Things that fly in the night

Becky woke up before dawn for her morning run. In the back of her mind she was thinking of the article she read in last night’s newspaper. It was about a young woman who went for a run early in the morning a few days ago. Her boy friend reported her missing the next morning.

She finishes getting dressed puts her running shoes on and ties them up. Walking by the living room she noticed that the TV was still on. A hunting and fishing show is on. The host was discussing “Why most animals feed in the early morning before dawn.” This was all Becky hears before she opens the front door and walks out onto the steps. The cool crisp air hit her in the face. She breathed in deeply taking in the fresh air; standing there she scanned the neighborhood, it was still dark out. She slammed the door behind her, Becky headed down the stairs and out onto the sidewalk.

After Becky jogged a few blocks through the neighborhood, the sidewalk ended and asphalt path into the park began. Sentinel Lake Park is several hundred acres of old growth forest, a lake and a few miles of jogging paths. One or two abandon 19th century farmhouses are scattered throughout the vast forest. As she entered the park, the large fur trees started to close in around her. She could hear her footsteps echoing off the surrounding trees. The sun had not yet broken the horizon but its bright orange rays foretold its arrival cast an eerie glow through the large fur trees.

Becky couldn’t get the woman in the article out of her mind. She recalls the young woman’s name is Jane Albright, twenty six years’ old. She lived on Alcott Street, which is on the other side of the park. The article said she had dark red hair down to her shoulder, blue eyes and she was wearing a yellow T-shirt, blue running shorts and white sneakers. She went jogging before six o’clock in the morning. Becky looks at her watch. It is 5:40 a.m.

Ahead of Becky the lake appeared through the tree. The early morning mist was rising from the lake like a specter from the grave. The fishy-earthy smell of the lake filled her lungs as she moved closer to the dark body of water that is now off to her left.

On the other side of the lake Becky thought she saw a dark figure through the mist over the lake.

“It maybe the early morning light playing tricks on my eyes.” She said to herself.

Becky looked over her shoulder as she passed the lake. She no longer saw the dark figure.

“It is the light, playing tricks on my eyes.” She said out loud.

She picked up her pace as she left the lake in her wake. The path took her through a section of large Oak trees. Their large canopies blot out the sky above her. Above her she heard branches and twigs snapping, leafs and pieces bark raining down in front of her. Becky scanned the canopy above her. She can see some shadows in the early morning gloom but could not make out what they were from. Her heart quickened as did her pace once more.

Becky emerged from the trees. The path wonder through an open field of tall grass and weeds. She had a feeling that someone was watching her. Looking over her shoulder again, there was enough light to see where the field and the trees meet but no farther, but there was nothing behind her.

The path took her onto a foot bridge that spanned a small stream that fed the lake. While she was on the bridge something in the sky above caught her eye. It is a large dark bird or something flying in the orange sky. Becky did not get a good look at it as it flew into the trees on the other side of the bridge. She scanned the tree top in front of her for movement as her feet clap on the wooden boards of the foot bridge.

Becky slowed her pace a bit as she crossed the bridge and got closer to the forest on the other side. Her eyes darted back and forth as she entered the forest. This part of the forest seemed darker then on the other side of the bridge. There was an eerie silence which made Becky’s heart quicken. She ran deeper into the forest. The trees began to close behind her. The sun was almost over the horizon but it continued to get darker in the forest. Her foot steps were echoing off the asphalt path and the trees around her. The echoing sound started to disorient Becky and the sound of her heart in her ears was pounding. She felt the fear rising throughout her body.

Becky saw something moving in the tree tops above her. The branches and leafs were shaking violently. Leafs and branches started falling onto the path about twenty yards in front of her. She stopped in her tracks, keeping her eyes on the canopy of the trees above her. She covered her ears with her hands to block the sound of branches snapping and echoes off the tree trucks. There was an opening in the canopy where the broken branches use to be. Beams of orange sun light broke the darkness of the forest, like a search light from the heavens.

