The opening line for a story popped into my head yesterday. It came unexpectedly to me while I was in my workshop preparing graphics for a client. It was only the whisperings of a first line and, initially, I disregarded it.

It has resurfaced again this morning and, so, I’ve committed these sparse lines to the page. I don’t know if it will go anywhere. Or, if I take the journey with it, what it may grow to become.

Anyway, here it is.

Gxxx

***

They are there. At the edges. And in the corners. Hiding just out of sight. They are always there, waiting and watching. Watching each of us. And biding their time.

And, then they move. Quickly and silently. They slip past in a flash. So quickly that you’d likely miss them. Most people do. Miss them, that is. Folk just don’t seem to notice them. They’re unaware that they even exist.

But I know they do, for I have seen them.

And I wish to God that I hadn’t.

***

By the way, they are there. Always waiting at the edges. You may not see have seen them yet but, trust me, they are there.

I’ve seen them for quite some time now. Out of the corners of my eyes, I’ll see one of them slide slickly past. I’ll turn and look out of the window, expecting to see a neighbour or, maybe, the postman, walking by. Though, when I turn to look, there is never anyone there to be viewed.

I’ve tried to point them out to my wife but she cannot see them. On the occasions when I’m becoming agitated and am pointing at them, she simply looks at me with a tender smile. She thinks I’m pranking her and she leans in and kisses me, gently chastising me for playing silly tricks on her.

But, I’m not the one playing tricks. They are. They toy with me and sneak close to the periphery of my vision where they blend into the dimness and the haze, only revealing their hideous forms when they appear from the shadows to taunt and to tease me. They hide on the outskirts, lurking at the edges as they continue to patiently wait.

All they need is for me to fail to see them just once, one single – and final – time.

For that is when their vigil will be complete and then they will come, content to wait at the edges no longer.

Gxxx