The Man In The Hoodie Short Story

The Man in the Hoodie The woman boarded the silver Amtrak train bound for New York City in the wee hours of the morning. It was prior to rush hour, so the train was nearly empty, and she was the only person occupying the last car. The woman got on in Boston, and her car remained empty until Connecticut, when the man in the gray hoodie boarded. She was half asleep with headphones tucked in her ears when he entered the car and took the seat opposite hers. She straightened up in her seat and nervously glanced over her shoulder. His face was hidden by the hood of his sweatshirt, but she felt as though she was being stared at. She turned up the volume of her music and pressed her head against the window, hoping to divert the man's attention away …show more content…
In the midst of her search, she tried to call her mother back, but the words "No Service" flashed across the screen each time she pressed the call button. She scoured the train twice with no luck. The man was nowhere to be found. He must have boarded the train to leave her gift and then left. That, or he was hiding. With her phone not working, she had no one to consult over her fear, and so she sat trembling in silence in her seat. Her fear began to subside around seven o'clock, when the train was moving furiously through Virginia and her stomach began to growl. It had been several hours since the last sign of her stalker, and she had convinced herself he had boarded the train to leave the present for her and then departed. She passed through three other passenger cars before she reached the dining car, where she intended on ordering a cheeseburger. She knew it would be cooked in a tiny microwave oven and taste terrible, but after the day she'd had, all she wanted was to indulge on disgusting, greasy food. "I'm sorry, we're all out of cheeseburgers," the woman behind the counter said. "Would you like something …show more content…
When she arrived, she saw a cheeseburger in a steam-filled plastic container sitting on her fold-down tray. Her eyes widened. She quickly tapped the shoulder of the man seated in the window seat. "Excuse me, sir, did you see who left that there?" she asked, gesturing towards the cheeseburger. He briefly looked up from his book, gave her a strange look, shrugged, and returned to his reading. She tossed the cheeseburger in the trash and checked her phone again, desperate to get in touch with her mother. She still had no service, so she tapped the man sitting next to her again. "Sorry to bother you again," she said. "But does your phone have service?" He looked annoyed, but removed his phone from his jacket pocket and glanced at the screen, and then nodded at her. "Could I borrow your phone?" she asked. "No." A few hours later, the attendants began turning off the lights to allow the passengers to sleep. The woman tapped one of them as they walked by. "Excuse me, miss, would it be possible for me to get a sleeping car? I don't think I'm going to sleep well here." "I'll check if we have any vacancies and get back to you," the attendant