The Warning

It’s a cold, dreary night. The stars are veiled by thick rain clouds, promising to burst at any moment. Angelica doesn’t seem to mind as she goes out for her daily late night walk. She breathes in the cold air, immediately feeling refreshed. She loves nights like these because they’re calmer. The streets that are usually bustling with activity are quiet enough that she can hear her own feet hitting the pavement.

Angelica’s relishing in the perfectness of it all when all of a sudden something hits her hard on the head. She doubles over in pain, moving her hand in soothing circles on the top of her head. She finally overcomes the shock and immediate pain so she takes a look around to find the item that hit her. She sees a lone shoe just a few feet in front of her. She looks around, notices there are no buildings around, except one.

A dimly lit convenience store stares at her from across the road. She figures it was probably some high-schooler playing a prank on her so she throws the shoe in the parking lot and continues on her way. Not even a minute later, something hits her arm. She looks to the side and the same shoe is laying innocently enough on the sidewalk.

At this point, Angelica becomes angry. Why would a kid do something like this? It’s not funny and it could have hurt her even more than it has. She decides to leave the shoe where it is this time and begins to walk away. Not even 30 seconds go buy when the shoe hits her back. She turns around, enraged, expecting to see the culprit. Except there’s no one. She comes to the conclusion that there’s no way someone could have run across the street in that time to throw the shoe at her. She’s extremely confused and slightly afraid. She picks up the shoe and inspects it. It looks like a normal enough shoe, except for a funny little red marking on the side.

Angelica suddenly feels like she should go home. She looks ahead of her to the forest path she always takes to get back home. She loves taking that path. It smells like pine and it’s always so calming. Now, it feels ominous.

She drops the shoe, going back the way she came. After a few minutes, she looks over her shoulder. The shoe is still where she left it. She feels like after this experience, she may have to rethink her walking routine. She’ll stick to the more urban areas where more people will be able to witness anything weird like a shoe hitting her multiple times for no reason.

She finally gets back home. It’s cool since she left the windows open a crack. She immediately closes them. She usually reads before going to bed but the last 20 minutes have been draining so she gets ready for bed and instantly falls asleep.

The next morning Angelica awakens to some terrible news. A body of a female was found on the path in the forest she usually takes home. The female was raped and murdered. The only evidence at the scene, in the hand of the female, was a shoe with a funny little red marking on the side.