Camera Shy

I work at a recently built city parking garage and transit hub, and late at night it is my job to lock everything up until the morning, and patrol the dark building alone with just a radio linked to the local police department. It’s a very simple procedure that takes maybe 10 minutes to lock up everything, with 15 minute walkthroughs every hour.

Ar roughly 3 o’clock in the morning, I’m very tired from my 8 hour shift with 4 more hours to go. I drag myself through the security center (fancy talk for room with a chair and monitors) and begin my ascent through the ramps. I listen to my foot steps echo, and realize it seemed quieter than usual. I could smell the typical putrid smell of the city, of the fermenting feces in the trashcan from the numerous homeless from the area using the trash bins. We had to lock down the public bathrooms to prevent damage, theft, vandalism, and most importantly deaths from people over dosing in there in the middle of the night.

I finally got to the top floor and summoned the elevator. I placed my forehead against the door, feeling the cold air rushing up through the elevator shaft as it reaches my floor with a satisfying DING! I stepped, got to the ground floor and continued back to the office. I fling the door open and head inside, running for the cold office room and using my magnet fob to unlock the door.

The door usually gets hung up a little, so with a swift heel, I slam it shut and make my way to my desk. The computer that runs the camera’s is worthy of being called ancient…I’m pretty sure they don’t even make them anymore. Not to mention the internet the camera’s run off of is so slow they take forever to update; so I sat there with my new favorite past time: watching myself walk around with a tremendous amount of lag time.

I sat there watching myself drudge on through the stupidly hot weather. I laugh to myself as I watch my head land against the cold steel of the top floor elevator doors. As the doors open and the light floods the area around me my blood went ice cold.

There was a man standing no more than 6 feet away, just staring at me.

As I entered the elevator, he headed for the stairs, already vaulting down the steps. My heart races as I watch each camera as he hits each floor I hit… the 4th.. the 3rd… almost seamlessly he’s keeping perfect time with the elevator. My ears begin to boil as I feel all the blood rush to my head, I’m having a hard time breathing… I watch as the elevator doors close and he begins following me again… getting closer and closer after each turn of the corner. I watch as I fling open the door and he catches it, heading in right behind me; my heart pounding in my ear drums.

He’s INSIDE the building…

I keep watching, knowing I should look away, I can’t find him… then I see why… I kicked the door shut in his face… which means…

As I search the room, I eventually discover it’s just me in there. I radio for a few officers to come in, and they sweep the building, give me a slap on the wrist for not “paying attention”, and left. The rest of the night I stayed in that room. I watched each camera diligently, but never saw him again. Now every time I go to work, I can never shake the feeling I’m being watched…