A Walk in the Dark

It was a beautiful night outside, too inviting to resist. She stepped out and looked up at the clear sky. She had never seen so many stars, and so bright; for a moment she couldn't believe her eyes. The sky was navy blue, lit up by a big yellow moon... a full moon.

It was the middle of summer, and nights were warm but with a light breeze. Just perfect, she thought, perfect for a walk. She told herself it would only be a short "stroll", and started walking up her street. There was a strange feeling in the air, she couldn't quite place what it was, but it seemed to welcome her into the night. Encouraged by the breeze and the stars, she turned sharply left, and took a path she hadn't intended to go down. The path to the riverside, to the park.

She walked for about ten minutes going downhill in the same direction. The path itself was pleasant, there were tall trees on either side, leaning forwards and forming an arch over her head, a kind of tunnel. In broad daylight it would have provided perfect shade, and been very nice to walk in indeed, but at night it blocked out the moonlight almost completely, leaving Ann in nearly complete darkness. And whenever a ray of moonlight entered the arch, it only made the path seem eerier. She suddenly started walking quickly, and when the path turned sharply left, and led to a heavy iron gate, she felt very relieved. She opened the gate, using all her strength, and walked into the park.

The tunnel of trees ended at the entrance, meaning that the park was not so dark. She walked towards the swings and watched them move in the wind. After taking in a deep breath of the fresh, evening air, she sat on one of the swings and began rocking backwards and forwards. How long had it been since she'd last visited that park? Days? Weeks? Possibly months, even? Yes, months, she remembered now. The last time she had visited it had been before the rumours started. It all came flooding in now.

Some months ago, she had gone to the park with her two best friends, Loren and Sophie. They had played around with the swings and gone on the slide, when suddenly, a strong gust of wind almost pushed Loren off the top of the slide, and they got off it. The strange thing was that the wind stopped as soon as they were off the slide, and when they were heading to the gate, they saw a child of about ten, their age, a strange looking child.

When they were near it, they saw that it was a girl, a very pale, thin girl. They said hello to her cheerily and received the coldest look ever in return. The thing that struck them strangest were the girl's eyes: one was of a silvery grey colour and the other one bright blue. And her paleness, she looked very ill, and every step seemed to take her a huge effort.

The three friends stood at the gate watching her walk towards the swings, and when she turned around she looked right at them and grinned, a very grim grin. They took no more notice of the strange girl and walked back home, talking cheerily of their day at school, and putting any thoughts of her away. In fact, Ann hadn't given the strange happening any thought until two or three weeks later. Nor had Loren or Sophie.

Now that she remembered it all, a cold shiver ran down her spine, she didn't know why, but that girl had made a deep impression on her, there was a strange air about her that she had never felt before. Thinking better of where she was and the lateness of the evening, she jumped off the swing and begun walking back home. As she shut the gate behind her and entered the dark passage of trees her pace quickened and her nervousness turned to fear. She needed to get home quickly, something wasn't right.

The tunnel seemed darker, and the night had grown rather chilly, a cold wind blew, whistling as it went past the silvery-green leaves of the trees. Ann even thought she could hear the faint cries of someone ahead of her, no, it was only her imagination. She was almost at the end of the archway now. It had seemed like a long walk, but it was nearly over now.

Suddenly she stopped. A cold bony hand had touched her shoulder, only faintly, but she had felt it, she hadn't imagined it this time. She turned around hastily and looked at the path she had come from. It was empty. Feeling truly scared now, she began to run to a place of light, she turned the corner and almost walked into someone, or she thought she had, although it turned out to be a shadow. The angle at which the moon shone through the trees formed the shape of a person, a small child. What was wrong with her? She was imagining things!

After a while she slowed down again, feeling safe again, and her fear was calmed. Instead of fear she began to feel uncomfortable, she wasn't alone, all the way home someone had been following her... or had she imagined that too? She was walking down her road now, the lamposts lit the way. The night seemed warm again. Not wanting to take any chances, she opened her door and turned the living room light on. Taking the keys from the kitchen she locked the door and went up to her room. "Take that Ann", she thought, "let this be a lesson to you not to wander out in the dark again, you could catch a cold or something worse could happen...". And with that, she fell asleep almost instantly.