I saw something last summer and I can’t seem to get the scene out of my head. To preface, I am pretty confident in my ability to defend myself. I used to wrestle in highschool and I go to the gym pretty regularly so when it comes to fight or flight, I would like to think that I would stand my ground. I still have that opinion of myself so I guess that’s why what I saw bothers me so much. My reaction to it was, in my mind at least, stupid and I often think about why I froze and chose to run when I could have approached the whole thing logically. Maybe it was the right decision, but I guess I’ll never know. I think I’m getting caught up in the preface,though, so here goes:
I was out for a ride with some friends and we ended up going on for more than 6 hours and covered too many miles to count. I live in Nebraska so, at that point, the only thing we were passing were a bunch of small farms and cornfields. I was riding a sport bike and, if you could imagine, having your knees bent at a 45 degree angle and standing up on the pegs for hours wasn’t comfortable and I was starting to get some pain pretty much everywhere. So, I decided to split off and head home. Out there, there were no lights and the road was only illuminated by my headlight and the headlights of an occasional car. Road signs and mile markers seemed to repeat forever and farm plots stretched on for miles on either side. The only thing that broke the loud drone of my engine was the voice of the gps lady through my helmet speakers. It was like I was the only one out there.
About 2 hours in, my helmet speakers died. To be honest, I didn’t really notice for about 30 minutes because it had me going straight for a while. I eventually stopped and took out my phone to turn my playlist on, but I noticed that I was set back another hour. In a panic, I took a good look at the GPS map and attempted to cover some ground before I had to stop and look at it again. I rode on for another 45 minutes, stopping every once in a while so I didn’t miss a turn. Everything looked the same, though, and I made so many wrong turns that I ended up even farther out than I originally was. To make matters worse, street signs were scarce and the only evidence of another person were cars that didn’t care to stop for a stranger at 3 in the morning.
At some point, I took a break at a cross in the road to regain my bearings and take stock of what I had in my tank bag in hopes of finding some stray plug-in earbuds that I used in the gym. I was fed up with the situation and was desperately tired. I sat down and leaned up against my bike for a while so I could close my eyes. For a while, all I could hear was the wind blowing through the cornstalks. I heard the sound of tires gripping at gravel and I stood up to move my stuff. Looking around, I saw no sign of a car or another person, so I dismissed the sound as me going crazy from the isolation. I took the opportunity to look through my bag again and finally pulled out my earbuds. I shoved the tiny speakers under my helmet and turned my phone GPS back on.
It was relieving to finally hear something that wasn’t just the wind shaking around loose leaves. I swung my leg over my motorcycle to take off but, before I could, I saw something move in a ditch next to one of the roads. Thinking it was an animal, I got off to take a look. I was expecting a deer or a rabbit but, in the lowest point of the recess, I saw a person. I froze up and took a second to make sure what I was seeing wasn’t just a blown away scarecrow. The figure was dressed in black and had a hooded raincoat zipped up to the neck. The clothing was loose, but I could tell that the person was extremely thin. Their hands were pale too, like what you would see in an old vampire movie. I could hear only my own breathing in my helmet as I watched the person standing in the ditch begin to quiver and sway. I just stood there, words stuck in my throat and eyes locked onto the thing standing in the ditch. The swaying got more and more aggressive as I watched and every muscle in my body began to tense. My brain told me again and again to run.
Suddenly, I gave in. I sprinted back to my bike and took off, kicking up rocks behind my rear tire. I didn’t hear footsteps, but I could swear that thing was chasing me. I averaged 130 miles per hour on the highway and, the whole time, I felt like it was catching up to me. When I got home, I immediately went to my room and got into my bed, hoping the feeling would stop. I couldn’t sleep that night or the next. I haven’t had many sleepless nights since, but if I stay up for too long, I often hear timid knocks on my bedroom window. I haven’t mustered the courage to look, but that thing has definitely found me.
Edit:
I saw the person again. Last night, I went to the gym and I usually stop on the way back at a park next to my house except, this time, there was someone waiting. I’m convinced it was the same figure I saw. The guy was standing on a park bench and was dressed up the same way and everything. The only difference was that it was completely steady as it watched me pass. It’s followed me home and I don’t think I can do anything about it.