Fear of a Dark

Used to I never feared a thing. I would joyously run into anything that scared most people away. Now I fear something new, the dark. It sends chills through my very core, whenever there is darkness I try to steer clear of it. My eyes go wide and a cold sweat starts at my brow, every sound is amplified, and nothing is seen. This fear was brought on by something that I would have never thought. I was out with my friends Josh, Nick, and Paul. We had gone through a small forest and ended up next to the back of a very large brick building. There was a clearing between the forest and building about 7 feet one way and the other way was where we head come from, across that was pitch black. Where we sat we couldn‘t see anything other than each other, the wall and the first trees into the forest. We sat down and made a small fire that we sat around. Josh with his back to the wall Nick’s to the forest, Paul sat across from me with his back to the way we had come and my back was towards the darkness. Sitting around the fire, we joked and talked, we didn’t bother with scary stories because Paul and I could never be frightened. Even though we didn’t get scared easily, we were always on our toes because of the neighborhood we lived in. So when we began to hear rustling leaves the curiosity was mixed with a need to protect our softer friends. We caught eyes with each other and knew that we both heard the sound. Paul disguised his worry with jokes as usual making fun of me for looking in the direction of the sound, and saying it was most likely a stray cat. I on the other hand being more protective because I had problems getting friends, secretly pulled out my small pocket knife and held it by my side open. We kept playing and joking as the sound began to get closer, something I’d have never imagined happened, a tired worry began wrapping around my heart, causing a cold sweat to bead on my brow. I could see Paul’s face stayed usual and not worried at all. I couldn’t say anything though, I knew that if I did they’d laugh and call me a coward, even of they began to worry as well. The sound was so close then, my grip tightened on my knife as I heard it pass me closely. The hair on my back stood when the sound stopped, and I felt eyes boring into my back. My friends had quieted and I looked to each one. They had all gone pale and their mouths hung open. An unfamiliar feeling crept over me as I slowly turned forgetting about the knife in my hand. As if in slow motion but all at once, the others got up to run as I met with darkness, and glowing red eyes parallel with mine. For a second those eyes and the darkness were all that I noticed no noises or sights just the pitch black dark, and those blood red eyes. I’d never been so afraid in my life, my mind fogged up, and without thinking anything I stood and ran away with my friends. Seemed only a couple of seconds before we had reached the driveway leading to the forest, but we had escaped. After a break of catching our breath, we all began to ask each other what we saw, and we had all seen it those eyes. The thing is, no one seemed to be bothered as much as I had been, and still was. I played along as they joked about how we all had run and how it was most likely been a dog. I knew it couldn’t have been, how high the eyes were from the ground, how large they were, how far apart. Also I’d noticed something, it didn’t follow us when we ran. Usually a dog would chase after anything that runs from it. It never moved. The next day I’d gone home and did some research on the internet, there aren’t many animals who’s eyes glow red. Most of them were tiny and all of them live in different countries. So I couldn’t find any leads on what it might have been.1

A couple months later we moved away and my friends and I grew apart. Not only that, the fear of the dark began to grow, but so did the curiosity. So while staying out of the darkness and doing all the research I could on what I’d seen, the only things I could find was stuff about odd creatures like the moth man or the jersey devil. I scoffed when I saw these things but slowly my curiosity seemed to always bring me back. Maybe it’s like this or this, I began to think irrationally about it but then again I’m still not sure. It’s been five years since then and I can’t remember a few of the details, but still thinking about it I get scared and excited, I’m not sure what I should do. We moved back to that place not as close to the forest as we were but there’s another way there. Through the creek that now, I couldn’t go through by myself, it’s gotten more wild without us tramping through it. I can’t go back the normal way for two reasons, one it’s right next to Paul’s house that is now abandoned, and the path is gone. 2

I’ve only got one friend now but he’s not really what I need to travel with me. I want to go back there sometime soon to the same place and time. I want it to come back, and when it does I’ll stay even if everyone else runs, and I’ll figure out the mystery, even if it kills me. 3

I hope to one day come back and write about what happens after I find it but more so I hope, that it comes and that I have the courage to stay, and confront my fears. And maybe finally solve the mystery of those terrifying red eyes in that pitch black dark…4