I Met A Man That Wasn't There Novels & Stories

I was leaving the pack house, and I couldn't let anyone see me. I picked my phone up and sent a text to him: “Meet me at the usual place in ten minutes!” I dropped the phone back into my pocket before I turned on my heels to leave the pack house. The minute I exited the place, I put on the hoodie and headed toward the riverbank where I'd meet with my man. Just as planned, I got to the riverbank, but something was off this time; he was nowhere to be found. He wasn't there. I looked around, thinking that he might be hiding somewhere or so, but I couldn't see him—not a single trace.

That was when he picked up the call. “Any issues?” He asked in a bored tone. “Where are you?” “Out.” “I know. I can’t see you.” There was a pause on the other end before he spoke. “What do you mean?” “I can’t see you,” I repeated, still looking around. Without saying another word, he hung up, making me frown. I didn’t know what propelled me to attend this party when I was bad at swimming in the first place. “Hey, beautiful.” A random man offered me a drink and I shook my head, politely declining it. “Come on, have some.”

I met up with my best friend, Sarah, at a local café to discuss the events of the night. "Hey Sarah, do you remember anything about the guy I was with on my birthday?" I asked, her voice tinged with desperation. She frowned, trying to recall the night. "I'm sorry, Avy. I remember you dancing with a few guys, but I can't put a face on any of them. It was such a wild night." Disappointed but undeterred, I continued my search, asking each of my friends if they knew anything about the man. Unfortunately, the responses were all the same – no one could remember any specific details about him. It seemed as if he had vanished into thin air.

He was coming towards me and I couldn't help but stare in disbelief. I pointed at him, "What?” He didn't answer me, pretending like he hadn't anything I had said. It felt like the last few hours were a dream. Suddenly, the weak and frail man had disappeared like he hadn't ever been there. In his place was the man I had always known. When nobody in the room acknowledged it, I couldn't hold back anymore. “What is happening? How is the man who was nearly dead walking towards me?" My voice rose slowly as I continued to speak.

She could carry on three different conversations without missing a beat. “Nope, a guy.” She stopped wiping the bar and gave me her full attention. “Woah, woah, woah. When was there a guy in the picture? I talked to you last week. There was no man.” “I met him at the event on Saturday,” I said, unable to hide my smile. “Who is this man?” I shrugged. “I don’t really know all that much about him. I didn’t even get his name until we were at the park.”

I have met people that I danced for before and they never recognize me but his case could be different, the man looks like nothing gets past him. "I am sorry, I...uhm...zoned out." I stutter. I can't even look at him. "I asked you what the hell you are doing here!" Yepp, I'm so fucked.

And after that— I frowned. Just before that, I had bumped into someone. Yes, I did… Not hard. Barely enough to warrant an apology. Just a shoulder brushing past mine as I turned too quickly. I-it was a man, that much I remembered. I tried to remember his face. But, Nothing. No clear features. No defining scent. Just a vague impression of… wrongness. Like air that didn’t quite belong where it was. A shiver slid down my spine. “You’re imagining things,” I told myself firmly. “People bump into each other all the time.”

Because the moment I saw it— One thought hit me like lightning. I had seen that face before. Not in the past. Not in memory. But recently. Very recently. Which meant— Whoever that man was… He wasn’t gone. He was still here. Somewhere close. Watching. Waiting.

I’ve never met a man that fucking tall in my life, and once again I can’t help wondering if everything else of his is unusually large. He said we’d meet again, but I don’t see how that’s possible. We never exchanged numbers or names, and while my mask was hardly shielding my face beyond all means of identification, we were in a dimly lit room, and he was mostly getting a bird's eye view of the top of my head. There’s no way in hell I’ll ever see him again, and the thought of that makes my insides feel hollow. Sweet fucking Christ on a Ritz cracker.

I held my head and saw him looking at me strangely. "Are you alright? I've been calling you and you just buffered." Fūck. What was that? What was that weird memory? Or was it an imagination? There is no way something like that happened to me. "I'm sorry, I just... I just remembered something." I looked back at where the man was but my heart fell when I didn't see him. In my haste to prove it wasn't an imagination, I ran to where I saw him but he was nowhere to be found.