From a young age I was able to see things no one else could, and it caused me to be an outcast. I tended to keep to myself so that I wouldn’t scare anyone off, as I had with countless friends before. The reason this is, is that I could see the creatures of the night. They were always a bit fuzzy, like my mind couldn’t process them clearly, and were always hiding in the shadows. Maybe that’s why no one else could see them. Whenever I tried to point one out to someone, they would simply act as if I had lost it.
I noticed that they tended to follow people. Usually it was just one, though they would travel in groups as well. Though I did try to find out, I never could understand why some would be trailing a person alone and others would travel in packs. However, my endless searching for answers eventually caused some of these creatures to notice me which caused me to come to the horrifying realizations that many of them were quite malicious in their intent.
The first time one noticed me watching it, was when I was 15. It was probably 10 at night and I was hanging out with a friend at their place, when I noticed one of the dark beings in the corner staring at him, hungrily. I almost pointed it out when it sharply turned its head towards me, causing me to audibly gasp. My friend asked what was wrong, but I played it off like a bug just flew in my face. I didn’t want to lose another friend after all. But I never looked away from that creature. Its eyes, I could see them clearly. They were a dull burning red, like the remaining embers of a once raging fire. They looked on with hunger and hatred. It knew I could see it, and it despised me for it. I eventually made up an excuse to leave, saying that I had to be up early the next day to help my parents out with cleaning out a spare room. I could tell he didn’t really believe me, but didn’t say anything. We said goodbye to each other and I started the short walk home.
As I walked home I gazed at the stars. I always took comfort in them and their beauty. You could even make out the Milky Way if you got lucky, though due to the street lamps, it was harder to do where I was. It wasn’t long however until I started to feel the sensation of being watched, and though I tried my hardest not to acknowledge it, eventually I caught sight of a set of red eyes, just staring at me out of the shadows, avoiding the light from the street lamps. I quickly started seeing more and more sets of eyes peering out of the shadows, and a feeling of overwhelming fear came over me, as I saw the hatred burning in their gaze. I started to run, leaving them behind in their unending hatred, and was home fairly quickly. Once I was in the safety of my own room I started to relax, and began to convince myself that everything was alright, that nothing bad was going to happen, and I laid down to sleep.
After that incident, I slowly stopped noticing the creatures of the night. Every month I started seeing fewer and fewer. I started going to sleep earlier, and was outside more during the day rather than the night. I supposed I started to forget the creatures I had been seeing, save for the less malicious ones that would come out during the dusk, as it was only just starting to get dark. After a few years, I stopped seeing any beings at all. Once I turned 20 however, that all changed.
I had picked up an evening shift for a co-worker I liked, and since I had the next two days off, it didn’t bother me too much. I was finally headed home quite late at night, at almost 3 am. When I reached my house it was completely silent. It wasn’t a comforting silence either, more like one caused by the fear of being found. Unnerved as I was, I quickly unlocked my house and slipped inside. I struggled to find the light switch in the darkness of my empty home, but it didn’t matter. Once I found it and flicked the switch, nothing happened. “Shit” I said, as I realized the bulb must have gone out. I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight so that I could move through the house without walking into every piece of furniture.
I had almost made it to my bedroom when I caught something out of the corner of my eye. It looked like something was in the corner of the living room, and I quickly turned my flashlight in that direction but I could see nothing. Shaking my head, I turned back towards my bedroom door and that’s when I saw the figure. He was just standing just inside the doorway to my room, the light of my phone’s flashlight almost bending around him, as if he was made of darkness so complete that even light couldn’t touch it.
I scrambled backwards, tripping over my own feet in an effort to run away, fear filling my veins, my blood running as cold as ice. As I scrambled back up he just stood there unmoving. I fled my own home and drove to a nearby hotel for the night. I wouldn’t risk returning to my house until morning, when it was light out. That night I didn’t sleep at all, I just sat huddled up on the bed in the hotel until daybreak.
The following morning I returned to my house, and wearily opened the door. I had left it unlocked in my rush out, but at least I didn’t forget to close it. When I entered my house, I could find nothing amiss. Everything was where it belonged, and there was no one inside. I began to relax, thinking maybe my mind was playing tricks on me. I went to change the light bulb in the doorway, but when I flicked the switch to check it one more time, it turned on, as bright as ever. I stared at the bulb in confusion, wondering to myself if I really was going crazy, that everything I experienced last night might have been due to being extremely tired, but that wouldn’t explain why the light wouldn’t turn on. I decided to change the light bulb anyway, and threw out the old one.
