Andrew had never felt so tired. His bones ached, his head was pounding and his muscles were sore. Through half slits, he looked at his alarm clock.

In the dark, it looked like he was looking at a bunch of jumbled up numbers.

Andrew groaned as he fell back onto his bed, savoring the feel of his cold sheets on his sweaty back. He was about to close his eyes, sleep taking over him quickly, when a knock suddenly came at his door. He sat up, his back straining, making him wince.

"I gotta stop working these late shifts all the time," he whispered in the dark.

For a moment, he expected someone to answer him back, but after a few seconds of silence he knew no one was there.

He slowly got up and shuffled to the door. He looked through the peephole to see who had knocked and saw nothing. He opened the door and stuck his head out, looking left, then right, then left again.

Finally, after listening hard and only hearing the wind whistle in his ears, he closed the door, securely locked it, and walked back to his room.

"Maybe they had the wrong house," he muttered to himself. He climbed under the sheets and let out a long sigh. Once again, he was about to fall asleep when another knock came at his door. Andrew grit his teeth.

"OK, this is getting a little annoying."

He reached blindly for a flashlight, knocking over some things that had been laying on his dresser. His hand wrapped around at what he thought was a flashlight, but as he looked closer at it, he realized that it was only plastic wrap.
He flung it across the room. The plastic wrap bounced off the wall making a hollow 'whoosh' sound. He groped once more and found it lying on its side. He pulled it down and examined it for batteries. He turned it on and off a couple of times and then proceeded to walk to the door. Andrew flipped the 'on' switch and this time, he left it on. He unlocked the door and slowly peeked out. He shone the light outside, the bright lights glaring across the freshly cut lawn. He saw his newly parked 2002 Sonata sitting in the driveway, silent as a mouse, its bluish paint glaring back at him, making him smile. He loved that car. He had gotten it only a few months ago, the car lot that he had gotten it from said that there were only a few to choose from since a lot had been bought that week. He had gotten the only blue one that they had. The dealer kept trying to persuade him to buy another car but he was stubborn, he wanted that car, so he got it. He circled the front yard with the flashlight, stopping every now and then when he thought he would see something scampering from the light. He was about to go back inside when he heard a noise.
He listened more carefully, straining his ears to determine what it was.

"What the . . ." Andrew said trailing off. "Sounds like someone's breathing real heavy," he whispered, instantly shutting the flashlight off.

The noise seemed to be getting closer so Andrew flipped the 'on' switch and light flooded the front yard once again. Almost instantly, the breathing stopped.

Andrew was shaking by this time. He could feel tiny droplets of sweat running down his face.

That . . . is . . .no . . . animal he thought, taking the flashlight and pointing it to a nearby tree. No animal breathes like that, not any kind of animal that I've ever heard of anyhow.

He waited a few more moments to see if the breathing would start up again.

He waited. And waited. And waited. Until finally, his body was screaming to get some sleep. Stifling a yawn, he turned toward the house, switching off the flashlight once more. When he got inside, he locked the door and went to bed,
grateful to be able to lie down.

Andrew's last thoughts as sleep caught up with him was "It was just my imagination,"

The next morning Andrew piled out of bed and stood in front of his bathroom mirror.

His hair was standing straight up on top of his head, his face had imprints of lines in them, he guessed that during the middle of the night he had slept on his arm. As he stared at his reflection at both of his eyes, he noticed that they were a bit red.

So red in fact that it scared him a little to look at them.

What in the world is going on? he thought as he continued to look at his blood red eyes. He tried rubbing them, thinking it was because of the light above him but when he stopped and looked again, they looked even redder than before.

Then he knew something was wrong.

He stepped away from the mirror, feeling scared and confused.

"What I just saw CANNOT be real," he said, running his fingers through his hair.

Or can it? He was scared to go back to look so instead he took a shower.

After he was finished and had dressed, he grabbed his keys and got in his car and went to work, determined not to let what he THOUGHT he heard last night and what he thought he SAW disturb him.

At work, Andrew tried concentrating on his work and found that he couldn't. He didn't have to have anyone tell him why. He knew why. With a frustrated growl, he stomped downstairs to the break room where he decided he could figure out just what was going on if he had a little piece and quiet. It was way too noisy in here with all the machines running at different speeds.

Down at the break room, he saw that there were only a few people sitting at the tables smoking their cigarettes and getting things from the snack and pop machines. He sat down at the very end of one of the tables.

All of a sudden, he thought he could hear breathing. He looked across the tables at the workers sitting down. He frowned. "That can't be," he said, looking around to see if anyone was behind him.

"No one is near enough for me to hear them breathing, but yet I hear someone breathing as if they're right next to me." The breathing got louder and soon it sounded as if it was right in Andrew's head.

"Time to go...Andrew, no time to waste, you don't have to run, there is no haste."

Andrew jumped out of his seat. Andrew's eyes got as wide as saucers.

"Who said that?" A few coworkers had started to look at him strangely but he didn't seem to notice. He looked around the room to see where the voice had come from.

That's when he heard a little chuckle come from somewhere behind him. He looked and didn't see anyone.

"Time to go Andrew, no time to waste, you don't have to run, there is no haste," it repeated. This time it was louder and the voice sounded angry.