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| The Vanishers Part 1 D.C. |
| He stood on the corner, the man in the long black jacket, and he watched me. I could feel his eyes in the back of my head but I kept walking. I was always afraid of being alone at night, walking the streets, running through dark hidden alleys... I turned around and he was still following me. Not running, but somehow keeping a short distance behind me. I didn't run either. I didn't want to seem afraid. Fear shows weakness. I was, and continue to be, invincible. Keeping my head down and my stride long and even, I walked quicker. My mind pulled up about a million and one things this man could want. My money. My innocence. My life. "Stay cool," I told myself. "Don't get paranoid. He'll notice. He's bigger and stronger than you." I kept walking in a jagged line, weaving between cars and buildings, praying he was gone... but too afraid to look. I didn�t hear his footsteps as I walked down a gravel alleyway, I only heard my own. I remembered a biblical poem that was hanging in my apartment called Footsteps. "If you've never walked with me before," I prayed to Him. "Walk with me now." And then it happened. I heard something like a bottle break behind me. My heart stopped and I spun around on my toes, ready for the man to be standing right there, clutching a piece of shattered glass to my throat. Instead... I saw nothing. A dark alley filled with nothing but a frigid breeze. I regained composure and felt my breathing and heartbeat kick back on. "Nothing's there," I told myself. "Nothing but my childish imagination." I stood for a second and turned toward home. There he was. The man had been standing right behind me the whole time, brandishing a knife at my heart. My eyes widened and out of pure instinct, I kicked him in the stomach. The kick didn't affect him at all; it only brought on more aggravation toward me. I watched in disbelief as he advanced on me with the knife, now holding it above his head. Something told me this man wasn't just after my money. As he strode toward me he swung the knife and I blocked his attack with my left forearm. I kicked him in the chest, hoping to get a reaction from it. I did. He started to get aggressive. I dodged another swing of the knife and rolled past him on the gravel. I quickly jumped up and had to block another attack with his knife. I swung my right fist and felt it collide with the left side of his face, but he showed no pain. He didn�t even brace himself for my punch. He took it to the face and didn�t move. I swore to myself. This guy was tough. And now, he was really angry. I didn't know what I could do. I had hardly any strength left from trying to kick this guy around and he hadn't even been affected. I had no energy for aggression left in me... so I ran. I ran as hard and as fast as I could, plummeting through the deep, vast night. Just as I had expected, he took off after me. We raced through the alley, both blind from the darkness. I had never taken this alley before, and for all I knew, it could have led to nowhere. It seemed to be never-ending. A tunnel without light at the end. A tunnel only leading to my dead end. I had a deep stitch in my side and I felt like I was going to vomit. This was too much for me, but if I wanted to live, I'd have to keep running. I heard the man's loud footsteps behind me, but he wasn't short of breath. He was once again, unaffected. The cold became more and more bitter as the night fell darker. I thought it may have been my imagination and that because I was so vulnerable to the freezing temperature, it affected me stronger. But this cold felt so real. And then I fell. I didn't trip. It was like the earth opened up in front of me and swallowed me whole. I panicked and reached for something, anything, to catch my fall. To my astonishment, my hand grasped an invisible force. I reached up with my other hand and held on with everything I had. I was dangling on the edge of a cliff. I exhaled in shock. I felt something collide with my left shoulder and fall 150 feet to the ground with a distant thud. I dangled in disbelief. Had I defeated the man in black? I pulled myself up with the last of the energy I had and climbed onto the hard edge of the cliff. I collapsed onto the ground and breathed for the first time in an hour. I laid there for no more than 2 minutes before I pulled myself up and ran. The two blocks seemed like a million miles to my apartment. As soon as I got there I sprinted to my car, fumbled with the keys and quickly started the ignition. I threw it in reverse and peeled out of the parking lot. I ran about 7 stop signs but I knew that every second I wasted was information I did not have. I drove off the road and into a field. The field the man in black had fallen onto. I shoved the gear into park and forced myself to run to the spot the man had landed. In the darkness, I couldn�t' see very well. So I let my eyes adjust to the moonlight and the faint glow from my car headlights. That's when I saw it. A large indent of a man's shape was in the mud right below where I dangled not 20 minutes ago. That's all there was. There were no footprints leading away from the scene. There wasn't a body any were near the shape of the man. Just a shape, leaving it hard to tell whether or not I had defeated the man. If I didn't... Well, we'd have another interesting conversation. And maybe next time he'd be stronger. But so would I. |