Someone Is After Me

I had left work that night and headed to my car which was a good half a kilometer away. As I walked I heard my shoes clunking on the sidewalk. Seconds later I could hear the sound of scuffing shoes in behind me. I didn't turn to look back to see who it was, thinking that it was just another person that by coincidence was walking down the same street as me at the same time. You may think, big deal, but in the entire ten years I had worked at that address nobody had ever walked that street at that time but me. I picked up my walking pace and so did the scuffing of the shoes behind me. I knew every knook and cranny on the street so I cut into a dark alley and hid in behind a dumpster. Concealed in the darkness I could see the shadow of an unknown person at the mouth of the alley. He stood there for a second, took a hesitant step forward then stopped and walked away. I exited through the other end and took the long way to my car. 

I thought about possibly being followed as I drove home and kept checking my rear view mirror,  when all of a sudden a pair of headlights snapped on in behind me as I drove in a leisurely fashion down a side street. The car in behind me stayed a distance back and I was not sure if it was following me, so I decided to make a series of covert maneuvers and evasive turns. The car following disappeared from my rear view mirror and I thought I had lost them. But about a minute later the lights reappeared out of the darkness. In response I stepped on the gas and gunned it through a couple of red lights and before I knew it I heard sirens wailing in behind me. It was the cops. I pulled over and as I did the car that had been following me turned a corner and vanished into an alley. The cops wrote me two tickets, but at least the car that was tailing me disappeared and I made my way home without further incident.

That night I lay in my bed and looked up at the ceiling wondering who had been following me. I traced back the steps in my mind to see if recently I had any problems with anyone at work or in any social situation. There was nothing that I could think of. The rest of the night I sat by the window and looked out into the street from my third storey apartment to see if there was anyone near by. If there was it would be almost impossible to know because the streets were incredibly dark with only the dimmest of lights. 

I lay back down on the bed and heard footsteps in the hallway. Then there was a heavy knock at the door and gruff voice said, "This is the revenue service. We've come to collect back the covid payments you've received."

I hollered back, "I haven't received any covid payments."

Seconds later they rammed down the door and burst into the room armed with guns and started shooting.