N O U V E L L E S

A BREAK DOWN

A strange sound suddenly came out from my car. I slowed down, hoping I could make it to the next village but not a minute later, some smoke started to fly upon the bonnet. I felt the car coughing around five times before it completely stopped in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night. Once my vehicle got motionless, I could not hear anything else than the sound of the steam coming out from my engine. I waited a moment on my seat. I was deeply mad at myself for not checking the condition of what was under my bonnet. Now, I was stuck here, alone, far from any kind of civilisation. I got out under the full moon light and I walked to the front of my car. I opened it and a huge cloud of smoke came out from it and flew right in my face. I coughed a couple of time and I finally admitted to myself that there was nothing I could do to fix my car. So I shut it and went back to my seat. I grabbed my phone and tried to call for help but I could not reach any signal. I was trapped in the middle of a deserted and dark countryside.

I did not know what to do. I was tempted to stay in my car and wait for another vehicle to pass by and rescue me but I had been driving for hours without crossing anyone. I knew that my chances to encounter help were really slim. I could hear my heart beating in the heavy silence of loneliness and darkness. I kept thinking about what I should do for around ten minutes and I finally decided to confront the dark. I took my keys, my cell phone and my bag and I came out of my car. I left my headlights turned on, I locked my car and started my unexpected walk. I did not even know where I was, I did not know if the next village was going to be in a few miles or in a hundred. I did not know if the road kept going or if it was a dead end. I did not know anything; I could not know what was going to happen.

This lack of knowledge about the unknown gave me chills. I wished I hadn't chosen to drive this late. My steps were the only sounds I could hear. My headlights showed me the way I had to take. For a few meters, I could have thought it was daylight. But the shadows that it created on the roadside left my imagination figure out what demons and monsters could be hiding behind those trees. The light made even more darkness.

I could hear the insects of the night screaming out in the silence, hidden in the shadows. I kept walking. Suddenly, a wolf screamed. His shout made him the master of the night. He seemed desperate to howl his anger. The chills on my back got emphasized. I kept walking, trying to forget that a wild and dangerous animal was awake and determined to show the world he was. Suddenly, my headlights turned off. I froze. I felt the cold of the night got settled around me as the light fled. Then it got lit up again. And lit off. Lit up, lit off. It did not stop. I felt that something wasn't right, and my heart missed a beating. Between every blink of my headlights, I could distinguish an odd shadow moving in the woods. At first, I thought that it could have been my crazy and sleepy imagination. But then I knew, something was definitely moving towards me, fast. I decided to run as far as I could.  I could perceive the light blinking behind me for a moment but when I finally got far enough to get rid of them, I found myself in the dark again. I was so scared when I started to run that I forgot that eventually, I would end up without being able to see through the night anymore.

My run took my breath away. I could only hear my blood banging in my head and my breath being very irregular. What I could see got blurred and I felt like I had to sit down but I could hear the leaves moving in the forest on the roadside and I resolved to keep going. I turned my phone screen on and tried to guide myself to my unknown destination.

The noises from the forest got intensified. My phone did not light the road up a lot. I could only determine where I had to put my feet. Another growl came out from the woods, but it was closer, angrier. I wanted to go faster, but I could not. I was practically running and my heart was barely following. I felt really dizzy, but I was certain that I had heard an animal snarl right behind me. So I turned around but there was nothing. I thought I had hallucinated. But then, I heard another sound, a heavier one. And when I turned back to keep walking, I stumbled over something and fell on the ground. When I could finally see again, I tried to find out over what I had fallen. The first thing I saw was the gaze of a man lying down on the ground. His eyes were wide opened and starred at me. The fear that he felt right before his death was still present in his look. His face could have appeared sweet and gentle to me if blood was not flowing down on it. I did not know if it was because of my tiredness or the horror I was confronted to, but I strongly felt like I had to throw up everything I had recently eaten. I lowered my eyes and found out that the body on which I had stumbled over was not only bloody but also torn apart. When I stood up a little, I noticed in horror that one of his arms had been pulled off and thrown away on the road, right next to his head, which was also separated from the rest of his body. I felt my vision got blurred and my head turn. I did not know what was going on, I did not know who or what had killed that man. But if there was one thing I was sure of, it was that I had to run, as fast and as far as I could. I stood up and fought the messages that my body sent me to get away from this scary place.

I hadn’t wandered the road for ten minutes when I had to stop again. A man, a living man, was knelt on the ground, facing me. His head was bowed right to the ground and his hands were dangling along his body. He also had blood all over him.

“Sir, are you hurt?” I asked him.

No answer. So I came closer. Maybe he could not hear me. But as I moved nearer to him, I noticed that the blood wasn’t his. I could not find where his wound would be. He was just covered with it. He wasn’t bleeding. I kept walking toward him but deep inside me, I knew that I shouldn’t have. I knew it when I saw bloody claws growing from his fingernails. What happened right in front of my eyes was so unbelievable that it was hypnotizing me.  I finally stopped moving when he raised his head and when I saw his furry face where glowing green eyes were looking at me.

I didn’t want to understand how this could be real, I just took all the courage I had and ran into the woods. A few minutes earlier, I hadn’t had any strength, any energy, but now, fear was carrying me. I slalomed between the trees, moved the branches aside, trampled leaves on the dirt. I was focused on what was in front of me but I could not avoid hearing the snarls behind me and the angry steps of the monstrous animal. He hadn’t had enough blood. He wanted mine, I could guess it from his heavy hungry breath.

I didn’t know how much time I had spent in the middle of the trees. I just kept running, fleeing death. This whole time, I hadn’t seen the creature. I knew it was there, near, ready to strike. But it did not do it. I knew that the werewolf could have hurt me, even kill me, many times, on many occasions. But it didn’t. It stayed behind, close enough to scare me, but far enough to avoid confrontation. It fed with fear, its prey’s fear. However, whatever the creature wanted to do, I had managed to get out of the forest and get back on the road. From this moment, I felt hope coming back and it brought me where I could actually know where to run. So that is what I did. I kept running. Actually, I had never stopped running this night.

The sun started to show up and its ray had just began to erase the shadows of the full moon. The light gave me even more bravery. The noises of the werewolf became distant and I allowed myself to slow down a little. The dawn marked the beginning of a new day and a new hope. I looked back and saw the frightening forest behind me. That is what I kept saying to myself, it was behind me. From where I was, I could see the top of a church that poked out of a hill. So I took back my run, more determined than ever. I wandered the entire road until the first house. And then I stopped. The cold of the morning froze my beads of sweat. My shirt was wet and it got icy on my skin. Now that I felt safer, I noticed how messy I was and felt. But the sight of civilisation made me smile. I looked at the village in front of me and felt relieved. The first sun rays were rising right behind those houses and were reflected on the windows. It looked like heaven.

I raised my right foot forward, full of hope, ready to end this nightmarish night. But then a heavy hairy hand laid down on my shoulder and I felt my body being grasped behind. In a flash, my mouth moved from smiling to screaming. My mind moved from hope to fear, from relieving to distress. When it was about to end, it all started again. And as I heard the snarl of the beast, I also heard the very last sound of my life.

Pour les flemmards la traduction sortiras mais je sais pas quand donc je conseille de commencer par l'originale mais bon... Ce n'est que mon avis...

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