A dark form fell from the tree tops into the orange beam of sun light. Becky thought it was a man with a cape that had fallen onto the path in front of her. Becky stumbled backwards as she realized what was standing in front of her. It was not a man at all. What stands before Becky was some kind of winged creature.

Becky did not stand around to that stock of the creature appearance. She turned and ran back toward the foot bridge. When her feet finally hit the wooden boards of the bridge, her heart was pounding, her mind was racing and she was in a panic. She looked over her shoulder to see if the creature was still behind her. The creature was no longer on the path behind her.

As she sprinted off the bridge, Becky looked up over her head to see if she could locate the creature. It was not in the sky above her. She put her head down so she could run as fast as she could. Becky heard something hit the asphalt in front of her. The creature stood in front of her once again. She noticed its long boney arms, its big hairy hands with sharp claws and that its hands reached to its knees.

Horrified by what she just saw Becky turned once more to flee from the creature. She wanted to scream out but she was so scared no sound came out of her throat. Becky stumbled as she made her way back onto the bridge. She looked over her shoulder again to see the creature with its wings spread and flying about four feet above the ground. The creature flow into the back of Becky. She was hit with such force that she was thrown face first onto the bridge knocking the wind out of her. She hit the planks on the bridge and her body slid under the hand railings and fell over the side of the bridge. She was free falling about six feet to the stream below. Becky tried to brace herself for the impact with the shallow stream. It was only about six inches deep. She felt as if she was falling in slow motion. Her mind was filling with all kinds of thoughts.

“Will the fall hurt?” She thought to herself.

“Where can I run?” Is the next thought that came to her mind?

“What if I get hurt and can’t run away?” She said to herself.

The thought that really stood out in her head was.

“Where is the creature?” She said out loud.

Becky hits the stream bottom hard. The splashing sound of the water echoes off the side of the bridge. Her hands out stretched hit first, she felt a sharp pain in her right wrist. The water soaks through her T-shirt as she lands on her stomach. She could feel the chill of the early morning in her bones. Becky rolled onto her side gasping for air. She had the wind knocked out of her, her wrist felt like it was broken, her knees were bleeding from her slid across the bridge and she was wet, covered in mud and ice cold.

Gasping for air she finally caught her breath. Her vision blurred from the fall. Becky looked up at the bridge. She saw a dark, almost round form sitting on the hand railing of the foot bridge. As the blurriness went away, she could tell it was the creature. It sat in a crouched position on the hand railing. Its dark gray, hairy skin stood out against the orange sky. Its dark evil eyes looked out at Becky over its knees. The creature was wrapped in its bat-like wings. It sat there motionless just staring at her. She could only hear its deep rhythmic breathing.

Becky’s wrist was throbbing with pain. Her knees were sore and her back hurt but she started to crawl out of the stream and up the embankment. All of the time keeping an eye on the creature, it had not moved as she tried to crawl out of the stream. She cannot understand why it had not attacked her since it knocked her off the bridge.

Becky made it to the top of the stream bank. She collapsed in the tall weeds for a moment. She was trembling with fear. Her heart was pounding. Her mind was racing.

“What is this thing? Where did it come from? Why is it after me? What will it do to me?” She asked herself.

Becky was up on her feet in a crouched position in the weeds. She looks over her shoulder at the creature. It was still motionless on the hand railing. She decided to make a run for the forest about fifty yards away.

Becky was about ten yards into her run for the forest when she looked back at the creature. It was still sitting on the bridge. After about twenty-five yards she looked back again. The creature was no longer on the bridge. She tried to pick up her pace but her knees were too sore. Becky was about twenty yards from the edge of the forest when she was hit in the back again and flung forward. She felt a sharp pain under her right shoulder blade. There was something digging into her back. Something grabbed her upper left arm from the back. Becky could feel herself falling forward, then all of the sudden she was lifted into the air.

