Okay, here is the third and final part of chapter 1. Let me know what you think! Part 3 The park was beautiful, even this late at night. The smell of fallen leaves filled the air as a gentle breeze stirred them around her feet. Erin glanced at her watch. It was now almost 2:00 a.m. During the day, the park was crowded and noisy, but at night she felt as though she had the place to herself. She loved the hollow echoing sounds her feet made as she crossed the wooden bridge. She kicked playfully at the piles of leaves as she passed. There were lots of Victorian-style lampposts scattered throughout the park, the light from which provided her with a sense of security as she made her way along. There were stretches of darkness between the lamps, however. It was while she was in one of these dark areas that she first heard something unusual. She wasnt sure at first if she had actually heard it at all, or if it had just been her overactive imagination playing tricks on her. Damn Paddy and his warning lectures, she thought. She was already tired - and now thanks to him - all sorts of scary thoughts were racing through her head. Not wanting to alert a possible stalker to the fact that she suspected that she was being followed, Erin stopped and pretended to tie her shoe laces, all the while carefully listening for any trace of the sound. There. She heard it again. The wind had stopped blowing only moments before, so she knew she couldn’t blame it on that. A faint rustling of leaves and - something else. Muffled footsteps, soft as moths wings, emanating from the darkness. Someone - or something - was following her. She briefly considered running to the nearest lamppost, but was afraid that such an unexpected move might just startle her pursuer into more hasty action. So she started to walk along again at her previous, unhurried pace. Casually, she reached a hand into her pocket and removed the cap from the pepper spray. There it was again, and it was closer this time. Much, much closer. She noticed that it did not sound like human footsteps at all. Rather than the scuffing of shoes on cobble stones, this was more like the soft pat-patting of an animals paws. But she sensed somehow that this was no animal. There was something almost unearthly about the sound itself. Erin forced herself to continue walking, but she stopped breathing. Her heart began to pound so hard that she thought surely whatever was behind her could hear it. The sounds behind her continued to grow closer and louder. Erin looked around for the nearest light. She knew that a stalker or animal would be less likely to attack if she were standing in a well-lit place. The closest was only fifty yards away, but to Erins terrified mind, it might as well have been fifty miles. Finally she could not control herself any longer. She began to run. Her heart felt like it was about to beat out of her chest. She risked a quick glance over her shoulder as she ran, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever was behind her. All she could see were splashes of red light loping through the darkness, no more than a whisper behind her. She forced herself to run with all her might towards the closest of the lampposts, and into its light. Immediately she whirled about, pepper spray out and ready. But the darkness was silent. She held her breath, straining to hear any hint of sound, but all she could hear was the sound of her own heartbeat, like a bass drum, booming as it pumped blood and adrenaline through her veins. Seconds that seemed like hours crawled by. She pushed her sight to its limits, desperately seeking any sign of movement in the darkness, but it was useless. The light from the lamp above had stolen her night sight. She couldnt see a thing. Her fingers were coiled so tightly around the can of pepper spray that her knuckles were turning white from the strain. At first she thought that perhaps she had overreacted, that her overactive imagination had been playing tricks on her, But then she caught sight of movement out of the corner of her eye to her left. She darted her gaze in that direction and froze, terrified by what she saw. The thing was just outside the circle of light. It stood on its hind legs like a human, and indeed it was shaped much like a human child. But that was where the similarities ended. there was no color to the creature. It appeared to be made entirely out of pure darkness, darker even than the shadows around her. The locks of its long, coal-black hair coiled and moved about it as though they were alive. Its face had absolutely no features other than its eyes, which glowed from within with a hellish red fire. Sinister eyes that were staring unwaveringly at her. That was when she noticed that the creature was no longer alone. Another pair of eyes had appeared just behind and to the left of the creature. And then there were three of them. Then four. She had no idea where they were coming from. They just seemed to materialize out of thin air, as though born of the darkness itself. Soon there were ten of them. All were completely still except for their hair, which crawled and writhed about the creatures like hungry worms, and all were as silent as the grave. A sharp sound off to her right made Erin jump. She quickly turned to see what had made it.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 18:56:21 +0000
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