I'm never going back to that goddamned trail again.
I needed to clear my head after everything that's happened this week. I'm sleeping, some, but stress always make it worse, and the walking almost always relieves my stress. Dan was working again, so I drove myself, and not being as familiar with the roads to the other trails nearby, I picked what is quickly becoming my most walked and least favorite park of all time.
Things got bad this time. The sounds started again, about fifteen minutes into the trail. Maybe it's just because I haven't slept much lately, but they sounded different. The whispers weren't just there, they sounded pissed off. You ever hear two people having a heated argument in public, but they don't want to make a scene, so they're trying to whisper it. The noises had gone from barely-heard murmurs to that. The laughter had changed too, from what could have just been a chuckle or giggle here or there. It sounded cruel now, and it set me on edge.
What's worse were the new noises. Someone else was on the trail, and they always seemed to be following me just out of site and just within hearing. They weren't saying anything, but I could hear the constant crunch of their footsteps. Every time I looked back though, no matter how far along the path I could see, all my flashlight illuminated was trees. I never saw whoever was following me, but the footsteps kept getting closer.
I panicked.
I don't know if it was the best decision, and I don't really know why I did it, but it felt like they were right now on my heels, so I ran. I ran, and I kept running. I don't know how long I ran for, but I couldn't hear whoever was following me while I was running, so I didn't know if they were running after me. All I could hear was the leaves crunching under my feet and the blood pounding in my ears. When I finally stopped, I couldn't hear much of anything at all, except for the sound of my own breathing. No owls, no coyotes, and certainly no whispers or footsteps.
I stopped for a while, to catch my breath. I put my back up against a tree and closed my eyes for a moment, all the while expecting to hear something. Whoever had been following me must have chased me, right? Or whatever the hell those whispers were had come after me. I kept expecting to hear or see something that would tell me I wasn't safe.
All I heard was my breathing and a ringing in my ears, and so I stood there, in what I thought was safety, trying to catch my breath and for the ringing in my ears to go away.
When it did, I heard the whispers again, except they weren't whispers. I still couldn't make out what they were saying, but instead of a conversion from afar, this was a roar, right in my ears, rising in volume until it hurt to listen. The worst part was the smell, coming from right behind me. The too-familiar smell of smoke and dead animals.
Whatever was behind me put a hand that felt like wood on my shoulder, and then I was running again. I don't even remember getting back to the parking lot or driving home, but I must have been running purely on adrenaline, because I made it back without stopping.
All the doors in my house are locked. My bedroom door has a chair pushed up under the handle, so it can't be opened even if it was unlocked. I took my mattress and placed it over my window. Tomorrow, I'm going to go out and buy bars for my windows, deadbolts for my doors, and maybe a gun, if anyone is willing to sell to a man who looks like he hasn't slept in a weak. Maybe I was just fooling myself, and I didn't actually recognize the smell, and whatever that was hasn't been in my house before.
I hope so. Either way, I need to protect myself, just in case. Hopefully I can be safe in my own home. At the very least, I'm never going back there again.
You think you have a choice.
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