“Why are you so afraid of horror movies?” My friend asked me that as we walked into the movie theater. I laughed. “I’m not.” That was a lie. The theater was almost empty. It was a late showing, and only a few people were sitting inside. We bought our popcorn and found our seats. The movie started. It was a horror movie about a family being followed by a strange figure that only appeared in the background. At first, I thought it was actually pretty good. Then I noticed something. The figure was standing in the back of the family’s house. I leaned forward. Nobody else seemed to notice it. A few minutes later, it appeared in another room. Then another. Always watching. My friend whispered, “Did you see that?” I nodded. Then the screen suddenly froze. The theater went completely silent. The movie stopped. The lights didn’t come on. Nobody moved. Then the screen changed. Instead of the movie, it showed the inside of our theater. I could see every seat. Every person. Including us. My friend looked at the screen. “Is that live?” I didn’t answer. On the screen, something was standing in the back row. It was tall. Completely still. I turned around. The back row was empty. I looked back at the screen. The figure was gone. Then I noticed something worse. On the screen, everyone in the theater was looking toward us. But in real life, nobody was. My friend grabbed my arm. “Let’s go.” We stood up. That’s when the movie started playing again. The family on screen was sitting in a movie theater. Watching the exact same horror movie. Then the camera slowly moved toward the back row. The figure was standing there. My friend whispered, “That’s where we were sitting.” I looked at our seats. They were empty. Both of them. The screen suddenly went black. Then white text appeared. DON’T LOOK BEHIND YOU. My friend started shaking. I heard breathing directly behind us. Slow. Heavy. Close. I didn’t turn around. Neither did my friend. Then someone whispered my name. It sounded exactly like me. The theater lights finally came on. We ran outside. I never went back. A week later, my friend sent me a video. He said he found it on the theater’s security system. It showed us walking into the theater that night. But we never appeared on the footage after we sat down. Our seats stayed empty for the entire movie. Then, near the end, the camera zoomed toward the screen. The movie wasn’t playing anymore. It was showing the theater. And in the back row, two people were sitting there. My friend. And me. Except neither of us was looking at the screen. We were both staring directly into the security camera. And smiling. #scary #scarystories #creepystorytime #captionstory #horrortok @DEXTER. CC - @metaphysiko