The Walk

Getting away from the city is always a welcome change. The chance to breath in fresh air. Air that is so cold that I can feel a slight burn as it travels down my airways. I love wandering through these small villages, the manicured gardens, the uniform nature of each house. But most of all the quiet.

When Max rolled over and asked what I wanted to do today, a nice walk was at the top of the list. We got dressed and headed out of the door as soon as we could. We put down the windows, put some music on and just drove.

Watching the little side roads disappear, we were going further away from our usual walking spots. Seeing the concern and confusion growing on my face, Max turned the music down. “Don’t worry hun, while you were in the shower I found a little village it looked so beautiful I thought I would surprise you.” I smiled back at him and relaxed just enjoying the rest of the ride.

We pulled into one of the side roads, grabbed our backpacks and headed off on our walk. It was a beautiful village All of the houses were set far back from the road and had large rolling gardens. The red brick was something to dream for. The air was filled with the smell of the small butterfly bush flowers. It was a dream come true.

Making our way through the winding streets, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. It was unnerving, but surely it was all inside my own head. Glancing over to Max I was surprised to see a look of concern on his face. I asked if he was ok, he got closer to me and whispered in my ear. “I think we’re drawing attention from the locals”. I smiled feeling relieved. “Thank goodness I thought it was just me feeling that way.” Max looked me straight in the eye “oh it’s not just a feeling, haven’t you noticed all of the curtains twitching?”. Trying not to make it too obvious I looked at the house that we were just passing and as if on cue the net curtain was just bouncing back into place. We picked up the pace and headed onto the next street.

There were no curtains twitching or people staring out of the windows on this street. It was much more obvious that we were being watched and we could not shake the feel that we simply were not welcome there. There were four elderly men out tending to their front gardens. They all seemed to stop what they were doing and started to watch as we made our way through the street. I grabbed Max’s arm and pulled him towards me. “I think we should leave; I am really not feeling comfortable here. It is really starting to freak me out”. Smoothing my arm to reassure me “come on now, we have come all of this way, and I know it’s freaky, but they mean no harm. There is a woods up the top of this street, we’ll go through that. We will be away from everyone and then we can head home”. I forced a smile and we continued with our walk.

The woodlands was pretty the way that the light filtered through the trees the breeze rustling through the leaves on the tree. The bluebells covering the floor. It was so beautiful and so peaceful. We could finally breath a little. It was so beautiful I had to take a phone. Max and I got into frame and week took a selfie. I looked at the photo we took, and my blood ran cold. In the background of the photo were three shadowy blurs. I zoomed in and could make out the silhouettes of three men.

I showed Max and it was not even a question anymore. We need to leave and leave now. Instead of walking towards the men, we made a large loop and walked quickly as to not alert them, they we have seen them, but fast enough to keep a large gap between us and them. We rushed through the streets. There was only one man, still tending to his garden. It was at that moment we knew who was chasing us. All of the curtains were now opening and there were people of all ages and genders just looking at us. We ran the last part and got into the car and we drove away, as fast as we could. Passing the men on the way out that just followed us with their eyes.

We love our walks away from the city, but for now we both decided that it would be for the best for us to stay in the city for the foreseeable.