She looked up and saw the creature above her and it had a hold of her. It had dug its claw into her back and under her shoulder blade. She felt like a piece of meat on a meat hook. As her feet left the ground the pain under her shoulder blade got ten times worse. She could feel the blood soaking through the back of her T-shirt as it drains from under her shoulder blade.

The creature flow up above the tree tops with Becky in its claws. She saw very small dark round objects fall from her right shoe. She thought in was dirt from the bottom of her shoe but then she realizes it was her own blood. Becky’s feet hit the top of a tree at the beginning of the forest, and it knocked her left shoes off. She could hear it hitting branches as it fell through the trees.

Becky could smell the fetid breath of the creature as it breathed down on her. All she could see below her was miles of tree tops. Directly in front of her was the giant orange morning sun that had just risen over the horizon but its bottom half was partially covered by the vast forest. The pain in her shoulder had moved up into her neck. She felt a bit light headed most likely from the blood lose. Any movement of her arms or upper body causes more sharp pain in her shoulder and neck. She was able to look up at the creature that has her in its grasp.

The creature’s head was human-like; its dark gray skin is sunk into its skull. There’s no protruding nose that Becky could see. The creature’s lips are so thin they were hardly visible. An outline of its teeth and jaw could be seen on its thin skin. Its whole body was cover in a dark brown horse like hair. Its teeth are large and yellow stained.

Becky could see an opening in the forest canopy ahead. The creature pulls Becky up close to its body. Her heart started to race again.

She thought to herself. “Something is going to happen soon.”

She could feel it in her bones.

“I will have a chance to get away.” She tried to get her hopes up.

The creature flow over the opening in the trees. Becky could see an old run down farmhouse in the gloom below. She could see a large hole in the roof. The creature flow past the farmhouse and back over the forest. Becky felt her hopes fading away. Then the creature turns south and flow along the border of the forest and the farm below.

The creature grunts, snorts and shakes it head from side to side. It circled the opening in the forest three times and picks up speed as it flow. The creature turned and flow west heading back toward the lake but then it turns back east again.

Becky was swing violently below the creature. The creature was flying so fast that when Becky looked down at the tree tops all she sees is a dark green blur. The giant orange sun is right in front of her again.

The creature flow over the farmhouse and lets go of Becky about fifty feet in the air. Becky could feel herself free fall. She was fall on her back; she could see the roof of the house coming at her fast as she looked down. Becky tried to brace herself for the impact with the roof. When she hits, it sounded like a loud clap of thunder. She could hear boards snapping from the impact with her back. She felt the tremendous pain run up and down her spine. She saw broken boards, dust and dirt flying all around her. Becky could see the ceiling of the house and the sky fall away from her through a cloud of dust. She heard a blood curdling scream, and then she realizes it was her own scream.

Becky felt the pain run through her whole body like a freight train when she hits the floor of the farmhouse on her back. She could hear the wood from the roof falling around her and felt the dust landing in her eyes. Feeling nothing in her body but pain, she tried to look through the cloud of dust, to see where she was.

Becky slowly turned her head to the right. She saw bones scattered all over the floor of the house, leg bones, rib bones, jaw bones and skulls.

“These aren’t animal bones. They are human.” She said to herself.

With what little strength Becky had left she slowly turned her head the other way. Through the cloud of dust that is still settling she saw a human form lying no more then five feet away. As her eyes focused on it, she realizes it was the girl from the article.

Jane Albright lies on her back, with her head facing Becky. Jane’s hair is covering half her face. Her eyes were open, and they had a blank distance stair in them. The bottom half of her yellow T-shirt is covered in dried blood. The lower half of Jane’s body had been devoured and no longer existed.

Becky heard something hit the roof. She looked out the corner of her eye at the hole in the roof she had fallin through. She saw the creature crouched on the roof. It was starring down at her.

“So this is how it ends!”