The Thing

by Cody Powers
(Evansville, Indiana)

It was a night like any other, except that it wasn't like any other...

There was something very different about this one night. This night was only different because I felt that I wasn't alone at my home though I was really alone. This fact I knew deep in my heart -

I was not alone!

The more I tried to make sense out of this feeling, the more I felt darkness engulfing me.
So, in order to ignore my fear; I got out of my chair, and decided to walk about my house...

But then even when I was walking around, the feeling just did not subside. It kept growing that all my body hair felt fear up their strands. God, the feeling of being unsafe, in my own home - for god's sake!

I then walked down into to the living room; suddenly, I felt that someone (or something) was behind me. Moving, following me as I moved about the room.

I turned around lots times as quick as humanly possible just to confirm that something is really there. But this feeling could be wrong, no one, nothing, is behind me... Sometimes, I’m just paranoid, I said to myself.

But I became even more afraid of what might be inside my house. I slowly slipped through my back door and went out of the house. Thousands of times, I checked over my shoulders to see if someone was preying on me.

Again, no one was there and I trust my senses, they never failed me but the feeling of someone breathing right off my ears and the smell of what I supposed what dead people smells was everywhere I go.

I kept walking – No, I was already running, faster and faster as I am now convinced that my life is indeed in danger. Then one more time I turned around to check if what was behind me.

This time, someone was there – Darkness... a tall cloaked figure that seemed to cast shadows into the night. I tried to see its features, but all
I could see was the silhouette of a man. But no, it wasn’t a man – at least not a living man; it was something else!

I tried to compose myself and ignore what I’ve seen, I’ve tried to run away from it, but as I run further into darkness, I was cornered!
Things happened so fast but how come, he wasn’t even running?

It’s probably some kind of demon that came to take my life...

This could just be a dream... “Wake up, wake up!”

I shouted to myself several times but I was still there – I was still facing this demon.

I tried to run once more as fast as I could; I tried to lift myself off the ground just like what my pursuer does but life could just be so unfair – I headed for the woods behind someone else’s house; I passed hundreds of trees that not one of them seemed to have slowed me down.

I was fast, and I didn’t even realized I could run this fast – this maybe how fast people can be when they’re running for their lives.

I ran till my veins pumped molten hot lava. But I began to realize that it was useless; the thing pursuing me was going to catch me anytime he wants to. I know that he was playing a game and that no matter how fast I ran, he would always be faster than me.

But I still ran, hoping that I would still survive though my own will seemed to have given up on me...

I suddenly stopped and I turned around to face this demon; I saw him once again leap from the ground up and suddenly he was in front of me, looking deeply into my hazel eyes.

And then, I lost all consciousness—
When I woke up, I found myself lying in a coffin ditched under a tree.

It was still evening; I thought I had fallen into an old ditch long forgotten but as my senses came back to me, I noticed how finely dug the ditch was, it was so finely dug that I realized that this ditch was fresh. I also began to feel a painful sensation on my neck, oh that guy must have broke it!

I heard foot-steps walking towards the ditch and I again saw that thing, he brandished a shovel.
He proceeded to speak and say "You gave me quite a chase human" he soft and laughed and said "But I never get out ran."

I felt fear for the last time. "But you don't have to run now, I've marked you; feel any neck pains?"

He giggled again and said "Welcome to your new life!"

My pursuer took the shovel and thrust it into the ground and jumped down into the ditch and said "Welcome, into the night!" The coffin door slammed shut as I screamed for my life.
And then darkness came all over me...