>>> Item number 39030 from WRITERS LOG9410D --- (118 records) ---- <<< Date: Sun, 23 Oct 1994 21:50:49 EDT Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: The Man with ALL THE LIGHTS ON! Subject: SUB: Behind You [WARNING: HOPEFULLY WILL CAUSE NIGHTMARES!!!!] shiver...this is for the halloweenie contest... (hum..review shows there is a fundamental flaw in this, but... we'll see if anyone notices...:-) I want a paperweight! tink -=-+-=--=-+-=--=-+-=--=-+-=--=-+-=--=-+-=--=-+-=--=-+-=--=-+-=- Behind You Copyright 1994 Mike Barker I saw it first in the rear view mirror. We'd just flown in to Boston from Japan. We were tired from too long folded up in an economy seat, watching the sun set and rise again as we flew across the Pacific, and all the plastic luxuries offered by the airlines to distract weary travelers from the basic imprisonment and indignities we actually paid to have inflicted on ourselves. So, grab the bags off the baggage return, pick up a rental car, figure out where the lights, wipers, and so forth are, and roll out into the high-speed circle that ties Logan airport together. Just in time for sunset and darkness. The black amorphous blob in the rear view mirror wasn't even surprising. Blink a little, rub my eyes quickly, and peek out at the lights coming towards me and rolling away behind me into the dark again. I didn't even mind when I thought I saw the blob in the mirror following us. Just tired eyes. It caught up and slid under the car as we paid the toll and went into the tunnel. Shadows do that when you get under bright lights, right? Of course, it slid back out when we left the lights in the tunnel, first ahead, then ducking off to the side and behind again. Black on black or grey, I didn't pay much attention to it. Who ever notices the shadows dancing around while you're driving, right? I was far more interested in keeping my eyes on the road signs and making sure to drive on the right side of the road. Anyway, it was with us all the way into Cambridge and to the hotel, wings of darkness dancing just at the edge of sight, spreading out beyond the cones of light from the headlights, shriveling and dodging as we came to places with streetlights, then stretching out and towering into the sky when we got into the darker parts. I don't think I really understood that the blackness hiding in the ordinary darkness of the evening was different. During the night, it spread out from under the car. It crept along the edges of walls, under the doors, and into the basement, then up from there. Behind the closed doors, in the elevator shafts and fire stairs, it grew. Maybe it called friends and relatives from the darkness here. Maybe that's why it grew so fast. By morning, when I flicked the lights on in the room, it had found plenty of hiding holes. The lights never threatened the part under the bed or the masses under the drawers, let alone the sly layers behind the mirrors and inside the furniture. It let me have a little light for my comfort, while it remained in control of everything I wasn't looking at. I unlocked a suitcase and opened it, looking for my razor. It was pooled inside and slid quickly under the clothes and into the pockets, but I saw it for just a moment. When I shaved, it flickered around the edges of the mirror, testing, teasing me with faint glimpses of it hiding just outside the edges of my sight. When I went outside, it slid behind the tree trunks, slivers hiding in the roots of the grass and behind the leaves, everywhere... The sunshine seemed just a touch cold, maybe a little gray as it gained the upper hand. I've watched. I took notes, and looked for where it was lurking under seats and in corners. I've watched it creep up and down around shapes, I've even made it move where I wanted it to with a flashlight. I've also watched it slow down when I poked at it too much. You might never notice it. After all, it's black, and so are the shadows it likes to hide in. But it is more liquid, and sometimes it doesn't move as fast as the shadows. If you look at the dark and think you see a layer of black wet paint somehow hanging against the blackness of the night, you've caught a glimpse of it. Keep watching, and you'll see it more often because it isn't very careful. Don't tease it. If you do, it may come out. I think it isn't really scared of us so it doesn't always bother hiding. When I turn the lights on in my office, it pulls back. But sometimes it forgets or doesn't react quite fast enough, and I see it for a moment, and my heart jumps, and I gulp. I don't know what it can do, if it ever decides to quite hiding in the shadows. But it sure is dark. It's black. It's always there. And it's growing. Don't turn around. It's back there. Waiting. Don't look down. It likes laps. And whatever you do, don't turn off any lights. It's growing. -=-+-=--=-+-=--=-+-=--=-+-=--=-+-=--=-+-=--=-+-=--=-+-=--=-+-=-