This passage is from the journal of a women named Jessica Norton.
In my city, the roads stretched themselves throughout the landscape. They went so far that they even passed the mountains that hid our city from the rest. It was said that along this road there was a dirt path that led into the large forest that spread itself along the northern area of the district. The forest had a silver lake that would, at night, dazzle and shimmer, reflecting the moons beauty. Not only that but it was also said that a person lived in these woods inside a log cabin that could only be located by following an archaic cobblestone path that led to the house. The myth was that anyone who made it to the house would never return and those that lived would get lost trying to find it and eventually make their way back to the city. In the myth it was even said that, on a rare occasion, a person would come into the city and murder those who had attempted to find the cabin. Whether this myth was no more than a fake tale told to scare people around a campfire or whether the legends and myths of old were tangible, what I experienced that night was so vivid and abhorrent that it will stay with me until the day I die.
I was twenty-one at the time and I was partaking a multitude of part-time jobs to keep up with my rent. All the jobs I took on were at night as I was in college during the day. Not only that but the night had grown darker in the recent weeks so I could only rely on the streetlamps to navigate my way home. It was around one o’clock in the morning and I was finishing up my shift at a grocery store that I had been working at for a couple of months. My friend, Sarah had come into the store. She did the one to six shifts for the early hours of the morning. Why someone would be getting groceries at one o’clock let alone four or five o’clock I don’t know but I didn’t care either. Sarah unbuttoned her coat and unveiled her scarf that was hiding half of her face. She came over to me and exchanged words for a moment, during which I couldn’t help but feel as though she was on edge about something. While we were talking, I commented on it to see if my intuition was correct. “Well, the thing is maybe I am being paranoid or something, but the thing is I am sure that I saw something lurking outside.” In response to this, I rolled my eyes and said, “It was probably just an animal.” and patted Sarah on the shoulder while chuckling. “Oh, whatever!” Sarah said and I walked out, playfully shaking my head.
The street was so gloomy that the lamps could barely fight the thick cloak of darkness that choked all crevices of the city. The wind was harsh, lashing at my body from all angles. I hastily put on my coat and made sure that the hood was tight around my head so that I wouldn’t expose myself to the wind’s fury. I trekked along the pavement, being faithful to the lamps in the hopes that they would guide me to the bus-stop. It had rained earlier that day and due to this the pavements and roads were slippery. I fell victim to the weather as I slipped on a pool of water, yet I was able to regain my balance by grabbing onto a lamp for support. Due to the shock, it took a while to regain my composure, but I eventually came to my senses. I looked around my environment and behind me in the far distance I could ever so slightly make out a figure that seemed to be hiding in the dark. I tried to focus in on this figure however I soon lost focus of it, and it was lost to the shadows. Shortly after that I felt a distinctive chill that crawled its way up to my spine and made its way to my skull. I could feel a cold sweat beginning to pour down my forehead and my body began to freeze. I slowly gathered myself and continued to walk down the street.
I found myself at a curb and I could see the bright flashing car lights fly past me. I hesitated for a while in fear that, due to the darkness, the cars wouldn’t see me, and I would end up being a red smear all over the road. I eventually got the courage and darted towards the other end of the street. Luckily, I got across unscathed and in one piece. To the left of me, where I would normally go to get the bus, the road was cut off by police. This meant I would have to go a different way to get to the bus-stop, I would have to go into the dark depths of the inner-city. The inner-city was littered with thin alleyways that were encapsulated in darkness. The walls were drenched with a viscous sludge that seemed to be decorated in all areas of the city. There were no lamps that provided some sort of visibility, there was only the moonlight that reflected the large pools of water that had been left by the rain. Luckily, I was prepared and had a flashlight with me. The flashlight, however, did not go far and was quite dim. I navigated around the inner-city, trying to use my memory to figure out where I needed to go.
I made my way to a large courtyard. The courtyard was once a luscious plane of grass that local residents would sit at during the afternoon. However, the courtyard seemed to be barren of any form of greenery and was instead covered in the same viscous sludge that had clung to the walls of the buildings a few moments before. I stood froze at the edge of courtyard, considering whether or not to go across it, when I heard a loud metallic beat of footsteps approaching from behind me. I turned to see a dark figure a close distance away from me. The figure seemed to be approaching swiftly and without a second thought I attempted to dart across the courtyard. However, as I got to a third of the way across, the sludge had wrapped itself around my shoes and I could feel it slowly dragging me in with it. I jumped forward however I fell into the sludge and could feel its darkness attempting to consume me. The orchestra of metallic footsteps grew louder and louder. For what felt like an eternity of wriggling in sludge I eventually tore myself out of its grasp and stumbled out of the courtyard. I turned back and could see the figure now at the beginning of the courtyard, it began to make its way across however seemed to not struggle against the sludge.
I ran with my clothes now tattered from the struggle and headed into one of the thin alleyways in the street. I hid in amongst the rubbish of a garbage can, with my eyes peeking out of its crevice. I could see the moonlight reflecting the figure as it approached towards the alleyway. Its face was a ghostly white that adorned an uncanny grin that exposed all of its rotting teeth. Any other grim details this being may have possessed were hidden by the rim of its large top hat. I heard the footsteps growing even more aggressive as it approached, the hard metal thuds crashing against the fractured pavement below. It came very close to me, so close that I could hear the heavy, demonic breathing of the creature. However, it seemed to not have noticed me hiding and it left taking its orchestra of metal thuds with it. After I could no longer hear its daunting sounds, I stepped out of the garbage bin and carried on towards the bus stop.
