nmpickar
04-19-2010, 10:08 PM
The luminescent beams of another car coming around the bend came into view. He turned around, and there was nothing behind him. The animal had gone. Scared off by the sound and light from the car. Only one hundred yards away, and speeding towards him, Hermann waved his hands hysterically at the car in order to flag it down. A wave of joy spread through Hermann’s body. His nightmarish trot through the darkness was over. His trip back to his home in the confines of a warm car just seconds away. The car coming closer, couldn’t come soon enough for Hermann. Like a child waiting for Christmas to come, he couldn’t wait. The car crept closer and closer. Even speeding at fifty miles an hour seem slow. Coming toward him as if it were a dream, coming closer and closer, nearer and nearer. The car, almost upon him, and now past him, speeding its way, down the dark secluded road. Hermann’s dream became a nightmare. Not only was he alone, but he had lost any ability to see in the darkness as well. He could see nothing, feel nothing but the bite of the cold night air, but what he could hear, he dreaded, the soft thud of the animal’s feet, coming from the deep darkness of the road toward him slowly, edging closer and closer. He ran. Where he ran, he didn’t know, he knew it wasn’t on the road anymore. He was now in the woods, stepping over stumps and brushing bushes in his flight. He ran faster than he ever imagined he could run. He ran so fast he fell, out of control, into a tree. He rebounded as quickly as he fell. His vague vision restored. He climbed, why he didn’t know, but he climbed higher and higher, and as he climbed he was pursued up the tree by the beast of the night. Higher and higher, until the branches became thinner and thinner, he was running out of room, he had to press on, till the branches broke beneath his boots. Crack! Hermann’s world stopped, his mind spinning, what was happening, where was he? He was in the tree. Still, clutching the fir for dear life. The branches had succumbed to the animal’s weight, and the creature had plummeted into the darkness below. All was silent. Nothing could be heard except Hermann’s heart beating. He felt his heart, almost in his throat, attempting to burst out of him, the pain of running so fast, and climbing so hard, now wearing into his body, his head spinning from hitting the tree in his dash from the road. He stayed motionless in the tree for a long time, waiting to hear anything from the dark abyss below. After what seemed like hours of waiting in the tree for some sign of safety, Hermann began his treacherous climb back down to the forest floor. He felt the broken branch the beast broke during his pursuit, and continued down the tree. Upon climbing down the tree, Hermann realized how tall of a tree this was, and realized how far the beats must have fallen. He could now see the ground and a figure, lying unconscious on the ground. He stepped on the final branch before he was at the ground, and slipped. He plummeted six feet to the ground, and fell unconscious next to the beast. He awoke minutes later, again plunged into a pit of darkness, his eyes disarranged to the darkness once more. Almost hyperventilating, he could see saw nothing but for the first time in the darkness he felt something that hadn’t been there before. A warm sensation creeping down his back. A wet, rotten, growling pant directly behind Hermann’s head. Hermann’s breathing slowed, and he closed his eyes, going into darkness once more.