I wouldn’t say I’m a believer in any sort of phantasm, but after what happened to me, I think you should think twice about what people say.  I remember the exact day that it all started.  It was the day I went to one of those cheap fortunetellers.  I was downtown wandering around after getting out from my job late and I figured I’d look around and catch the next train.  I happened to walk by one of these types of magic voodoo stores.  I always thought of those places to be a little odd but I was bored and had some money to spend.  I decided to give it a look and have my fortune read.  I walked into the poorly lit dark purple room.  It was very small and musty and there was no one in sight.  I tapped the little bell that was on a table near the entrance of the store.  No one came so I started to walk around looking at all of the shrunken heads, herbal incenses, and random magic trick supplies.  I though to myself how easy it would be to steal something and I picked up a skull of some kind of small animal examining it close to my body. 

Suddenly a little woman (also in dark purple) was standing somewhere behind me and asked conspicuously, “Can I help you?”  I jumped and put the skull back and clambered quickly to the woman that barely was the height of my chest.  Looking down, I asked her if I could get my fortune read.  She motioned me to follow her and she walked into a draping rug that led into a backroom that I never noticed.  We both sat down across from each other and she pulled my hands onto a table.  I swear we were sitting there for at least five minutes and I started to yawn since I had work early that morning.

“Common lady, I’ve got a train to catch.  What’s taking so long?” I said.  She paused then gave me a glare.  I’ll never forget what she said next. 

“You will die tomorrow and there will be nothing you can do about it”.  I inscrutability left not leaving any room for me to question her.  How dare this odious woman rip me off and say something like that.

First of all, I didn’t believe this scrawny old lady for five bucks.  It did freak me out a little though because normal people don’t go around saying that to others.  I was almost late for the train when I got down to the station.  I was running to the front car that I always sit in and I was almost to the door when I tripped.  My face smashed into the side of the train so when I came back to my senses I noticed blood dripping down my head.  One of the conductors came over to me and asked if I was all right.  I said yes but my head was pounding.  He saw me fall and he said that I almost fell 4 foot down between the train and the cement on the tracks.  He helped me onto the train and I sat with a rag to my head while everyone stared at me.  I then realized that I could have died if I would have fallen on those tracks.  I tried to expound this thought in my head that I was going to die.  I wasn’t going to die tomorrow because that’s ridiculous. 

The smell inside of the train was of rotting flesh and it made me nauseous.  I fumbled in my pocket and took some pain relievers.  I swallowed them hard while making faces from the taste.  I looked to my right and saw a large dorky man come and sit next to me.  Out of all of the other seats he could of sat in, the fat slob had to sit by me.  You could see the grease dripping off of his toupee.  With his plaid shirt that was tight around his gut and his work pants tinctured brown he seemed normal.  I tried to decide what the man did for a living.  I decided that either he is a janitor and a kleptomaniac or unemployed.  Either way, he didn’t seem normal to me and it made me conspicuous of him.  I felt like I couldn’t breathe in this horrid place.  This man was consuming all of my oxygen.  He’s trying to take all of my oxygen so I can’t breathe.  The blood dripping from my skull made my vision blurry.  I took my pills out again and took some more.  I kept thinking about that woman and her purple store. 

I must have passed out because I was suddenly woken by the train conductor.  This man wasn’t the friendly conductor that helped me before because his grip was firm and rigid.  He probably though I was some useless drunk.  I asked him what town this was and his response was mumble to me.  I had no idea what town I was in.  I noticed the greasy man that was stealing my oxygen tying his large shoe before leaving the station.  I decided to find a taxi.  Realizing that this was a small hick town I decided to head for a hotel that I saw signs for a few miles away.  I started walking down the street towards civilization and I heard footsteps behind me.  It didn’t really bother me at first but about ten minutes later when I still heard the constant stepping of a stranger footfalls getting faster then slowing down and repeating, I started to freak out.  I could feel the drum beats of his huge shoes banging against my rib cage.  It seemed like forever that I was walking with this pulsing click behind me. 

I decide to turn down a street so I can get a view of what this stalker looks like.  Out of the corner of my eye I see the greasy toupee with the stained brown pants.  The oxygen stealer wanted something more.  I try walking fast and faster and this man seems so persistent he won’t leave me alone.  My head is pounding so I take another pill.  I think about the old cruel lady in purple.  “You will die tomorrow and there will be nothing you can do about it.”  I suddenly double over in pain and I can see the greasy man coming up behind me through my legs.  He is saying something to me.  I start to straighten out and trot down the street.  He starts yelling something and waving his arms.  The oxygen stealer is getting close.  What could he want from me?  “You will die tomorrow...” is ringing in my ears.  I suddenly tumble to the ground and my knee makes a popping sound.  I check my watch and it’s 11:59pm.  I’ve been running from this killer for an hour!  I look behind me and see the greasy fat man running towards me screaming yet I cannot hear his words.  I look around franticly for something to throw at him to get him away but there is nothing.  I fumbled to my feet just in time and escaped his raging grasp.  I decided to make a sprint across the street hoping that it would get me away.  I dragged myself to the middle of the street and looked behind me and suddenly it was black.  No noise, no pain, no nothing.  Darkness. 

The news was all over the small friendly town the next day.  “Crazed man runs in front of semi-truck,” they said.  The interviewed a man that was coming home from his late night job of a janitor to his wife and kids at home.  He apparently saw the whole thing happen.  The police said the next day that they think the man had over dosed on prescription drugs.  That old woman might have been right, but at least I was right about one thing. He was a janitor.