I was planning on having a relaxing weekend playing games, maybe chatting with friends on one of my socials, but I was tired, so very tired. I suppose pulling an all nighter wasn’t exactly the best plan last night. I decided I would take a quick nap. It was still pretty early in the day, maybe 10am, so I figured it wouldn’t be too big of a deal to take a quick nap to catch up on some of the sleep I missed.
I passed out almost the instant my head touched the pillow, and I slept. It was a restless sleep, and lacked all dreams as well. When I finally awoke, it was completely dark out, and all the lights were off in my house. I sat up groggy and confused. I thought I was going to take a quick nap, and it was already night out? I tried to check the time, but my bedside clock wasn’t working. I grabbed my phone to check that as well, but it seemed to be dead.
I got up and decided to look out the window, a poor decision I know. Outside I saw them, dozens of red eyes. I recognized them from when I was younger. They were filled with utter hatred, rage, and hunger, though they seemed to be staying away from the house. They stared at me and I stumbled backwards, flinging the curtains closed in fear, scared at how many there was outside. I hadn’t seen that many of those creatures in years. I quickly turned around in an attempt to get further into the house, away from those burning eyes, when I stopped dead in my tracks.
It was standing there, in my doorway, that creature that was made of darkness more pure than that of a void. It had the silhouette of a tall, thin man, and it seemed to have what looked like a top hat on as well. It stood there, gazing at me. This time I could see its eyes, though unlike the creatures outside, they weren’t a burning red, but a pure white. It wasn’t blinding or bright, just a complete contrast to the rest of its being. As I stared into its eyes, I was frozen, both out of fear, yet I could also feel something. Warmth began to flood through me; a stark contrast to the icy terror running through my veins. It stood unmoving, and I did the same. I felt like it was staring directly into my soul, and I began to realize that it was not like the malicious entities outside. In fact, it was almost as if this being was the reason they were staying away from me.
As I continued to stare into its eyes, those beautiful white eyes, I began to feel my own start to droop and close. I tried to resist, but it was of no use. I slowly slumped to the floor and fell yet again into sleep. When I woke up, I was back in my bed. I jumped up, checking the time, 4pm. It was still the same day. I sat there confused for a second, but quickly passed everything I had seen off as a dream. I went on with my day as if nothing had happened. I managed to play with some friends for a while, and eventually decided to make myself dinner, and to go to bed properly. I lay in bed, once again wondering of the events of the past day, asking myself if any of it had actually happened. Wondered if I was actually going crazy, but eventually I slipped off to sleep.
I woke up outside. I didn’t know how I had gotten there. I looked around, I was in the middle of a street I vaguely recognized, but I couldn’t quite figure it out. It was completely dark out, and I could see the stars in all of their magnificent beauty. It was amazing. As I returned my gaze to my surroundings, hoping that the stars might be illuminating them, I saw bright red eyes staring at me from just a few short yards away. Once again their hatred boiling and I could almost make out what it looked like. It had a canine like body, but none of the proportions seemed right. The legs were too long, the body too thin. I couldn’t make out its face, it was fuzzy, out of focus, as if the shadows were hiding it, or maybe my mind couldn’t begin to understand what it was seeing. It started to snarl at me, causing me to begin backing away slowly.
It began to stalk me as if I were its prey. It quickly lunged at me, mouth agape. Its teeth were horrible. Hundreds, if not thousands of razor sharp, needle like teeth, and they were right in front of my face. I couldn’t even begin to think of what to do, it was too late, the creature was about to be on top of me. It would kill me, likely tear apart my corpse, and feast of my flesh.
Suddenly, something knocked it away before that beast could bite off my head. I heard it scream in pain, like a thousand nails scraping across a chalkboard. It hurts my head even thinking about that sound. By the time I managed to look to see what had happened to the creature, the light was fading from its eyes. That’s when what had saved me, what was attacking that evil beast, turned towards me; it’s perfectly white eyes staring into mine. I began to understand, in what little way my fractured mind could. Before I could say anything, to thank this entity for saving my life, I saw more red eyes, more dark creatures emerging from the night, coming up behind my savior. I heard snarls behind me, and I was once again filled with terror. I looked back into those endless white eyes and immediately felt a shift.
