horror story: footsteps behind me. no shadow attached to them.

I wasn't going to post this but.

Winter 2023. I was staying in this beat-up studio apartment on the outskirts of the city for work. Not near a subway, not near anything really. Just empty lots and old houses. I got off work past 11pm every night and walked home on this single road with barely any streetlights.

One night, same walk as always. I got this feeling. Someone was behind me. Steady footsteps. Matching my pace exactly, slow and consistent. I turned around.

Nothing.

Okay whatever, I thought. Just my brain being weird at midnight. But then I noticed something under the streetlights. My shadow was stretching out long in front of me and then.

there were two shadows.

Mine. And behind it, slightly fainter, one that wasn't connected to my body at all.

I turned around again. Still nobody there.

A few nights later, same road. Same shadow. Closer this time. And when I stopped walking, the footsteps didn't stop with me. They took one more step forward.

So I started recording on my phone, pointing it behind me while I walked. The video showed nothing. But I put in my earphones and listened back and oh my god. There it was. A second set of footsteps. Not mine.

And at the very end of the recording, barely audible.

"I can see you now."

I went to the building manager and asked him to pull the CCTV from that night. We watched it together.

Something WAS following me.

Same hat. Same coat. Same shoes. Everything identical to what I was wearing. Like a mirror reflection walking three steps behind me.

Except it had no shadow.

After that, people started acting weird around me. A coworker didn't respond when I said hi. And my reflection in the mirror started moving a little late. Like I'd turn my head and it would catch up a second later, looking back at me like it just remembered it was supposed to.

One day I stood in front of the mirror and asked it.

"Who are you?"

And it smiled.

"I've been following you this whole time. Now it's time to switch."

After that day, nobody can hear my footsteps anymore.

But sometimes. Sometimes I find myself walking behind a stranger on an unfamiliar road, matching my steps to theirs.