“I don’t understand,” the blonde looked uneasy.  He didn’t know why a doctor would want to come after them and stalk them like this. 

However, upon further thought he decided to pose a question. “Okay, but why did we run? He’s just a plague doctor. Maybe we should go back? He might have been trying to tell us something.”

Maybe he wasn’t so bad? Maybe he wanted to ask them about something regarding the plagued, or maybe he even wanted to warn them about a threat?  So many questions ran through the boy’s psyche about what could have been, and they were all cut short by them running away like little cowards.

“No way, man,” the auburn-haired boy held up his hand. He didn’t want to hear any of his friend’s mouth at this rate. They were in enough trouble as it was. “He was charging at us. I am not going back.”

That would be like hanging himself from the gallows. He just wanted to hide away from this deranged psychopath.

“It was just a doctor,” the blonde replied as the two of them started walking down a path that led behind some houses that were lined with small trees that stretched up like shrubs and shrouded the two of sight.

Suddenly, there was a pair of footsteps that didn’t belong to either of them.  That familiar jingle sounded in their ears as they stopped in their tracks.  They could almost feel the figure breathing down their necks as they turned to see the familiar silhouette emerging from the fog.

It was the doctor.

He had followed them again, walking in a slow manner as if taking a casual stroll.

“Wait! Is that him?” The auburn boy’s body locked up and his taut muscles trembled. Fear coursed through him again and he could feel his blood run cold at the sight of this figure.  Widened, brown eyes and shrunken pupils glanced at his friend as he looked for some sort of sanctity in all of his hell.

“How did he get here?” They were more than three blocks away.  They made sure to stay hidden and dart through the houses to lose him.  They even glanced behind themselves occasionally to make sure that he wasn’t following them.  It was almost as if he had some otherworldly powers and teleported to their exact location.

The auburn-haired boy flinched and he turned to take off running again before his arm was grabbed and he jerked back towards the blonde, whose green eyes bore into his form.

“Wait,” his friend commanded, “don’t run.”

“What’s he doing?” The auburn-haired boy was so confused and scared.  He just wanted to be away from this man.

“I don’t know,” the blonde wanted to talk to him, to attempt to draw up some kind of conversation.  They couldn’t keep running. If they did, this man would keep pursuing them. 

“Hey!” He turned to the doctor, who offered no response and kept walking towards them. “Are you okay?”

Nothing.

The two boys stood their ground as the sound of footsteps and jingling grew closer.  The doctor stepped towards them at an even pace, beak pointed to them as if he saw them as some destination.  He was mechanical in movement and completely silent.  Although he was beneath a mask, they heard no loud or echoed breathing.  They were determined to put an end to this, determined to find out what he wanted once and for all.

And then, they took off running before he could get within an arm’s reach of them.

They ran until they were on the other side of the town.  The two wandered through houses that hadn’t been inhabited in months.  It was completely dark in that part of town and they were certain that he wasn’t going to see them or even think about coming into an uninhabited sector.

“Hey,” the blonde looked to his friend who turned the corner of one of the abandoned houses, wearing terror like the finest threads bestowed upon mankind.

“What the hell?” The auburn-haired boy’s voice dripped with fear. “He keeps following us.”

“Let’s go into that abandoned house and see if we can shake him,” the blonde pointed to a house in front of them that had a red cross painted on the door.  

The two of them ducked inside, flinging open the door as the rusted hinges caused it to effortlessly swing.  The boys immersed themselves in the darkness of the former plague house.  They had to struggle to keep from tripping over the debris that lay on the floor.  The family had left long ago and their belongings were gone through and ransacked. Things were destroyed and thrown about, so the two of them had to watch where they stepped. 

They turned the corner to see the doctor standing in the doorway without his staff and lanterns. Their screams echoed through the cold, night air and the last thing they saw were their reflections in the blood red lenses of the doctor before everything faded to black and the night hung above them like a bleak omen.

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