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Nino was in chemistry class, hating every second of it with his whole heart. Why he'd taken the course was beyond him, it didn't contribute much to his degree, neither grade nor research wise, since it was so insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Though he'd been fond enough of the subject in highschool to take it in college as well, easy A, he'd told himself. It couldn't be that hard.
And he'd been right, but was it really worth this? In his opinion, not really, the course was boring and heavy on the theoretical aspects, meaning that it was hard to stay awake let alone focused. Especially because this was his last class on Fridays.
Whatever, it would only be 20 more minutes before he could piss off towards his dorm room and sleep through the entire afternoon and night before continuing his thesis.
Suddenly a cold sweat ran down his spine, as if his body was warning him from danger. Nino had had this weird paranoia for his entire life, being the product of an unsafe household and all, so he did his best to ignore it. He wasn't in any actual danger, obviously.
Then it happened again. Was someone staring at him? Nino subtly glanced around the lecture hall, everyone seemed just as drowsy as he was, no one paying much attention to the prof let alone him. Odd. Taking one last sweep around the room just to make sure, he looked out the window.
That was when he saw it. A figure, standing not too far from the campus grounds, partially obscured by a tree. It was at a distance where Nino couldn't even tell if it was facing the school, too far away and the sun too far down to see any features besides a silhouette. Yet somehow it felt like the person was facing them, in fact, it felt like it was staring directly into his soul, though maybe that was just a side effect of not seeing where it was looking.
WHATEVER, he had to tell himself again, people sometimes looked at the campus, it was a pretty building after all. Also weird people existed, Nino would know, being one of them, some may just want to ominously stare into a classroom for a while, maybe they were bored or something. Either way, he should pay attention to the class.
So he did, though the feeling of someone staring at the side of his head persisted.
---
The bell rang and everyone started pouring out of their classrooms. Nino preferred to not get rammed or tackled in the Friday rush, so he took his time packing up everything and bracing himself. Looking out the window a final time he noted the figure was gone, as expected really. It'd just been someone doing whatever, he didn't need to know and didn't want to. All was good, he could get home, eat, then sleep.
There weren't any friends he'd have to wait for, or friends at all, so Nino immediately took to walking to the bus, where he, once stood at his usual corner and waiting, got the impression someone was staring at him again.
It wasn't anything new, his hair was dyed an unnatural colour and he was decently odd looking in general, so why did it make him so uneasy today?
Probably still nerves from that person, and he hadn't slept well the last few nights either, something at the back of his mind urging his body to stay alert, which made him more sensitive to these types of sensations. Nino wasn't about to whirl his head around and search for whoever it was amongst the 30 people at this tiny busstop though, that would be even weirder than someone staring at him.
Thankfully the bus didn't take long, even with the terrible visibility in the late afternoon autumn weather. Once inside the feeling didn't stop, but Nino was just going to pointedly ignore it untile he was home. Maybe it was just an old person judging him silently, which seemed likely enough given the rather small city the university was in. Either way, Nino focused on not dozing off and was at his front door soon enough, quickly getting up to the fourth floor.
He ate leftovers for early dinner and then got ready for bed, which just meant taking his shoes off and opening the window a bit, nothing could get in this high up anway. Not even five minutes after flinging himself onto the covers Nino was out like a light, failing to notice that the feeling of being watched had yet to go away.
---
He shot out of bed to the sound of someone banging on his door. The wall clock confirmed it was late, almost 1 am, which was not a time anyone in the building should be banging on doors. But hey, it was Friday night and knowing his floormates, Nino suspected it was simply someone pulling a prank. Either way he rubbed some of the sleep from his eyes and went to check the peep hole, where he couldn't see anyone.
They must've been quick then, he thought and turned to get back to bed. Halfway there the banging returned, louder and more aggressive this time. Nino didn't have any of it, he stomped to the door and flung it open to scold whoever was doing stupid shit like this, but once again found that the hallway was completely devoid of people.
No one could hide that fast, right? No matter, there wasn't a point to linger on this. Nino closed and firmly locked the door, headed back to bed and layed down, facing the window this time. When the banging at the door started again he merely sighed and turned back around, silently cussing out whoever was doing this.
The sound lasted a good 30 seconds before stopping, at which point Nino smiled happily and closed his eyes again, though they snapped open when the former banging was replaced by a few slight knocks. But they weren't coming from the door, they were coming from the window. The open window.