Four

David flinched at the sight of something moving, but when he turned to see what it was there was nothing there.  He was sure that he had seen something, so he started walking to his right, in the direction that he thought he had seen something move. 

He was about half a block away from his office building when he thought maybe it was just a shadow of a bird on the ground.  Then he realized that he hadn't seen any birds, either.  He stopped in his tracks and looked up at the sky in wonder.  Just as he was starting to feel stupid, staring at the sky, movement caught his eye again.  This time he was sure he hadn't imagined it - something dark had moved quickly and disappeared around the corner.

Frantic now, David began to run towards the corner.  He stopped at the corner and looked around, but again saw nothing. 



Frustrated, and sure that he had seen something, David smashed his way into a couple of buildings on the block, but found nothing.  Just as he was about to give up, he thought he heard voices coming from down the street.  Like the movement that he had seen, the noise startled him.  Again, he sprinted to the end of the street and looked around.  He could still hear the voices, unable to understand what they were saying, but they seemed louder to him. 

He determined that the voices seemed to be coming from a sporting goods store across the street.  He ran to the store and peered into the windows, not wanting to smash the glass if someone was inside.  He didn't see anyone, so he yelled out.

"Hello?"  David yelled.

Nothing.  The voices stopped.

"HELLO?" He yelled, louder.

Again, no response.  David then smashed the glass on the front of the store and stepped through.  He didn't see anyone or any sign that anyone had been there.  He ran through the store, more and more panicked.  He was going in circles from one part of the store to another, out of breath, ripping clothes and sports equipment off of racks and looking under displays and in dressing rooms.  There was no one there. 

He again thought he heard voices and he sprinted up the unmoving escalators to the second floor to search the women's section for the source of the voices, but he found nothing.  He went up to the third floor, which was all hunting, fishing and camping supplies and searched everywhere.  It felt ridiculous, but he looked in every tent display so that he could be sure that no one was hiding from him.  Every time that he began to doubt himself, he would hear the voices again and would search again with a renewed vigor.  But he never found anyone.

After 45 minutes, exhausted and emotionally spent, David sat on the floor and began to cry.  He was sweating from the exertion of running around the store and trembling from fear and panic.  He suddenly felt like he couldn't swallow or catch his breath and after a few moments of struggling, David passed out.