Free will only existed to those chosen to inhabit it.

Eerie silence shrouded the earth with its uncomfortable, melodramatic hum. It was something you swore only you could hear so late at night. No caterwauling cars on the road, no beating bleats, no flapping flies. That night even the most mundane noise shut off at a moments notice, and just as quickly struggled to turn itself on correctly again.

Every day is like the other. A monotonous repetition that threatened to drive you insane. It never mattered what you did, because every anomaly would just reset itself every morning at 12:00 am. Sometimes, if you were listening hard enough, you could hear it. Deathly hum, and the slightest rewinding sound of everyone being out back in their place.

For a long time you followed along, until you couldn't. Something was wrong, and you knew it too. Somehow the sun gleamed a little to dull, a little too cold. Often you'd ask yourself if the world was ending. Hell, sometimes you'd ask your boyfriend, the boy stuck in the loop. Though, when you ask, it's as if he never heard you.

Tomorrow was different. No movement when you woke up, no sounds of calculated footprints, no nothing. The house was darker than you remembered it being. Occasionally you felt as if you were being watched. A smell of a chain smoker hobbled about in a nonchalant way that put you off.

Outside, the day is different. It's nothing but the ghosts of what used to be. Scorched on the pavement, the essence of the people that used to walk all over it. Behind you, a breath, languid and teasing in it's efforts.

Someone is here.

Someone is watching.

Something is wrong.

He doesn't wait for you to move, and neither does the earth. The sun bolts out of the sky, just as you turn around deep, brooding, lightning blue eyes are the only thing you can see. Time stops, slows, stills. All it takes is a snap to press the world back into motion around you.

That morning, you woke up. Boyfriend pressed on your chest, still asleep even though he would have been up by then. Your neck is sore, it feels wrung, you feel sick. Right about now a real kiss from your boyfriend is the sexiest thing in the world compared to the lifeless husk he had been.

Everything seems to be back to normal, but you feel it deep down, and you feel it ghosting your neck. That breath, those eyes, and that hum are still there.

Just hidden. Waiting for you. Persuing you like a rabid dog.

He will have you.