[ WP ] Something has been watching you and following you your whole life . You are full at aware but never told anyone because they would think you were crazy . It has never tried to talk to you or harm you , but today you finally try to see what it wants .

It took me a long time to accept The Thing. I used to wonder what The Thing was. If it had a name or if I could call to it. But during the quietest parts of night, I came to feel that I did n't need to reach out to The Thing. It knew me. Understood my every thought. And as I pondered my slow existence in sleepless nights, The Thing would sigh in the corner of the room. Unsettling, but somehow reassuring. 
 
 The Thing has been with me for as long as I remember. At first, only appearing after my sorry attempts at going to bed, watching quietly as I faded into my dreamless sleeps. As I got older, The Thing would come around when I was at my worst. It sat with me in the car after I lost my best friend, pulsed rhythmically across the bar on fruitless outings, maybe even put its warm hand on my shoulder when I slumped onto the couch after a hard day at work. Recently it has begun to taint even my good days, like a dead pixel in the picture of my life. 
 
 Martin stood at the doorway of my office today. Congratulating me on my promotion, commending my work ethic or some such nonsense. But I could n't thank him. Not even look at him. I was watching The Thing. 
 
 `` Are you okay?'' he asked. How could he be so oblivious of The Thing sitting right across from me at my desk? After years of it being there with me in front of other people, I knew there was nothing for him to actually *see*. But did he really not even *feel* The Thing there? It's presence was heavier than I had ever felt it before. It almost felt like I was breathing it into my lungs. I looked at him, still baffled by his casual demeanor. 
 
 `` Sure, I am. I've been doing this forever,'' I replied, keeping a careful gaze on The Thing. He seemed concerned for just a moment, then gave a polite nod and walked away shaking his head. 
 
 I could n't do it any more. I could n't take the pressure in the room. The pressure in my head. I needed to breathe. So I got up and took the stairs because I could n't put up with standing awkwardly in the elevator with The Thing. Not today. Though I knew it would follow anyway. I pushed open the emergency door to the roof. No alarm. Broken, as I had discovered on one of my many attempts to escape The Thing at work. The crisp air outside took the weight out of my lungs. I closed my eyes and tried to ease the tension in my shoulders. 
 
 When I opened my heavy lids, The Thing was there, hovering just beyond the edge of the roof. But now it had a face. A dozen faces. Constant and shifting. It was every person in my life that I had loved, wanted to love, or let down. The first person I ever kissed, my English professor, my mother, the barista from the cafe down the street and a dozen more people. All painfully important and miserably insignificant at once. I could n't blink at the sight of them all. My eyes stung and hot tears rolled down my cheeks. It was then that I knew I could n't ever escape it. The Thing would follow me from now on until it finally rotted my soul from the inside out. I heard the wind whip at the intangible garment that shrouded it, then imagined their hands all reaching out to me. 
 
 So I stretched my arm to touch them. And I stepped forward into The Thing's embrace. 

