I'd stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, my breath hitching as I took notice of everyone around me. The fact that so many people were out at this time of night was unsettling enough, but this sparked a feeling of nauseating anxiety you'd normally only feel in a nightmare.

At first I saw it with the man that was walking in front of me. Then the woman walking past me. Even the big dog who's leash was tied around a lamp post across the street. Everyone around me had these.. weird zippers over their skin. As if their flesh was nothing but a suit. Their positions varied between the people. Some had them running from their temples to their shoulder. Some had them going straight down the back of their heads. One of them I could even see had them running fully around their wrists. My mind ran wild with overwhelming paranoia. I couldn't even begin to make sense of any of this. Was this some kind of sick joke? Are they maybe filming a movie? Am I supposed to be here?

That last thought echoed in my mind.. until I eventually came to the conclusion that I wasn't. I didn't feel safe there. So I turned around, planning to just.. leave. I didn't want to cause any trouble or draw any attention to myself, so I turned and left, refusing to look up from the concrete below me. But as I walked, I stopped as I saw a pair of shoes standing motionless in front of me. I'd never felt such dismay strike my heart, and I audibly let a small shaky breath escape my lips. A grave mistake.

Mustering the little stoicism and courage I had left, I slowly allowed my gaze to travel up to the person in front of me: A woman that seemed around my age. She stood there, almost as still as a statue, giving me an oddly warm and.. human smile. One that looked so genuine that, for a second, I almost felt safe again. But then I watched with a growing primal terror as her eyes had slowly rolled sunk back into her head, and I could hear the sound of something unzipping. My nose was immediately hit with the horrid scent of what I could only imagine to be a rotting corpse as I could visibly see the skin around the woman's head start to... loosen.

I did not stay to see what those things looked like on the inside. I didn't even return home that night. I ran back to my work building and begged my mother to pick me up. Only after I explained the situation to her did she agree. I slept at her house for a week, until I felt safe again.

To this day I fear that one of them may have followed me. I can't sleep right. Every noise I hear back at my apartment, every time I walk past a person in the middle of any street, I get uneasy. Like I'm going to be sick to my stomach.

Please. I ask, for your safety.. hell, for your sanity. Do not step foot on Hollow Boulevard.