User:Rough Fang/BlogArchive/Footsteps

I moved to this town three years ago. I got a job as a professor at a local university and put my past behind me, hoping I could remain here for the rest of my life. And why not? I had a great job, a roof over my head, what’s not to love? Of course I had once thought about settling down and having a family but it had been years since I last thought about it. What was important was that I felt safe. For the first time in my life I forgot all about my troubles. For the first time in my life I was happy.

And then, it came. For the first time in three years, I heard the footsteps, louder than ever. They were coming for me.

I woke up in a cold sweat, the footsteps still getting louder in my ears. A storm raged outside my bedroom window, seemingly foreshadowing my doom. I grabbed the luggage I always had packed in case of this, snatched my car keys off the table and ran out without locking the door. With any luck, I wouldn’t be in the same country by the time the landlord found out.

In a matter of minutes I had loaded the baggage into the trunk and gotten in the car. I tried to block out the footsteps but they were growing increasingly loud. I tried not to panic as I drove out onto the open road. Sweat slid down the side of my face. I couldn’t drive to the airport. With this huge lightning storm, almost all the flights would be delayed. Besides, getting through customs would take too long in itself. There wasn’t enough time. The footsteps were louder than I ever remembered. The last time I heard the footsteps this loud…

I remembered, as a child, looking up at the huge creature. I could barely see through my horror. Before me stood a seething mass of evil, roughly four times my height. It was a blur of feathers and hair and scales and claws. Set within that wall of grotesque terror were two eyes. The eyes that haunted me through my childhood. The eyes that were constantly watching over me. The eyes of the Devil.

No! It was even worse. This creature…this thing! It would have made the Devil scream and run. I can’t say how I managed to escape its hideous grasp with my sanity intact. I moved from place to place, and everywhere I went, the foul beast tracked me down. The sound of its footsteps was unmistakable. A horrible tapping sound that seemed to breathe fear into my lungs when I hear it.

By constantly moving I had managed to evade it. But at what cost? Was a life as a paranoid, fearful man at the brink of insanity truly a life worth living? I had no friends, only myself to rely upon. I could tell no one of this burden for they would surely think me insane.

The footsteps were deafening now. I squinted to see through the mist and rain in front of the car. A sign by the road told me I was approaching the town limits. Perfect. I thought. I put my thoughts aside. I was ever so close to escaping this dreaded horror.

Or so I thought. There it was. Right in front of me. Its footsteps tapped louder as it approached the car. A bloodcurdling screech echoed through the night, but it did not come from the demon. It came from my own throat.

I swerved the car. It wheeled off the road. Everything was a blur as tears filled my eyes and my mind collapsed under my panic. I remember the car crashing. I remember feeling the blood flowing down from my forehead. The pain paled in comparison to the footsteps. The deafening tapping of its footsteps driving me closer to the brink, threatening to push me over.

And I laughed. Why didn't I let this happen earlier? I had no idea what this creature would do to me but I was sure that it would be better than this. Anything would be better than this. I'd rather be dragged into the fiery depths of Hell at the hands of this demon than allow it to torment me further. I laughed and I laughed. For the first time in 38 years, the footsteps would stop forever. I would never have to hear the dreaded tapping noise again.

And I never did.