Fluff/Smut/Angst/Rants/etc

The Dark Man

The green glow of the radio reflected on the sleeping child in the backseat. The clock read 11:53. The driver checks rearview mirror to check on the sleeping child. He looks up and sees a man standing in the middle of the road. As a action, he slams on the breaks and swerves to miss the man. This sudden action causes him to lose control of the car. As the mangled mess of what was the car came to a rest on the side of the bridge, it became evident that the mother of the child died instantly and the father was barely alive. The child in the backseat was barely harmed, she had a large scratch on her right arm. Her screams were heard for miles. A kind looking, old man soon appeared. The next thing Chrysanthemum remembers was waking up in the hospital.

16 years later
"16 years ago today, an unsolved car accident left two dead, and a young child with no family," announces the DJ. Chrysanthemum looked down at the radio, the time read 11:53. As she looked up, she realized that she was on the same bridge that took her parents' life. The DJ continued," The state police are still seeking any information as to what caused the wreck, or who the good samaritan who pulled the child out of the back seat." He wasn't the only thing that Chrysanthemum wondered about.

The sound of hooves hitting cement and the smell of the smoke and brimstone plagued her nightmares to this day. It's always been a mystery to her since the night of the accident as to why these plague her so. No matter how much research Chrysanthemum does, she can't figure it out.

The light of the radio reflected onto Chrysanthemum's face. She was on her way home from a late night study session at the library. Chrys was writing her thesis over the correlation of mythological creatures from different cultures. What peaked her interest the most was the Dullahan from Irish folklore. "A Dullahan is a creature from Irish folklore! He is a headless horseman that carries its head under his arm. He rides a headless horse that has red, flaming eyes. And he throws buckets of blood on the people it passes! It's also said that once he stops riding, a human dies." Chrysanthemum told her best friend, Megan.

"You really like that thing don't you, Chrys? Why do you like it so much?" Megan asked while laughing.

"Yes, I do. There is something that draws me to learn more and more about this..., this creature." Chrys laughed after she finished her statement, then she continued, "I mean I am making it a kind of big part in my thesis!"

Both girls laughed and continued with their studying. Chrys kept finding out new information about different creatures. "Oh, listen to this Megan! A banshee is a female spirit! And when it's wail is heard outside of a house, someone who lives in that house will die. The Banshee rides in a black cart that's drawn by six black horses. It's said that the Banshee and the Dullahan team up and whip their horses with human spinal cords! Kinda gruesome, huh?"

"Geez! Why do you keep finding such horrible creatures, dude?" Megan laughed and moved towards Chrys's computer. Megan read a little bit of her friend's paper.

A few hours had passed and Megan had already left. Chrysanthemum was still at her computer looking at a single picture of a Dullahan. She couldn't look away from her computer. It somehow looked familiar to her. She shrugged it off and continued researching for her thesis.

Chrysanthemum looked at the time and hurriedly packed up her stuff. It was 11:27 pm. Chrysanthemum walked out the front door of the library after saying goodbye to the librarian. She walked down the street and towards her home. She was walking when she passed by a homeless old man. He shook a small jar of coins in her direction, and she stopped. She looked at him and pulled put her wallet and out a few dollar bills in it. The man smiled happily at the young woman, "Thank you, young lady," the man said when he brought the cup down to see what his new total amount of money was. She looked at him for a little while and noticed that he was blind in his left eye.

Chrysanthemum smiled back at him and waved at him as she walked away. She was looking at her phone when she got a text from Megan that read "Hey be careful walking home, tonight. There have been a few disappearances on your route home!"

Chrysanthemum smiled at her friend's concern for her safety. It was now 11:48 and the moon was fully visible. It was a new moon that night. Chrysanthemum replied with a simple "don't worry, I will be fine!" and continued walking down the street. Chrysanthemum realized that it was a quiet night, unusually quiet, but she didn't think to much about it. Chrys just kept walking.

A cat ran out from under a bush, and Chrys jumped. "Geez! That cat came out of no where!" After her sentence, Chrys felt a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump again. She turned around only to see the old, homeless man that she gave money to, but as she turned around, she thought she saw a headless man and a horse. She only heard the man say "Don't let him know you saw him" as she turned away and started to walk away quickly.

She heard the sound of hooves against the cement and began to walk faster. She was almost home when she started to tell herself that she was just hallucinating, that there was no way that there was a headless man following her. She opened her door and quickly walked inside. She quickly shut and locked her door.

"Why am I flipping out over the sound of hooves hitting cement? It's not like it means anything bad will happen!" Chrys was talking to herself out loud. "But I thought that when I was a child I saw my father get attacked by something. It couldn't have been that thing though, could it?" Chrysanthemum was freaking out. She was trying to keep calm but she couldn't. She knew what she saw, but she didn't understand why it was going after her.

16 years ago
The headless man walked up to the car, and looked at the man in the driver seat. The driver looked up at the man, who had a scythe pulled back, ready to swing. With one quick movement, the man swung the scythe, hitting the man and in his throat, killing him. There was no blood, the man did, though. The young child in the back was crying. The man who had just killed the driver turned his head toward the child in the back and when he went to pull back his scythe, he saw a light reflect off of something. He turned and looked to see two gold rings, one on the hand of the man and woman in the front. He looked at the young child and began to speak in a deep, raspy voice, "I will not forget you, young one." He ran to his black horse and continued to ride. An old man grabbed the child, he had blood running down the left side of his face when he grabbed the child. The man took the girl to the hospital, because her arm was bleeding badly.

Present time
"Alright, it's 11:57. I'm home. I'm safe. No I'm not safe. If I were safe, that thing wouldn't be chasing me! What is it anyway? It has no head, had a horse, was dressed in black, had a human spine in his left hand, and was carrying his head,I think it was anyway. The only thing I can think of with that description is, wait it can't be a Dullahan! It's not possible! I've never seen one and they aren't even real! I couldn't have seen one even if they were real!" Chrysanthemum was pacing around her living room running her fingers through her hair frantically. She didn't know what happened or why it was. "When would I even have the chance to see one?!" At that moment she remembered that when she was very young, she was in a car accident and her parents died, she heard a very raspy voice tell her something. "Wait. Could I have see this thing when I got into the car accident? No I couldn't have!"

Two weeks later
There hasn't been any sign of the Dullahan in two weeks. Chrysanthemum thought she was safe, but she always wore a gold locket that had a picture of her parents and her in it to She continued with her daily life of going to classes and doing homework. Chrys walked home at 11:30 every night, except for one. She left the library at 1:29 am. Chrysanthemum took a slightly different route home. The way she normally went home was closed off, due to construction that needed to be done. She was walking and texting Megan when she heard something hard hitting the cement. Chrysler, of course, did not think much of it because of the construction work that was being done.

Chrys heard the sound of bare feet hitting the road. She turned around and saw the shape old, blind man. Chrys sighed in relief. "You startled me!" Chrys laughed softly. The old man look frightened. "You must be careful, young lady. He knows." Chrys gave a confused look. The old man fell limp. Chrys tried keep him from hitting the ground. "What do you mean, he knows? Who knows?" Chris began to freak out. Then she realized that she had left her locket at home, on her dresser.

She then heard the sound of hooves hitting the cement, and began to smell the brimstone.