Chapter 10: Walking Home

Ella passed under a streetlamp and was temporarily enveloped with yellow light. She walked with a steady pace, her footsteps hitting the pavement becoming the only sound in the night apart from the soft rustling of the leaves from the tree branches overhead. After a while, she saw the walking green man of the pedestrian traffic light ahead and walked briskly, hoping to cross the street before the light changed. She was a few steps away when she heard a click and the pedestrian light changed to red. The stationary red man replaced his dynamic predecessor, instructing similar bipeds on the sidewalk to remain still. Luminous numbers on the LED display underneath turned red as well and started counting down the seconds remaining before pedestrians were allowed to cross the street.

Slightly disappointed, Ella slowed down before completely halting her steps. She had hardly stopped before the curb when a car came hurtling past, its horn blaring and its headlights full. It disappeared on the other side of the intersection as quickly as it had appeared in front of Ella.

For a moment, Ella felt disoriented after her eyes were accosted by the car’s strong headlights. Her ears were still ringing from the car’s horns as her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. She slowly lowered her arm which she used to shield her eyes from the sudden brightness of the headlights and looked up at the pedestrian light. The stationary red man pulsed synchronously with the soft clicks of the traffic controller device and the LED display. Patiently, Ella followed the countdown on the LED display in her head, counting twenty seconds, that soon became nineteen, eighteen, seventeen…

Ella had seen the LED counter at sixteen seconds when she realized that there was a man standing uncomfortably close beside her. She gave the man a quick glance and saw that he was wearing a dark jacket with the wide collars turned upwards. A beanie covered his head and hid his hair and ears.

Ella looked back at the LED counter, feeling slightly uncomfortable as she heard the man’s raspy breathing. It was too dark to see the man’s face and Ella could not even tell his age.

Ella was going to step to her right to keep a more comfortable distance from the man beside her, but was surprised that another man wearing a thick coat had stepped forward and stood close to her. He had his hood up, his face not visible to Ella in the dark. Ella was startled by the second man’s sudden presence, but she tried to keep calm and looked back at the LED counter. She jogged in place to keep her legs warm and to stop herself from shivering. She went back to counting down the seconds in her head and waiting for the counter to wind down to zero so that she could cross the street.

The counter turned ten, nine, eight…

Ella breathed deeply and clutched her bag tightly. Surreptitiously, she inserted her hand inside her bag and took out her pepper spray. From her peripheral vision, she sensed the men at her flank swaying slightly as if blown by the wind. She kept her head straight and resolved to keep calm. If the men had bad intentions, she knew she could still outrun them after using her pepper spray. What mattered was that she keeps her wits and prepare to react at the first sign of aggression.

Three, two, one… Ella held her breath.

The walking green man appeared and Ella let go of her breath as she walked briskly to cross the street. She looked at both sides to make sure that there were no incoming vehicles and then jogged all the way to the other side. She placed her hand with the pepper spray inside her jacket pocket, ready to use it should the need arose. Upon reaching the other side of the street, Ella stole a quick glance behind her and saw that the two men walked slowly from a short distance away.

Breathing easier, Ella walked briskly, intent on keeping her distance from the men behind her. She looked at the path ahead and saw the series of conical lights from the streetlamps. From what she could see, the streets were deserted. She walked on, maintaining her steady pace, when from the corner of her eye, she thought she saw a dark figure dart across the street and melded with the shadows at the side of a building. Ella blinked a few times, thinking that the long hours at work had made her a bit jumpy, not to mention suspicious at everything that moved. A stray dog probably, she thought.

Suddenly, Ella was alerted by another dark figure that moved quickly towards the same direction as the first one. The figure moved too quickly for Ella to be able to tell what it was, but she was certain that it entered the dark alley where the first one probably went to as well.

Two stray dogs, probably. Ella told herself. She had not seen a lot of them roaming the city lately, but it was not an impossibility. They seem too big though for stray dogs and to move that fast…

Ella shook her head. Of course, they were strays. Two big stray dogs running around the city at night. Unless those dogs are rabid or extremely territorial, she need not worry, Ella thought. If there was anything that she should be wary of, especially in the city, it was humans not stray animals.

She reached the spot where she thought she saw the stray dogs run past and looked at the direction where they disappeared. There was an alley, but without a streetlamp nearby, it was impossible to tell if the dogs were still there. Ella walked on, her steps gaining speed.

She listened to the sound of her footsteps that made soft echoes as she walked past a deserted school building. She smiled to herself, remembering how she used to be a student in one of those rooms. She glanced at the windows but could not see anything beyond the glass.

Looking forward, she hurried past the school building and walked under the trees. She had not gone far when she realized the echoes of her footsteps were in fact foot falls of someone following her.