Fourth Place in 2024 Writer's Contest Subway cars are excellent places to watch people without being observed. Come rush hour, most people are too absorbed with getting home, too worn down by the day's travails, to pay much attention to what's not right in front of their noses. Wait a little later and it’s almost certain that they’ll be lost in their own little world. You're no different; absorbed in the worn paperback novel you have open in front of you. You only read it when you're on the train; I can tell by how far you've progressed over the past few days I've been watching you. You're invested enough in the plot, though, that I could probably take the watch from your very wrist and you wouldn’t even notice. Even if I didn’t already know where you got off, you telegraph your movements, putting your book back into your purse and standing up, even before the train starts pulling into the station. That choice makes it easy to follow you, to pretend I’m just another one of over a dozen people getting off here. There's a group of teenagers that exit ahead of us, making enough noise to wake the entire street around us. I glare at them annoyed; they don't seem to be aware of much besides the argument they are vehemently having, but I don't want to take the risk. At the same time, I've already made the decision to make a move tonight; it feels like such a shame to change my plans, last minute. Fortunately, they turn off well before you reach your destination, clamouring into a small café that promises ice creams and fancy cold drinks. With their departure, a sort of peace falls onto the street, leaving only the pair of us travelling through the night. The hunter and their unsuspecting prey. Adrenaline seeps into my veins and I can feel a thrill in my blood. This isn’t the first time I’ve hunted like this, but every time I feel the same excitement, like it’s always my first show. Despite the darkness and the emptiness of the street, you are not nervous. You’ve walked this route too many times; you don’t remember how unsafe it is. You don’t consider the fact that using the little alleyway jutting between those two abandoned shops as a shortcut, is a risk you shouldn’t take. You haven’t noticed that the road curves slightly here, enough that the middle of the alley is invisible from the main straight. Nor do you consider the heavy metal dumpster that you have to slip past every time you go, more than large enough to hide anything that might occur behind it. Despite my caution and your own overconfidence, you're starting to realize that something is not quite right here. There’s a slight hitch in your steps and your pace begins to slow. Familiarity breeds contempt, but right now, the instincts that normal humans, like yourself, have long been trained to repress, are screaming out a warning. The primal warning prey feels in the presence of an apex predator. Suddenly, you turn to look behind you, probably just to reassure yourself that nothing is there. When you spot me, you freeze, our eyes locking together. I should close the distance now; take you down while you’re still in shock, before you have a chance to scream. Even if it’s likely that no one is around to hear you, there’s no point in taking that chance. But my feet stay where they are and we stay locked in this tableau, the climax right before the hunt’s finale. You’re not petite, but you are no large woman either. I have at least six inches on you, as well as thirty pounds, not to mention experience taking lives of more formable prey than yourself. You are nothing more than an office worker who has likely not seen death outside of the TV screen, or the pages of those novels you like to enjoy. Even if you don’t know what I am, you should know that my being here is neither coincidence, nor benign. You should know that you have no chance against me in a fight, that even if you took off running now, you’d never make it to the end of the alley. That there’s no one here to save you, and that you are unlikely ever to make it home, or even to the next morning. You should know these things and if you do… Why then, are you the one still smiling?