Walking through the darkness, I began enjoying the pleasures of a late night walk more than usual. Embracing the peaceful bliss, something told me it was too good to be true. An awkward feeling quickly rushed through my body, stealing my much-needed enjoyment. It was the kind of feeling you get when you know you’re not alone anymore. It forced my feet to stop dead in their tracks. I was left alone in the darkness with only the sounds of silence filling the air.
The sinister atmosphere was suddenly broken by a faint noise from somewhere off in the distance, my eyes scanned the grim surroundings. There, standing close to some trees on the side of the road, was a rather large figure, which seemed to be lingering. My eyes widened from the shear size of it.
“What the fuck do you want?” I shouted.
The shadow moved to the edge of the trees, disappearing from sight.
“I know you’re still there!”
My words echoed through the darkness, ricocheting from tree to tree. I received no response. Was it gone? I was left to wait in silence, staring into a black abyss.
A slight breeze rushed through the narrow passage of the street. It carried the sound of soft growls from behind the branches. My feet cautiously went for the safety of home. Only a few steps from where I stood, a rather deep snarl forced it way into my ears.
Frozen again, my head spun without a thought. I watched as the terrifying shadow crept out from the trees and back into the road. Closer to where I was this time, but still far enough to keep its identity hidden. Terrified, I swallowed down the lump in my throat.
“Leave me the hell alone!”
My blood tingled with fear as the figure bolted back into the woods. I listened as the sound of breaking branches faded away. If it only wanted to frighten me, then the job was complete. I didn’t want to play some silly ass game, and I sure as hell hoped it was just a game.
After waiting for a bit with nothing more taking place, I pushed everything from my thoughts, hoping it was gone for good. My nerves calmed as I headed for home.
The sounds of large branches breaking echoed onto the street. My heart instantly jumped to my throat. I knew it was that thing, the very same thing, which seemed to be playing with me.
“Who the fuck are you?”
Screaming at the top of my lungs left a slight discomfort deep in my throat. Gently rubbing it, I waited for an answer. Still nothing, not even a hint had blessed my ears. My eyes strained to penetrate the darkness of the woods, while I wondered if it was just my imagination and I was going crazy. No, I know something was there, I know I’m not loosing it. Taking one last look around, another figure came into sight.
It stood close to where the other had. After a several glances, I noticed there was something different about it. It was much smaller than the one other had been. It didn’t really matter though, seeing it made me just as nervous. I didn’t know what either of them were and at this point finding out wasn’t exactly high on my to-do list.
My legs began to back up slowly while my sight was fixed on the shadow. Watching it bounce around, not paying attention to where I was stepping, my foot stumbled as it landed on a rock.
“Ow-w-w-w!” I yelled as my ankle twisted slightly, forcing my leg to give out.
The dark figure’s movements stopped as it took in the sound of my voice. It began walking in my direction. Getting to my feet swiftly and backing up, I watched the shadow start to run. I knew by the way it had moved I was what it wanted. My body turned with my legs taking off in a full sprint.
Looking back finding the figure gaining fast, I knew I wouldn’t be able to out run it for long. Quickly stopping and spinning around, my hands clenched tight to form fists as they made their way to my face. I was ready for anything. My heart raced from the fear of not knowing what was coming towards me. Still, I had somehow loved the thrill of it all.
As the figure took shape and revealed to me what it was, my heart returned to its rightful place in my chest. Bending down, my hand reached out in front of me. His tail wagging, Rambo ran up. Reaching me, his front paws pushed against my chest and knocked me to the ground. He quickly moved to the side of my body. His tongue made long strokes up the length of my cheek.
Although happy to see it had been him and not some wild animal, I pushed him off so I would be able to dry my chin. Balancing my weight with one hand and sitting up, a laugh escaped my lips.
“Rambo, you little brat,” I said, letting out a deep breath.
Giving him a few small pats on his back as I stood up and began wiping the dirt from my clothes. Rambo began trying to tug playfully at my shoelaces.
“You scared me.”
Rambo looked up at me through his big blue eyes. I was unable to stay mad at him for long with him looking at me like that. I was surprised he had left his yard. Normally he wouldn’t go anywhere with out someone with him, mainly Mr. Cormac.
“Go home, Bo.” I held out my hand, pointing a finger in the other direction.
Looking at me, his head tilled slightly to one side. He gave me the, “are you talking to me?” look.
It was hard to do, but knowing he wasn’t going to leave, I turned and began walking away trying to ignore the fact he was taking small steps behind me.
“Okay, Bo, you can stay the night.”
He won because I couldn’t resist his fluffy black and white face. Letting out a cheerful bark, he pranced over to where I stood and stopped as he reached me. Bending down to stroke his back, a deep growl rushed from the trees to my left. Rambo and I turned to face where we thought it came from.
I have always been told if you are afraid of something, you need to conquer your fear by facing it. I was going to do just that. Taking a few steps to reach the woods, I leaned forward in hopes of seeing where the vicious noises had come from. There were too many trees blocking my view. Unable to see anything I took a few more steps. My hands reached in front of me, moving some of the smaller branches to the side. It didn’t help. The cover of the forest made it impossible to see anything.
Set on finding out what is was, my feet took their first steps into the front of the woods. Rambo stayed by my side, but wouldn’t enter with me. He began letting out low growls, showing his teeth.
“Rambo, hush up boy.”
I didn’t want him to scare away whatever it was before I had a chance to see it. Ignoring me, he continued to bark. Shaking my head at him, I turned back to the darkness. My eyes began to search every inch of the surrounding area.
Letting my eyes shoot to the right, at the sound of another branch cracking, I caught a glimpse of faint movement. Moving slightly closer to where the movement was, I could see something bright yellow. So yellow it was almost a glow. While making my way to whatever it was, there was a slight pause in Rambo’s tone. He sounded quite serious.
Standing only a few feet from the yellow glow, still unable to make out where it had come from, I began to look deeper leaning slightly forward. A soft growl began to seep out from in front of me, and I found myself glairing into a pair of eyes. They were gleaming back at me as they shifted back and forth, following my every movement.
Rambo must have spotted the eyes too. He let out a loud whimper and ran behind a tree to hide. What a brave dog. The eyes shot in his direction, watching as he hid. This was my chance. I wanted to know what the eyes belonged to. My leg lifted to take a step towards them. I put too much pressure on a branch above me causing it to break and a startled squirrel landed on my shoulder. I let out a horrific scream. I think I startled the squirrel more.
Although it had jumped off and ran back into the woods, it took several minutes to catch my breath and calm down from the excitement. When I was able to regain control of my breathing, my eyes flew back to the yellow ones. They were gone. Disappointed, Rambo and I made our way out from the woods and back onto the road.
