BUZZ-BUZZ

I got up and pushed a button on a small console on the wall, near my apartment door. "Hello?" I was pretty sure who was buzzing my room but held the button to listen to the other side to be sure.

"It's me. You ready?" Tommy's voice came from the plastic box on my wall.

"Be there in a minute," I replied.

I reached for my wallet and apartment key on the counter, then turned off the lights and left, locking the door behind me. As I reached the exterior exit, Tommy was facing away from my building, his left hand in his pocket and the other on his hip. He was taller than me; I was fairly short, so most people were. He was thin; some people might consider him gangly due to his size. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt and an opened button-down that had a green and blue swirly design on it. His worn blue jeans were wet from the knee down on his left leg.

"Hey," I said, opening the door. Before I could ask about his wet shoe, he told me.

"Dude. I walked straight into a puddle." He was clearly irritated. "Way deeper than it looked too."

"You want to borrow some pants and shoes?"

"Nah," he said. "I'll deal. It's a hot day anyway. Maybe it'll keep me cool."

"Optimistic as always," I said as I fell into step beside him, making the familiar trek to Bingo's Pizza. Michael would be there soon. He worked on the outskirts of town and drove to Bingo's, instead of walking like us.

Tommy huffed. "Stop trying to make my positivity sound like a bad thing. You would be optimistic too if you had a girlfriend as wonderful as Trisha! You really should, man. Having a girlfriend is great! Bad days can turn into backrubs, movie nights, maybe some makin' out. And then there are good days." He winked, then looked at me seriously. "When are you gonna get back in the game, man?"

"Ha. When do I have the time?"

"You say that, but you have more time than you let on. We could take one Saturday off so you could find a date. Then maybe we could double. Trisha keeps saying that she wants to meet you." We turned the corner and onto a busy sidewalk. "Not that we need to double date. I just think it would be fun to do once in a while. So?" He asked expectantly.

"So what?"

"Oh, come on. Is there anyone you're into? Like at work or something?"

I winced. "I don't want to date someone I work with. I feel like it would be a weird transition. Plus-"

"Plus nothing," Tommy interrupted. "I know why you don't look for anyone. You don't want something to change your day-to-day life. You like your routine." Tommy overexaggerated the word 'routine', saying it in a deep voice and bobbing his head side to side as he practically drooled out the word. He made it sound like it was a bad thing to have in my day-to-day life.

"That's not-" I cut off, "completely true," I mumbled, which just made him laugh.

I changed the subject, which he didn't argue with and I got an earful about how great Trisha was. The word "Beautiful" was used no less than seven times; I counted. I was happy that Tommy found someone that he liked so much but he talked about her almost too much. He really had beaten the subject into the ground. I learned more about what Trisha was doing with her life than Tommy was doing with his. Trisha had gotten a new haircut that made her look "Even more beautiful than usual." She started mentoring a kid at a school every Tuesday and Tommy remarked that "She's got such an amazing soul." She was almost done getting her teaching degree and he declared her to be "Smart and gorgeous." Her sister was getting married in a couple of months and Trisha's dress for the wedding made her look like, "The most stunning woman I had ever laid eyes on." Tommy would be going to the wedding too and that was about as much as he said about himself since I had asked what was new with him.

While we walked, I was nearly bowled over by at least three people. Most people gave us the normal wide berth, but many would get much closer, only to realize that I was there and swerve just in time to avoid hitting me. A runner would have hit me if I hadn't moved out of the way at the last second. Tommy didn't have this problem. Why was I so invisible today? I thought about Mr. Mycolf's dog not barking at me and my neighbor shutting the door in my face. Was I looking too much into this?

I got a chill. It was sudden and I couldn't tell what had prompted it. Goosebumps formed on my arms and didn't go away in the warm air. In the middle of summer, a chill would normally feel inviting but this feeling would not go away. I glanced around, paranoid, looking for something out of place. I stopped listening to Tommy as he continued to talk about Trisha. What was happening to me? Nothing seemed out of place; nothing but me. It felt like people were barely acknowledging my presence, almost like I wasn't there.

Someone rounded the corner just ahead of us, dressed mostly in black and with bright green eyes, almost too bright. He stood out like a sore thumb, but no one else seemed to notice. I recognized him immediately; it was the man from my dream. The man who had been sliced by unseen blades countless times. None of the cuts were there. His face was handsome and unmarked. There was a break of people between Tommy, me and the approaching man. Tommy didn't seem to even notice him. And the man didn't seem to notice Tommy. They were going to collide. I grabbed my friend by the arm and pulled, turning him so he would not hit the stranger.

"Alex!" Tommy yelped, startled.

I looked back, the stranger had stopped and was looking directly at me. My heart hammered in my chest and I pinched myself as our eyes locked. I was awake, right? I was terrified that gashes would erupt across his body again, but he just turned around and continued walking away.

"Hey!" Tommy said, shaking me slightly. "What gives?"

