The girl with the pigtails.

"A Good Day for a Walk"

Alexandra had woken up an hour earlier than usual, so she finished her consultation earlier than she usually does. She asked her assistant if there were any other patients on the list for the day, and the assistant replied that there were two, but they didn't show up.


Alexandra opened the window of her office on the third floor of the hospital. The day was cloudy, and she felt a cool breeze.
It was about 20 degrees, ideal walking conditions. She checked the weather app and noticed there was no rain forecast for the next five hours. So, Alexandra decided to take advantage of the calm at work and visit her grandmother for lunch.

She grabbed her purse, smiled at her colleagues, and reminded her assistant that she would keep an eye on her phone in case anything happened during her absence.

As she left the hospital, it never crossed her mind to get into her car. The pleasant weather, the idea of a warm noodle soup with ground beef in tomato sauce and serrano chili, and a quiet chat with her grandmother excited her.

She walked a couple of blocks and reached the Alameda, a square with tree-lined paths fed by a water channel that crosses it from end to end. This place gave her a lot of peace. Sometimes, she would sit on a bench under her favorite tree in this spot, an ancient evergreen oak, as old as the church behind it. It is said that the tree existed long before the Alameda was built.


But this time, something changed. A cold sensation made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, as if she were being watched. She discreetly turned her head and saw a girl a few meters behind her (about three body lengths away). The girl didn’t seem like a threat—she appeared young, no older than 22, slender, very pale, with black hair tied into two perfect pigtails. Alexandra smiled to herself and thought, “What’s wrong with me? She’s just a girl walking in the same direction as me.” She continued walking.


In the distance, the melody of "Alley Cat", the tune played by ice cream truck vendors, could be heard. Alexandra thought, "Is that the ice cream truck? I’d like to bring one to Grandma." She turned the corner and felt the same sensation as before. She glanced back, and there was the girl again, still three steps behind her, hands tucked into a black denim jacket, with a Nirvana smiley face on the front and the words "I hate myself and I want to die" on the back. Her steps were silent.

Alexandra’s heart began to race a little. “This isn’t normal,” she murmured to herself. She looked around and decided to step into a nearby convenience store.

She distracted herself by looking at the shelves, pretending to be interested in a can of soup, then flipping through some magazines at the store until an employee told her that reading magazines or newspapers from the counter was not allowed. She apologized and realized that 10 minutes had passed, enough time for the girl to have turned down another street.


She left the store and took a deep breath, convinced she no longer had anything to worry about. But as she took her first step… she saw her again. Standing across the street, motionless, with her head held high and eyes fixed on her. She wasn’t blinking, and although Alexandra would describe her as a very pretty girl with delicate features and a fragile silhouette, there was something in her gaze—a dark gleam—that made the blood run cold.

At that moment, Alexandra felt her neck tense up. It wasn’t just that the girl was waiting for her; it was as if she knew exactly what Alexandra was about to do.

Tensed, frightened, and with her pulse racing, Alexandra quickened her pace. She had already covered too much ground to go back to her car, but the girl kept following her, maintaining the same effortless pace. Alexandra could hear her own footsteps echoing in her ears, but she couldn’t hear the girl’s. It was as though the girl wasn’t touching the ground.


As she turned onto a quieter street, Alexandra couldn’t take it anymore. She stopped and, trembling with both fear and anger, shouted, “Who are you? Why are you following me? What do you want?”
The girl stared at her, tilting her head slightly, like a dog when it’s about to be fed, but without the tenderness that dogs inspire.

Her black eyes never left Alexandra’s, and a psychotic smile spread across her face—only on her lips, never in her eyes. She extended her arms like a child being picked up from school and said, “Take me with you! I want to go with you!” Her voice was calm, almost childlike, but with something off about it. “Take me home with you!”


Alexandra instinctively stepped back. There was no direct threat in the girl’s words, but the air had become heavy.
“I don’t know you,” she replied.
“Leave me alone.”
“Get away, I’m about to call the police!” Alexandra said, taking her phone out of her purse—only to find that it had run out of battery.

The girl noticed this and stretched out her right hand toward Alexandra. Her hand was pale, her nails long and black, almost sharp, and she said, “Take me home.”

Realizing her phone was dead, Alexandra, desperate and fueled by fear, instinctively pushed the girl with both hands. The girl stumbled and fell to the ground, hitting her head with a sharp thud. For a moment, her gaze was lost on the floor.

