The trail was supposed to be empty.
Ryan knew he had stayed too late.
The last light was disappearing over the ocean when he saw the other hiker.
The Man in the Gray Hat
The man stood on the next switchback.
Gray hat. Dark jacket. Hands at his sides.
Ryan waved.
The man did not.
Ryan kept walking.
Always Ahead
Five minutes later, the man was still on the next switchback.
Same distance away.
Ryan sped up.
The man remained ahead.
He never appeared to move.
The Wrong Direction
Then Ryan realized something worse.
The man was facing him.
But every time Ryan advanced, the stranger somehow appeared farther down the trail.
Facing him again.
Don’t Stop
Ryan’s phone had no signal.
He remembered a warning he had once heard from a ranger joking with tourists:
“If you see someone who never changes distance, don’t stop walking.”
Ryan had laughed then.
He did not laugh now.
The Shoelace
His shoe came untied.
Ryan stopped.
For one second.
The man vanished.
Then a voice spoke directly behind him.
“Took you long enough.”
The Run
Ryan ran downhill without looking back.
He heard footsteps behind him.
Not running.
Walking.
Slowly.
Keeping pace anyway.
The Trailhead
Ryan reached the trailhead and finally turned around.
The trail was empty.
His phone buzzed.
A photo had appeared in his camera roll.
Timestamped two minutes earlier.
It showed Ryan running downhill.
Behind him walked the man in the gray hat.
This story is fiction. The setting is real; the haunting is ours. Browse Yawnder Night Stories.