Night of the Beast
I walk through the dark, breathing in the hot humid night.
My brain is reeling, saturated by alcohol and herbal inhalants.
It’s circuitry crackling with impulses, fine tuned by chemical substances.
Alone in my musings, my footfall has been the only sound in this silent landscape.
Still I feel as if I were being stalked.
I can sense a flux in this energy flow, that we call a city.
A subtle, but noticeable strain on reality.
I become aware of a soft sound in the distance.
Insinuating at first, like a fleeting image caught out of the corner of your eye that is lost the moment you try to define it.
But, as the sound gradually increases in intensity, as it moves closer, it creates uneasiness in me, seeding my brain with just a tiny touch of terror.
My speed increases as the sound grows.
As if there were some danger abroad this night and I might not….make it home.
Off in the distance, I catch a glimpse of a glowing image, cracking the sky like lightning on the horizon.
It’s coming!
The stories I’ve heard can’t be true.
They’re just drug induced, paranoid visions of midnight travelers like me.
Beasts do not prowl the city streets. This is metro-millennium-civilization.
Deep in the heart of asphalt, stoplights and the 21st Century.
But still there is something there.
The sound is more distinct now.
A steady, rasping, oratory of unintelligible phrases, like a lion roaring through clenched teeth.
The glow has evolved into shining, yellow orbs pulsating in time to some internal clock strike.
It’s coming!
Two blocks down and closing fast.
My eyes dart about, looking for escape.
My pace slowing, as I consider retreat.
But, something in me is drawn forward.
A thought that I might experience a rare occurrence seen only by a select few.
After all, they survived to tell the tale.
But, how many others have there been that disappeared into that dark night.
It’s coming!
My hesitation has made escape a moot point.
There is no time now.
I duck into a darkened doorway, trying desperately to dissolve into the shadows.
My eyes wide and wild, straining to focus on the beast as it passes.
Its sounds are loud as thunder.
Its movement grinding, like gears grating on steel.
It bristles, scratching at the pavement like the frantic pawing of a mad bull.
Liquid flows in thick sheets from its steaming body.
My ears are filled with the hissing of its heady breath.
The rumbling from its belly sounds as if it were devouring the ground beneath it.
The Beast strains on like the fifth horseman of the apocalypse,
challenged by only the foolhardy
It is Monday, and the street cleaner rules the night.
Stop by and check out our Halloween Selection at Gifts by Sasha
By David Spangenburg
Tags:Gifts,Gifts by Sasha,Halloween
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