I sat up in my bed, drenched in sweat, panting as if I had just been in a marathon. I sat there for quite a while, confused why I had woken up so suddenly, and drenched with sweat. I had been sleeping so peacefully, a calm, dreamless rest. I looked at the time, and it was 8 am, time to get up. I had work in a few hours. I started to get ready and prepared for the day to come. The day passed by quite smoothly. Nothing exciting happened, though I did see some people who were being followed by a shadow that wasn’t their own.
I completed all my tasks for the day, got everything cleaned up for the next shift, and began to head home around 7. I had to be just about half way home when, without warning, the whole world went dark; it was as if the sun had just disappeared. I quickly slammed on my brakes, looking outside my car window, but I couldn’t see anything, just the sheer blackness of the night.
As I stepped outside, I looked up to the sky, wondering why the sun was gone. As I looked up I saw the countless stars in the sky. The same stars I had gazed at thousands of times before. How could it be night already? I had just been driving home in the middle of a beautiful summer evening, this couldn’t be right. I tried to check my phone, but it refused to turn on.
I returned my gaze to the stars entranced by their overwhelming beauty. That’s when I began to notice something bizarre. The stars, they were one by one disappearing. It started at the edge of the sky, slowly moving towards me.
I began to realize something, the stars, they weren’t disappearing. They were being covered up. Something massive was blocking out the night sky, a horror of unknown magnitude. It was beyond horrifying. It was so absolutely terrifying that I couldn’t even begin to comprehend what it was. It was as black as the night and stretched endlessly across the sky, but that is all my mind could retain. The sheer horror of that being, of that creature of the night, it was destroying my sanity.
I fell to my knees in defeat, as I couldn’t tear my eyes away from creature. I could feel the eyes of others on me, and though they were smaller entities than the one in the sky, they were deadly ones none the less. They must have been the same type as the one that had attacked me before. I knew deep down that I wouldn’t survive this, that these beings, these monstrosities, they were out to kill me. They were the hunters, and I was the prey.
Before the smaller ones could begin to move however, something changed. There was a shift in the air. I managed to tear my gaze from the horror blocking out the stars to see that black void of a being walking towards us. It looked directly into my eyes, before turning away to look at the creature in the sky.
I felt the air tremble around me, as if there was a war of wills. I watched as one by one, the smaller creatures despite their infinite hatred, began to turn away, to flee, as if they feared what might happen to them. I turned back to the darkness that was my protector, and watched as it slowly began to fade from reality. I cried out in fear that if it left, I would be alone with all these horrors.
It slowly turned its gaze back to me, its white eyes once again locking with my own, and it stared into my soul. I could see an ancient kindness in its eyes, as well as an unending sorrow. I couldn’t look away until it broke my gaze, looking back up to the creature in the sky.
I followed its gaze and could see that creature in the sky retreating just as the small creatures had. It had begun to return back the way it had came, and I could tell that it was reluctant to do so, but it was as if it had no choice. My protector was driving it away, and fading out of existence in the process. I tried to beg it not to sacrifice itself for me, but I couldn’t say anything. I could only watch as the only creature that had tried to protect me vanished before my eyes.
I awoke in my bed. I didn’t know how I got there, and I couldn’t remember anything from the day before. The last thing I could remember was driving home from work, everything after that was like a fading dream. I decided to call out sick that day. I was unsure about what had happened, and didn’t know why I had memory loss. Nothing happened the following days, weeks, or even months. I completely forgot about everything that happened, from the incidents when I was just a teenager, up to the recent events.
I turned 23 last week and something surprising happened. I woke up late at night, almost 3am. I wasn’t sure what woke me up, but once I looked into my doorway and saw what was standing in it I remembered everything. Everything from when I was 15 in my friend’s house, to the insane events from just a few years ago. I knew that I would begin to see beings I shouldn’t again, and that I may be hunted by them as well, but I also knew I wouldn’t be alone. I stared into those strange, beautiful white eyes, and I smiled.