Paranoid - Maybe

Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.

The prompts: This story must contain the words: Blind, Ring and Chosen

Paranoid - Maybe

I know they’re watching me.

They know I know and somehow that makes it worse.

Not that it makes any difference. I have a job to do; what happens after that doesn't matter.

I am jolted back to the moment by the phone. I reach into the booth and grab it on the first ring but no one is there.

It must have been a test. Yes, a test.

The watchers pretend not to notice but I saw a few heads turn. They saw me see and turned away quickly; as if interested in a storefront window or a bit of something on the ground.

A “passer-by” hands me a flyer and disappears into a crowd hustling across an intersection.

It looks like an advertisement for some sort of bookstore. I know better. I can see things that others are blind to. I try decoding it but the message is illusive. They always make it hard; just in case it’s intercepted.

It wouldn’t do to have the “others” know what I know.

I squint at the words and let the message come to me. My implant shuffles through complex algorithms, looking for patterns.

Finally, I see it.

“Go five blocks east and wait,” it says.

I pretend to cough and slip the flyer into my mouth. I swallow quickly just in case “they” try to intervene.

With a casual look around, I pretend to have made a random decision and head east.

Most steer wide of me as I push my cart of possessions along the sidewalk. If only they knew who I was. If only they knew that I walked amongst them.

But I remain anonymous. I do so only because the “others” are watching – waiting for an opening.

The others fear me because I am the Chosen One.

Word count 300