I live in a small town and a river runs through it.
There is a trail leading along the river from our district to the more central parts and that particular path is not frequently used because it is overgrown, overflows with water frequently and is therefore, constantly muddy.
It is also quite littered as some of the locals tend to party there leaving behind empty bottles.
I sometimes used to walk there anyway because the river itself is nice and I prefer the more isolated tracks.
This happened about 2 years ago when I first ventured there (previously I had not known there even was a path).
At a certain spot (not far from where people get water from the nearby underground spring) - I got a feeling as if I was being followed.
I had a specific sensation that someone was walking behind my back - oblivious, too, to the proper distance between humans to observe to each other's comfort zone.
The presence was pushing into my back - even if I felt no breathing or touching. It was truly like one would feel if someone was, for example, standing too close in the bus or supermarket line (before pandemics, of course).
It followed me a certain distance (not more than 10 meters) and then I felt it no longer.
Mind you, first of all, it is a wildly overgrown spot and I had never walked before so I was more cautious than usual. It is not a security feelings inducing place (with lots of shrubs and impossible to see far ahead) so I was sort of jumpy.
Also, the river is quite wide there and the bank is not upraised - it is quite level with the shoreline and the path and it creates a dizzying sensation that the stream is carrying you along or beating the grounds from beneath your footing.
I am saying this to address the psychological effects of the situation.
As I kept walking, I was also hit with peculiar realizations that is not regular with me.
I had the distinct feeling it was someone who had 'wasted away' - drinking themselves into slow death. It was possibly one of those riverside frequenters although, for some reason, I never believed the individual died there.
It was as if he was still hanging out.
The other perception that I got (and I am really not a medium, I rarely get such impressions) was that nobody noticed.
That person was getting lost and nobody noticed it.
You know how certain groups of society become invisible despite them still being alive. 'Drunks and poors' - they sort of become ghosts before dying.
That was the impression I got.
I was also sad and I wanted to help but, at the same time, I was overwhelmed with that sense of intrusion, not knowing the bounds, pushing itself into my privacy.
I walked there many more times and mostly, I got the same feelings around the same spot and the same sensation of somebody treading behind me.
I did not feel threatened or in any danger.
Oddly, I felt that we were simply... Incompatible.
I have very heightened senses such as a very keen sense of smell.
What other people find tolerable, I can often find unbearable to the point that I have to leave the situation.
So it might be that some of that 'stench of misery' was imprinted into whoever was hanging out there and it was too much for me.
But each time I was met with the presence around the same spot and it left also pretty much in a fixed site.
It could be still there, I haven't checked.
It is, of course, possible that someone actually died there (due to exposure, for example - our autumns and winters are cold). For some reason, I find it hard to believe.
There is a grave-like structure, too, and quite large but I suppose someone buried their pet (a larger dog probably) in that grave. There are private houses atop the hill overlooking the river and people used to bury cats and dogs near their residencies.
But I don't think it was a cat or dog following me because I felt most uncomfortable around the shoulder and neck area and I got the feeling that the individual was slightly taller than me.
So that's the story:)
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