My Digital Kohnnie

The Mysterious Rider

Alex P.O.V.

It's dark out. I'm alone. It's cold. There's no one here. It's only me. Or so I think.

    I pick up my penny board and begin to walk back to the bike trail. It's around ten at night, and the owls have begun to hoot. I'm walking past a train track when I spot another trail. That's odd, I think to myself. I could swear it hadn't been there before.I know that it's late, and that it's dangerous to be out and about at these hours, but I'm a curious girl. I begin to walk towards the trail. It hasn't even been five minutes before I come across something blocking the path. It looks to be a few yards away, but I can still distinguish its shadow. At first I think that it could be a tree, or a rock of some sort, but soon it becomes clear that the figure is a person. It occurs to me that maybe it would be a good idea to turn back, until I realize the figure is rapidly approaching me. Maybe they were lost. Maybe they were dangerous. Maybe they hadn't seen me yet.

    I tuck my penny board under my arm and run behind the nearest bush, tripping on a crease in the ground on the way (luckily I wasn't running too fast). It's too dark to be able to tell who the stranger is, but the moon is bright enough for me to know they're close, so I wait. A couple more seconds pass and I can hear crickets all around me. The wind is calm and the trail looks to be dead-silent. That same silence is broken by the familiar sound of wheels surfing on the hard stone pavement. I squint my eyes to get a better view of the stranger now positioned a couple feet away from me. I can tell that he or she is wearing all black, a beanie, and is standing on a board with wheels. A penny board, like mine. There was something familiar about the stranger's penny board. Perhaps it was the colors. The light pastel colors spread across the board seemed to trigger something in my memory, but I wasn't sure what. I look closer. Blue, yellow, and pink... now where have I seen that before? The mysterious rider is nearing me with each and every second, and I can't help but notice that they seem distracted. I look ahead. I spot a familiar crease in the ground, the same crease I had tripped over just moments before. If the rider kept riding as fast as they were, they wouldn't be able to spot the crease in the ground before it sent them flying. I had to do something.

    "Wait!" I call out, jolting upright from behind the bush I was crouching behind. The stranger, startled, looks back towards the direction of my voice, which echoes all around the trees. The moonlight shines over the rider's features, revealing much more.

    It's a boy, and not just any boy,
    It's Kyle David Hall.