I eventually came out of the inner city and was back on the main road. In the distance I could see the bus stop. I darted towards the bus stop, using every ounce of my energy to get there. I had gotten halfway across the street when I started to feel extremely cold and almost instantly I was frozen in place. I could see that the streetlights began to flicker and then popped. After only a few seconds the street was completely pitch black and I started to feel numb.
After, what only felt like a few seconds, I awoke to see large pine trees towering over me. I looked down and I saw a cobblestone path below me that I was being dragged along. I was bound by a thick piece of rope that went from my shoulders to my ankles. I attempted to turn my head to see what I was being dragged by and I could see a tall man wearing a dark black coat who was holding the rope that was wrapped around me. Although my vision was blurred, I could make out a log cabin in the distance that was dimly lit by small lanterns that were decorated randomly across the cabin.
I did not even attempt to struggle as I knew that any efforts would have been futile. I could feel the grime and dirt that had collected itself between the cobblestones grasping onto my jacket. I could see the dim light shining on the near trees and the dragging was abruptly stopped. Instantly everything went dark, and I could feel a ragged sack around my head, the iron smell of blood emanated from the sack, invading my nostrils. I could feel the cold hand of the man pulsating as he forcefully uprooted me from the ground. He began to roughly move me into the house, each plank making a sharp creaking sound as I stood on them. Eventually, I was thrown into an old chair that looked as though it had been soaked in old blood with crooked nails that had randomly been hammered into the chair. Worn leather belt straps were firmly wrapped around my wrists and ankles, keeping me bolstered to the chair. The sack ripped from my head; I could see the room I was in. The room adorned noses, ears and fingers that were suspended by fishhooks. Blood seemed to cover the counter tops of the room and had bronzed with time.
The man hastily left the room; the door slamming shut behind him. I attempted to release myself from the leather belt shackles that gripped themselves around my wrists. After an arduous attempt at liberating myself from the chair, the prongs of the belts began to loosen, and I was able to free my wrists. I hastily began to loosen my ankles from the chair; the door swung open. The man stood at the doorway; his grin being fully extended. The sound of friction as his teeth grinded together. I attempted to flee the room, but the man darted towards me in a flash. He tackled me to the ground, his cold hands grappling around my shoulders pulling me towards him. I stretched my arm out towards to the blood-stained counter where a sharp knife lay. I was flipped over by the man who began to strangle me and with each second, I could feel myself getting more tired as each breath of air left my body. Using my hand, I blindly searched around the countertop, attempting to grab the knife. My sight began to go blurred and I remember feeling as though I was going to die in that moment. I grabbed the handle of the knife and thoughtlessly forced the knife into the man’s throat. A black sludge trickled down the cut where the knife had been, and this black liquid began to pour through of the crevices of the man’s teeth. The rugged grasp of the man loosened giving me the little strength I had to push him off me. A quiet hiss, like that of a snake was heard from the man as I got up. I darted towards the door and crashed out of the house, stumbling as I fell down the small steps that led off the porch.
The trees were imposing, they towered over me every turn I took. There was a thick cover of darkness that made it troubling to see what was around me. For a long time, I felt lost in the thick void of trees that I was surrounded in. My legs ached from the arduous journey across the forest. Standing at the edge of the forest, I could see an array of lights shimmering in the distance. I plodded along the main road, where I eventually found myself in the city. The grime and sludge that was once covered all over the apartments was no longer there. Trembling along the streets, I eventually staggered into the apartment complex. The smell of moist carpet filled the air, and the buzz of the UV lights invaded my ears. Slogging my way to my apartment, I opened the door and fell onto my bed.
The next morning, I awoke peacefully, yet still in my dirty clothes. I hastily got up, realising that I hadn’t even attempted to call the police. That morning I went to the station and attempted to explain to them what had happened. I told them about the sludge and the pale man but the more I detailed the events that had occurred the night prior the more that I began to realise how crazy I sounded. The response from the police was a mix of confusion and concern. In my last efforts to try and convince them that I wasn’t just some local crackhead, I explained to them how there was a log cabin in the woods which was presumably where the pale man resided. When I exclaimed this detail to them the room seemed to shift. Both policemen who were interviewing me at the time slowly looked and at one and other with disbelief. They told me that they would investigate it and have people go over to the log cabin. A week later, they told me that they found no pale man within the log cabin however there was a potent aroma of chemicals within each room of the house, especially the kitchen. Not only that but they said they found a battered and broken chair within the kitchen, the same one I had been strapped to. However, the chair was vacant of any nails or blood. As I wrapped things up with the officers, I had a feeling that they knew something that I didn’t. Ever since I had told them about the cabin, they seemed on edge and shaky. While I was leaving the building, I even saw one of the officers who had interviewed me before muttering to himself “I can’t believe this is happening.” I asked him what he meant by this. His face, covered in desperation, turned to me and said, “He’s back.” After hearing that I was extremely unnerved. I decided to get a drink and go home.
Ever since that dreadful night I have attempted to remove it from my mind however it has clung to my brain like a parasite. It has been seven months since then, yet I still can’t shake the memory of that pale man lurking in the shadows. I hope I never see him again.