Stories From the Dark

2.

Note: Tried to have a little humor to it.

This happened a few years ago or so. I was freshly 16, had just recently graduated 9th grade and was looking forward to starting gymnasium in my new school which I had just recently entered. It was at the start of a summer break, so I thought: New year, new school, new me. Because of that change I decided to also lose some weight and just you know be a little bit more healthy and active.

There was this pretty nice sidewalk which went past my house. I would run every day from my house to some old factory and back- not a very long distance, but I was still proud of myself. Usually I was alone, except for maybe some cars passing by. That was actually very nice sense the idea of anyone seeing me run embarrassed me a bit.

I think the first three weeks went smoothly, nothing weird happened. At least I hope so because the thought that something did happen and I just didn't notice scares me. So I like to think that nothing did. It was only around the fourth week that things got a little strange. You know the feeling at the back of your head that someone is looking at you, the feeling that you actually aren't alone? At first I just passed it off as me being typical me: a paranoid little shit.

I had always been that kid, you know the one who gets scared of everything and runs to their mom crying. This time, 16 like I was, I wanted to be The Adult. So I passed my feelings down as just me being paranoid and sucked it up to the best of my abilities.

The fifth week though got even more strange. Now it wasn't just a feeling anymore, it was also other things: the sounds of branches breaking under someone's feet, someone's breath on the back of my neck, corn plants being pushed around etc. My first thought? Honestly, that I was really just getting more paranoid, things usually have the tendency to escalate and the human brain is no different. I was already imaging eyes on me where there were none and how can anybody blame me for thinking that my brain had just taken the next step.

It was Thursday (around 9 P.M.). A quiet evening, not too dark to not see in front of your feet, but dark enough for the street lights to be on. I was just passing by the corn field when I noticed that one of the laces of my sneaker had come loose. I squatted down to tie it up.

And then I heard it. Ruffling in the cornfield. Slowly I stood up looking at the almost pitch blackness. My emotional state? I was low key scared, low key victorious. Finally I can show myself that it's just another person or an animal or wind or something and I can be done with being paranoid.

So I call out, "Hello! Is anybody there?!"

And wait and wait and wait. Time seems to be going very slow and I could feel the palms of my hands getting sweatier.

And then finally…

"Hello! Is anybody there?!"

I freeze even more if that's even possible, because no way- that was the exact same thing that I had said and to make it even more maddening it was my voice too. My voice. Talking to me.

Suddenly my this-must-be-back-from-the-good-old-cavemen-golden-times survival instincts come back and I make a run for it. In fact this was probably the fastest I had ever run in my life up to this point.

Once back at the house I locked the door and checked all the windows without trying to make it look strange to my mom. I didn't tell her what happened, I didn't tell anybody. I mean I don't think they would have believed me anyway. I just tried to act casually and after a while when I had calmed down and felt safe again it wasn't too hard. I went to sleep pretty late and while I did sleep with a small lamp on, it wasn't too bad for the most part. I didn't go for another run for like two weeks maybe? So I had plenty of time to think about what had happened. In a safe environment and with passing time it didn't seem as scary anymore. I also started to find logical explanations on what happened. Maybe it was just normal nature stuff combined with my paranoia and boom stuff like this happens?