Peripheral Vision

Part 1: Lucy's Letter

      My name is Lucy Tunne. In light of recent events, I've had some memories change their meaning for me. I'll recount those memories first to give you a context for what has been happening lately. Whenever I recalled this part of my childhood (which was not often), I had assumed I'd made it up out of sheer boredom and lack of friends. Now, however, I believe it may have been more real than I thought.

      From the age of embryo to a few months after my 9th birthday, I lived on an old corn farm with my mother. I'm not going to say exactly where; it's a dreary, flat place with copious amounts of corn and not enough people to care for it all. I knew I had a father somewhere but I had never met him, except for when I was a baby. The only time I asked my mom about him, she reluctantly handed me a stained photo of a man with light hair, light eyes, and a "smile like sunshine," which she said was the only thing I inherited from him.

      I never realized how loaded that statement was until now.

      We had about 100 acres of farm/forest land that had passed down the family line as a once prosperous corn farm but was now an overgrown field. The house itself sat in the middle of the field surrounded on three sides by dense trees with the north side having a dirt road leading to the main highway. There was a big red barn directly to the east of the house that had 12 prepared horse stalls, only 3 horses, and a massive loft filled with hay. The lack of horses in that large of a barn also never seemed suspicious to me until now.

      The last details I'll give you before I dive into the important stuff is that I look almost exactly like my mother except for my smile, which I apparently got from my father. Dark hair, dark eyes, light skin, small build. I was an exact copy of her; she was an exact copy of her mother, and so on. I had no siblings, my mother had no siblings, and again, up the line it went, generations of small, dark, and lonely daughters.
Another intriguing thing is that my mother kept her last name when she married. That may not be weird nowadays, but back then, you didn't do that. I remember her always telling me how important our last name was. Since none of the females in our family had ever changed it, she'd constantly remind me, "You must never give it up for any man." So I kept it, I didn't want to disappoint her and I liked feeling special even if I didn't know why. Now, I'd give up that name in a heartbeat if it meant all of this would go away.

      I've never talked to anyone about this next part so bear with me if the details get choppy. I have the normal childhood memories that are hooked on strings, tugging at parts of your brain when you smell a certain smell, hear a certain sound, or taste a certain taste, giving you a feeling you can't quite pin down yet you sit and bask in it all the same.

But I have other memories as well.

      My first clear memory is when I was about 4. It is also the first memory I have of seeing...them. I was sitting in the house, drawing away, when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. You know those times where you see something dark slither in your peripherals but as soon as you look it's no longer there? It was exactly like that. It was a dark shadow and it disappeared as soon as I whipped my little head to see what was lurking. I turned back to my masterpiece and again, the dark form appeared. My neck nearly twisted off my body with how fast I spun around, and yet again, the shadow was gone.

      This happened a few more times before I finally got the idea to not turn around. After spinning my head for the last time I cautiously turned back to my art. The shadow reappeared and that was the first time I saw one of the creatures. I studied it, as best I could without completely looking, and realized it wasn't just a shadow or a blob; it actually had the shape of a figure. Not a very big or detailed figure, but frightening all the same. From that moment on, I constantly saw them in my peripheral view.
      My guess is that they had always been there and that's either the first time they revealed themselves to me or I just can't remember seeing them before that.