Alexandra, due to her nature, found herself in a dilemma. Her training told her to help the girl, but her instinct screamed run. This time, survival instinct won, and she didn’t wait to see more. She ran.

Her legs trembled, but she didn’t stop. Turning a corner, she saw a small house with a shop. It was one of those facades without architectural design, with a door that had a Catholic warning asking for respect for the faith, a clear message specifically for Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The shop was divided by three tables acting as counters, with various candy shelves from different candy brands. A woman in her 60s was behind one of the tables, calculating debts for customers, since it was payday and people were coming to settle their debts.
Alexandra approached with sweaty, trembling hands.
“Ma’am, please help me,” she pleaded. “There’s a girl following me, and she wants me to take her with me. Can I hide here for a moment?”

The woman looked at her and said, “Calm down, child, come in and sit down for a bit. You’re really scared. Sit down, please!” As she handed her a bottle of Coca-Cola, “Here, drink this, it’ll calm your nerves.”
Alexandra took a sip without thinking and felt, for a moment, a calmness wash over her. She closed her eyes and said, “Thank you, I really needed this moment, ma’am.”

The woman said, “Don’t worry. I see you’re very frightened, so I’ll let you hide here.” Lowering her voice, she added, “That girl who’s following you always does the same thing. She picks a woman and follows her, but it never lasts more than three blocks. With you, she’s gone farther. Go through that curtain and into the back rooms. My daughter is there, and she’ll tell you where to hide.”

Alexandra nodded gratefully and crossed through the curtain into the house.
The delicious aroma of homemade food and the sound of a television filled the air. A girl emerged from a room.
“Are you the one who needs help?” she asked cautiously.
“Yes, I’m Alexandra.”
“Hello, Alexandra. I’m Theressa. Come, you’ll be more at ease in my room.”

They climbed a narrow staircase to a simple room with a neatly made bed and a fan on speed two.
Alexandra sat on the bed in front of the fan and felt the cool air on her forehead, still covered in sweat, as she tried to calm her breathing.

Theressa offered for her to lie down for a while and said there was no way the girl could get in. She also asked if there was anything else she could do for her.

Alexandra thanked her and said, “No, thank you so much. You’ve done more for me than you think.”
That moment didn’t last long. Below, the woman’s voice interrupted the silence:
“What do you want? What are you doing here?”
A young, emotionless female voice answered:
“I’m looking for my friend. She’s going to take me home with her and adopt me!”

Alexandra shivered and felt a new contraction. It was her.
They heard the woman shout, “There’s no one here, just my daughter and me. Go away, or I’ll call the police! Hey, stop! You can’t come into my house! Hey, don’t enter!”

But the sound of light footsteps crossing the curtain reached them. The girl hadn’t stopped. Theressa, with a fearful look, whispered,
“Come on, let’s go up to the attic. She won’t find us there.”
They tiptoed down a hallway to see a hatch in the ceiling. Theressa pulled a string, and a foldable ladder came down, trying to make as little noise as possible. She pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight since the attic light bulb had been burned out for months. They both climbed up. The attic was dusty, with an old bed, several comforters in bags that were only brought out during winter, and some boxes of books, magazines, CDs, and DVDs that belonged to Theressa’s brother, who now lived in another city with his wife and daughters.
There was also a small window that looked out to the backyard.
Alexandra closed the hatch and leaned against the wall, trying not to make any noise. For a moment, she only heard her own heartbeat.
Then, a creak came from outside, among the branches of the trees surrounding the house. Something was moving. Alexandra cautiously approached the small window and saw it: two figures climbing a walnut tree with incredible agility. They were girls like the one who had been following her, but different. One of them had short, messy hair, like a discarded doll, while the other had a long braid that swayed as she climbed. Their movements were coordinated.
The girl with the braid lifted her head, and her eyes met Alexandra’s. A smile spread across her face.
“There she is! I see her!”
Alexandra stepped back, stumbling over a box.
Theressa grabbed her arm and whispered, “Shh! Don’t make a sound. They don’t know how to get here.”
But then, from below, a loud bang echoed through the house. The hatch trembled as if something had struck it from the other side, and the calm voice of the girl with the pigtails called out,
“I know you’re up there! You can’t hide forever. Take me with you!”