Caroline sat in the bus terminal in St. Louis awaiting her next ride. She was on her way to Los Angeles for a well deserved vacation. While she was sitting there, she noticed an old man looking at her from across the room in another chair. She was mildly frightened at first, but she felt as if she had seen him before. She offered a hesitant wave, in case this was true, and he looked away hurriedly. She was rather confused. The whole situation was was becoming eerily familiar, she had a vague impression it had all happened before: the old man, his stare, her wave, the quickly averted eyes. She felt as if she were reliving some past moment, yet she had no clear memory of such a time,. Even the setting seemed familiar, as if she were recalling some long forgotten dream. The old man then got up and walked out of the terminal. She decided to move from her seat to one where he wouldn't see her. As she was doing so, she thought she caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye. She quickly looked, but there was nothing. She continued, all the way to the end of the terminal, and sat down, a very safe distance away in her estimation. The next few moments happened so suddenly she wasn't even aware of what was happening until it was too late. She felt hands wrap around her throat from behind, and a croaky voice whispered in her ear very vulgar things not worth repeating. As she faded into the darkness, she recalled a dream...
Caroline woke up screaming. Then glanced about the Greyhound bus, abashed. Several people were staring, one asked if she was alright. She assured him she was, that it was just a bad dream. She couldn't even remember what she had dreamt. She suddenly recalled where she was going and beamed. Los Angeles was going to be fantastic. They arrived at the terminal in St. Louis, where she took a seat awaiting the next bus. Then she saw an old man looking her way.
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