Sunset Cliffs is beautiful enough to make people linger. Even after the sun is gone, the ocean keeps pulling your eyes toward it.
That is why people notice the bench.
The Man in the Blue Jacket
Claire first saw him at 12:18 a.m.
She was walking back toward her car after sitting near the cliffs with friends.
A man in a blue jacket was sitting alone on a bench facing the water.
He did not move.
Claire walked past.
Then he spoke.
“You dropped something.”
Claire stopped.
The Photograph
At her feet was a small photograph.
Old. Glossy. Slightly curled at the edges.
It showed the exact bench in front of her.
And on it sat a woman.
Claire.
Don’t Turn Around
She heard the man stand.
Her friends had already reached the car.
Claire remembered something her father once told her after years of surfing the area:
“If you hear someone behind you at the cliffs after midnight, don’t turn around until you reach the street.”
She had always assumed he was joking.
Now footsteps followed her.
Slowly.
Exactly matching her pace.
The Empty Bench
Claire reached the street and finally turned.
Nobody was behind her.
The bench was empty.
She looked down at the photograph.
The image had changed.
The woman on the bench was gone.
In her place sat the man in the blue jacket.
He was looking directly at the camera.
The Next Photograph
Claire threw the picture away at home.
The next morning it was sitting on her kitchen counter.
This time there were two people on the bench.
The man in blue.
And Claire.
This story is fiction. The setting is real; the haunting is ours. Browse Yawnder Night Stories.