Peculiar Penny

Penny walked with her gaze firmly fixed on the ground at her feet, not wanting to make eye contact with anyone whom she might happen to cross paths.  Bad things always seemed to follow whenever she interacted with strangers - sometimes even with people she knew - so she kept her head down and trudged on alone.  She was halfway to safety when she heard the whispers, like millions of bugs scuttering over each other in the dark.  She shuddered at the sound.  She just wanted to be home, safe and sound, secured beyond the reach of all the prying eyes and out of earshot of the cruel whispery-bug sounds.  As her thoughts propelled her and her pace quickened in time with her heartbeat, she realized that someone (or some thing) was keeping in step behind her.  More hushed bug sounds and then a hand-stifled giggle wafted to her on the salt-air breeze.  As her heart rate doubled, she was barely able to fight back the urge to break into a run.  It took every bit of her will to resist the instinct to take flight and leave the whispering, giggling, following bug-things far behind her.  Tears slipped silently down her face as all she wished for was the comfort of her own four walls...or the courage to face what was outside them.  Her insides shivered and thrummed.  Fight or flight - she wasn't sure which was worse.  Both made her feel like throwing up.
She never told her mother about these feelings.  She didn't tell her sister or even her best friend.  She was utterly alone in this world of torment and she wasn't sure how to be any different.  She rarely felt relaxed outside her "safe zone" and it took quite a bit of time for her to feel even remotely comfortable around new people.  She enjoyed being alone and keeping to herself felt natural.  She was calm and relaxed when she was alone, not having to wonder what this one was thinking or what those two were whispering about.  When she was forced outside of her reliable four walls into the unfamiliar and uncertain world beyond, everything was stressed and distorted, like she was seeing it all through a fish-eye lens.  Sweat beaded up on her brow just thinking about it and that's when she lost control.  Surrendering to the flight instinct, Penny's body took charge over her mind, her legs pumping mechanically like pistons without the capacity to reason.