’s toying with him, playing on his fears. He slows, then stops, gasping as he catches his breath. Running, he decides, won’t do him any good. His only defense all these years has been to keep a low profile, and now that defense has been shot to Hell. Nothing left to do but face it head on.
“Nicholson.” The voice comes out a dry dusty whisper. “I told you you couldn’t avoid me forever.”
The wind kicks up around him, forming an invisible wall, tugging at his shirt sleeves, tousling his short sandy hair.
“How did you find me?” Nicholson asks.
Leaves dance around him in delighted autumnal laughter.
“I am the wind. I am everywhere.” The breeze grows louder, stronger. “You are free because I let you go, not because you could have escaped me on your own.”
“Then why did you let me go?” Nicholson tries to sound defiant, but can only manage a strangled croak.
The wind has become a tornado.
“Because I enjoyed watching you run, because you were always looking over your shoulder, terrified of every breeze, every rustling leaf. But I’m tired now, and hungry, and in the end, even amusing prey is just prey.”
Nicholson’s shirt brushes against that spinning wall of air and the fabric tears, yanked away to become part of the raging tempest.
Nicholson’s eyes open in wide, preternatural terror.
“Goodbye, Nicholson.”
The wall closes in.
Nicholson screams.
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