What does it mean to be alive and well...

Look, i want to be honest. I didn't intend to take any of this seriously.

I mean, I only started a blog on here to vent at Echo for running off and filling my head with all these scary stories. I was gonna pollute cyberspace with yet another single post blog, and leave it at that.

But as is obvious, there was a change of plans. 

I feel really silly saying this, internet though it may be. i really have no option but to believe you guys and all this stuff your posting about.  

I got attacked the other day, i mean it was kinda my own damn fault, but still... it was... unsettling. 

After seeing Echo's post about visiting Stormecho in NYC, she had let me know her travel itinerary in case i wanted to meet up with her on her way there. A friendly face and all that jazz.  

I thought it'd be a lot funnier to get the jump on her and play a little prank. So i grabbed my self an old baggy hoodie (chalking a nice big Operator Symbol on it), a trucker hat, and a pair of aviators and packed up all my school work, heading off to Trenton Rail Station.  I sat around for  hours reading my text books, and doing homework at the track for Penn Station, waiting for Echo to show up.  Eventually she did. After i spent my entire day there. Apparently she missed a train or two on the way...

I ended up getting on the train with her, keeping my self at a fair distance and my face obscured, faking her out a couple times, staring at her and turning away suddenly, as she noticed. I could barely keep my self from laughing the look on her face was priceless. until, about an hour in, i noticed a guy wearing exactly what i was wearing, sans the shades. Including the Operator Symbol. 

And when i saw him .... the fucker winked at me. and saddled up beside me. He smelled. Really badly. Like he'd spent days and days in his own filth. Almost laughing pretty much turned into almost gagging.  I didn't know what to do. I had reached the point of no return monetarily and would have turned around, but i couldn't leave Echo alone with this freak stalking her.

The freak that wasn't me, anyway...

So i ended up following her to Penn Station with the smelly stalker guy practically glued to my hip.  Eventually she either tried to lose us or just had to go pee, and headed into one of terminal's ladies rooms. Now if he had any of the built-in decency that guys should have (but don't), he wouldn't have started walking casually into there after her.  Now i don't know why it freaked me out so much, but him starting to follow after her into there brought me from 'freaking out' to 'freaking the fuck out' , and i went and yanked his collar and pulled him back  yelling "no" at him in as big a voice as i could muster.

Obviously i wasn't thinking straight. I started walking away, as he sort of just stood there for a good thirty seconds. Then, like a shot he starts turns around, and tries to grab at me. at the same moment i start to run from him, just in time to keep him from getting at my body but he ends up catching on to my messenger bag, and tearing right through the strap. sending all my stuff clattering against the floor. He keeps right on after me.  

I book, faster than i have ever in my life and get on the first train i can, leaving right before he's able to get on. And get thrown off at the first stop since i didn't have enough money for a ticket. Or a pay phone. 

I also was given a rude lesson in trying to ask a new yorker to borrow their cell phone.

And that's why i ended up spending a terrifying night in central park. I mean if your homeless, or at least temporarily roofless, in new york, that's where you go, right?

Luckily i was able to scrounge up enough change the next morning, outside some of the street cafes, to call my folks for a ride. I almost ran into mr. smelly at one point while i was picking up pavement pennies. it scared the crap out of me and i froze up  for a couple minutes before i got my wits together and walked away slowly so he wouldn't notice. luckily nothing else happened till my parents came.

As to be expected i'm kind of in the dog house at the moment because of the whole running off to new york unannounced thing. Normally that'd bother me a lot, but what i can't wrap my head around is this, the whole time i laid there on that bench in central park. waiting for morning to come, He was there, watching me. Suit guy from the park, i recognized him, but he was a lot closer this time. I could see his face this time, and to be honest the lack of one made me shiver a lot more than the cold did. as the sun came up, he just cocked his head at me and walked away into the tree line. 

You guys were right, and i was wrong, I thought this was some dumb game Echo was playing at, but now i'm deeply deeply concerned about what that means. There's no wind tonight but the crashing against my window is even louder for it and i keep hearing "rat-tat-tat" at my bedroom door. The worst part is i know my family is all down stairs, i can hear my little sister playing her violin and my father telling her to keep practicing. If he's out there, then he's out there with them.

I've had auditory hallucinations before, when i'm stressed or sleep-deprived, but i've never, "seen" anything before.  Let alone for the whole night. Maybe i'm just rattled from the adventure on the train. The guy could have just been yet another psych ward patient thrown out on the streets and i could just be seeing things. I really don't feel like taking my chances though. If this is all fake you can get you're cheap laughs at my expense later, but i'd prefer to be not dead than a fool, so as per marble hornets i'm going to set my webcam up to keep watch over my room for me as i get a little sleep.  I fucking need it.

~Poprocks and coke,

Rivka