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Fictional case file and witness thread from the Apollo Ipsum story world.
Have you seen this entity?
A glimpse through a window. A sound from an empty room. Something you still cannot explain. If you recognise this entity, leave your account below.
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An umbrella keeps pace with the last person walking home.
The bus had stopped running by the time Jo finished her shift. Rain was collecting above the kerbs, and she walked in the road to avoid the deepest water. At the next junction, a pale umbrella turned the corner behind her.
She first assumed the person beneath it was heading towards the same estate. When she crossed the road, it crossed too. When she stopped under the awning of a closed shop, it stopped outside. The rim stayed low enough to hide the face. She could see one hand around the handle, but no rain dripping from it.
Jo called her flatmate and stayed on the line. In the recording attached to Case 17, the flatmate can hear traffic, rainfall and Jo’s shoes. There are no other footsteps. Jo says someone has offered to share an umbrella. Asked what the person sounds like, she says it sounds like her flatmate.
She keeps walking. At her building, she turns back long enough to see the umbrella waiting beside the entrance. The pavement underneath is completely dry. She reaches her flat and watches from the landing window until the rain ends. When it does, the umbrella is gone.
Two nights later, her neighbour asks whether the person who waited outside was a friend. He says it knew his name. Jo tells him not to stop if he sees it again. He laughs, but sends her a photograph of the weather forecast before leaving for work.
The case file contains that photograph and a final voice message. He says the rain is too heavy to walk through. Behind his voice, Jo hears the familiar scrape of the building’s front door. Then the rain cuts out all at once, as if someone has closed a lid.
Has anyone else seen this?
@last_bus
Someone with an umbrella waited outside the shop until I locked up. I took the long way home and they were already at the next crossing.
@wet_coat
Did they ask you to come under it, or did you hear somebody you knew?
@last_bus
I thought it was my mum on speakerphone. My phone wasn’t out of my bag.
Fictional witness accounts from the Apollo Ipsum story world. Leave your own account in the comments below.
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