The Night of the Flyers
an excerpt

“I know you won’t believe me. I’m not a fool, and I’m not crazy. Yeah, I know, people must say that a lot, but I’m not.”

“We don’t use words like crazy here, Mr. Davidson.” Dr. Philips leaned back in his chair and made a tent of his fingers. It seemed in the last few years all his clients were merging into one. All their stories were starting to sound similar. He let his mind drift for a moment as he looked at his long fingers. This is the church, this is the steeple. He tried not to smile as he thought about making the movements with his hands....open the door and here are the crazies. Would the man seated across from him notice? He focused on Davidson again for a moment. Suit: not cheap but not tailored, rumpled and stained, shoes not well worn but recently scuffed. Hasn’t shaved for a couple of days; no obvious smell of alcohol or drug use.

“There’s something following me...tracking me.”

“It’s not uncommon to believe we are being followed, Mr. Davidson. Have you gotten into any arguments with family members lately? Coworkers?”

Davidson slapped his thighs and stood up abruptly and started pacing up and down the room.

“You’re not LISTENING to me! I didn’t say some*one* is following me, I said some*thing*.”

Dr. Philips eyes focused back on his patient again abruptly and one well manicured eyebrow arched up. “Some...thing? Like..an animal? We are well within the city limits, Mr Davidson.”

“Listen, I only know what I’ve seen. The last few nights, I’ve been followed around the city. I never see what it is exactly, I just catch it from the corner of my eye..but I can feel it. It’s following me.”

Dr. Philips took a deep breath. Well, at least this one had a slightly different twist on the usual paranoia. “Do have a seat, Mr. Davidson. Now, let’s look at this rationally. You are a logical person, you know there really isn’t anything out there.”

*

“You know there’s something out there, right?” Marie looked over the top of her book and grinned.

“Oh yeah. I saw it stalking that stockbroker dude earlier tonight. Either it’s new at the whole stalking deal or it wanted him to see it cause he looked pretty freaked out. He ducked into an office building across the street."