It was past 3 in the morning. The city was quiet, the streets nearly empty. I booked a taxi after finishing a late shift. The driver\u2014a middle-aged man with tired eyes\u2014didn\u2019t say much. But what made my skin crawl was the way he kept glancing at me through the rearview mirror. Silent. Staring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every red light felt like an eternity. I clutched my bag tighter, pretending to scroll through my phone. When we finally stopped near my building, I handed him the fare, muttered \u201cthank you,\u201d and rushed out without looking back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I stepped into the building, I pressed the elevator button\u2014but it didn\u2019t work. So I began climbing the stairs to my 8th-floor flat. Halfway up, I heard it\u2014footsteps<\/strong>. Heavy. Following mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I froze. Then turned my head slightly. It was him.<\/strong> The taxi driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My heart started racing. I ran up the stairs, skipping steps, fumbling for my keys. The sound of his footsteps grew louder. Closer. Echoing off the cold concrete walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWait!\u201d he shouted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn\u2019t stop. I reached my door, shaking, trying to fit the key into the lock when a voice came again\u2014closer this time. I spun around, ready to scream\u2014 \u201cI think you dropped this in the backseat,\u201d he said, breathing heavily, eyes wide with confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a moment, I couldn\u2019t speak. My hands trembled as I took the wallet from him. \u201cYou\u2026 followed me?\u201d I stammered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He nodded, apologetic. \u201cYou ran off so fast, I didn\u2019t want to scare you. I just wanted to return it before someone else found it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He turned and walked away quietly. I stood there, frozen between fear and guilt, realizing how close I\u2019d come to calling the police\u2014on the man who had just tried to do the right thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That night, I double-locked my door, sat on the floor, and whispered to myself, It was past 3 in the morning. The city was quiet, the streets nearly empty. I booked a taxi after finishing a late shift. The driver\u2014a middle-aged… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cMa\u2019am, please!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And saw him holding my wallet.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSometimes danger looks innocent. And sometimes, innocence looks like danger.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"