"You almost ran into that man," I said, keeping watch of the man until he turned another corner.

"Oh....kay." Tommy sounded unsure as he glanced back down the sidewalk. He searched the crowd in a way that made it obvious he had no idea who I was talking about.

"I think he turned another corner," I said as I started walking again, hoping Tommy would let the subject drop. My mind was racing from the freaky Déjà vu. I just wanted this day to stop being so weird. No more people that no one sees, no more feeling invisible.

"Riiiight," Tommy said skeptically. "Maybe it was a ghost," he concluded nonchalantly. Tommy had always believed in ghosts and I had gotten tired of arguing against it. I had never believed in that kind of stuff, but I was starting to wonder if he was right. The day was weird enough without that type of conversation so I made no reply.

I still had goosebumps prickling through my skin but my nerves were somehow calming down. It was strangely comforting to know that this stranger also seemed less visible to others. It was also strangely calming that I recognized him from my dream. I realized how calming it was and slowly worked up a panic again; there, that feels better. Part of me wanted to find him. But what would I say? 'I had a dream about you?' No. Best to just keep moving and get the day over with. Things would go back to normal soon. At least, that's what I kept telling myself.

By the time we reached our last turn, I gained some of my composure back. "You called me Alex," I stated flatly. It was an odd thing to focus on right now, but I had too many questions needing answers swirling through my mind and wanted to start resolving the growing list of things that were bothering me. Might as well start small. Plus I didn't want him to start asking me questions about why I'm acting strange.

"Sorry, Xander," Tommy said. "I know you don't like being called Alex. You just startled me, that's all."

"It's fine." It's not like I was really mad at Tommy. What I needed was to talk. Tommy was one of my best friends. He was definitely my oldest friend and even though we weren't as close as we used to be, it made sense to talk with him about my dream. If not him, who? "Hey, I need to tell you something."

"What's up?"

I took a breath, but someone else spoke. "Hey!" A familiar voice called. " Tommy! Xander! Over here!" We looked ahead, it was Michael, a few paces from his car in Bingo's parking lot. He came up to us in a slow jog. "Hey. I got here just in time! What's up, guys?"

We greeted him, Tommy quirking an eyebrow as if asking the question, 'should we talk now?'. I waved my hand to let him know that it could wait. I didn't know if Michael would be as accepting of my problem as Tommy would be. Besides, I was hungry and ready to eat. We walked towards Bingo's, the smell of greasy cheese, sliced meats and baking dough making my stomach rumble. I didn't realize how hungry I was until the pizza place was in view. I was glad to be with my friends. They made me feel safer and more at ease. They made me feel like I was really here. The ominous feeling I had and all the questions that the events of the morning had brought up seemed less important now. I even managed to put the green-eyed man, who seemed to have popped out of my dream and into my reality, out of my mind too. I sighed and felt a small smile forming on my face when a loud crunch to our right instantly flattened my grin.

We all looked to see Michael's blue sports car, dented near the back and one of the tires flattened with a deep gash on the side. A back window was broken and glass littered the ground around it. The car alarm rang out and all the noise attracted several people from the pizza parlor and the surrounding buildings. Almost as soon as they came out to investigate the commotion, a spray of shattering glass quickly scattered them.

Fear rippled throughout the street and as my eyes caught sight of the culprit, terror settled like a stone in my stomach. A man leaned against the car with a wicked grin on his face. He stood slightly hunched over, his hair was grey, matted and messy. His eyes were larger than they should have been and his gaze was steadily focused on me. I suddenly wished I was still invisible. That gaze alone curled my toes. When it was accompanied with the item in his right hand, I was ready to turn and run with everyone else. He held a long, thin sword. It was like a weapon from a video game, stupid-long, but he didn't seem bothered with its impracticality. The blade was easily four feet long, probably more. It had what appeared to be small sharp chips near the base of the sword, like a saw, but the rest of the sword looked normal and sharp.

"Found another." The man said in a high-pitched, throaty voice. He pushed off from the car and started walking slowly in my direction. "You make number four. Found three of you last night. Maybe I'll get lucky again today. How bout you just hold still and make this easy for me? I'll make it quick! Almost painless!"

Without thinking I shouted at Tommy and Michael. "Run!" They stood, looking at me with confused faces. The man broke another car's window and slashed another tire, which caught their attention. "Run!" I repeated. They left, both of them reaching for their phones and looking back at me until they turned the corner and were out of sight.

I stood staring at the crazed man. My legs felt like they were made of stone and my feet wouldn't budge. I would have run with my friends if I thought we had a chance of getting away, but I felt like my legs would keep pulling me down every step of the way. Tommy and Michael would likely try to help me along, but that would just put them in more danger. This crazy man seemed focused on me, so the least I could do was try and give my friends time to get away. With my feet feeling like they were cemented to the pavement, I felt like my body was encouraging this valiant act. My body is stupid, and now I would have to find a way to confront this madman; somehow.