I saw them

I was walking along, daydreaming about something or other. My mind often wanders when I’m walking, but then…

I saw them.

Lying there on the ground ahead and below, down the steep hill away from the safety of the gravel path. It was dark and cold, my breath creating faint clouds of vapour in front of me as I breathed out. The lights from the streetlights barely reached the person dressed in black, but it was enough light to paint their shape against the wet grass, enough contrast to be certain.

I reached their position, adjacent to the path I was on, and stopped walking. I just stood there looking. It felt like moments but it could have been hours. My eyes adjusted to the faint light, focusing more and more on the shape, trying to make out any more details, but all I could be sure of at this distance was they were wearing black shoes, dark trousers and an inky hooded jacket, the hood raised and covering their hair, if they even had any. The hands were splayed out ahead of them on the ground, hiding just out of reach from the beams of light.

In all the time that I had been staring, the shape hadn’t moved. The wind was still, there was no noise. The trees weren’t rustling like they normally would along my previous trips down this path. I lost count of how many times I had walked this route over the years.

I looked around to see if anyone else was there. No one in sight. The path was often busy during the summer months, but during winter the path was less well travelled. Only a few people would choose this way at late night in the cold winter months, preferring to stay home or travel by car. The lampposts were evenly spaced as far as I could see in either direction, the light shining down, creating pockets of light with small gaps of darkness between.

I have lived here all my life. I knew this path like the back of my hand. I could walk it in my sleep and find my way home.

But this poor person obviously couldn’t.

I looked down at the gravel track beneath my feet, seeing the loose gray stones scattered around the surface. The disorder was broken by a straight line scratched into the damp surface, displacing stones either side of the indent. I bent down and reached out my right hand to trace the line of the scratch as it headed off the path and towards the drop, towards where the stranger was.

I stood back up and looked at the person lying there, still unmoving. I shouted out to them. “Hey, are you ok?”

At first there was no change. Everything was as it was, but then the hood seemed to twist slightly to the side. Part of the face was showing, part of the mouth was revealed in the faint light of the distant streetlight, but the rest of the face was concealed by shadow. The mouth opened ever so slightly, but no sound emerged.

The person was alive. I had to help them. I looked down at the dark slope before me, trying to find a safe path to reach the stricken stranger. The light from the lamp was blocked from reaching the ground, the sharp edge of the gravel track causing unbroken darkness until the light reached the grass where the person lay.

I stepped forward ever so slightly, trying to get a better view, hoping the slight change in angle would reveal more clues. A few small stones were pushed off the edge and bounced their way below.

Then I heard it. The sound of the voice. A terrifying wail of despair. “Noooo!” The sound cried out into the silence, the call dry and scratchy as if it were the last sound the being could muster. It shook me to my bones, the sound somehow felt otherworldly, whilst also feeling so familiar.

The ground beneath my feet shook. My black shoes unable to grip on the loose damp gravel. I tried to step back with my left foot, trying to move back from the edge. I regained some balance, but it was not enough. My right foot dropped off the edge, causing me to fall forward. I felt the toes of my left foot scrape along the ground as I tipped forward and fell into the darkness.

I tumbled and rolled down the steep slope, unable to determine what was up and what was down. The only senses that worked were my ears, hearing the noise of my body as it buffeted against the rocky ground. Strangely I felt no pain, almost as if it were a dream, but I knew it was real.

Everything was moving, until it suddenly stopped. The movement, the noise, the darkness was everywhere. My head was covered by the hood, my arms stretched out ahead of me.

I don’t know how long I lay there, I felt nothing. I could see nothing. All I remember was hearing a voice calling. The voice sounded familiar somehow. Like someone I knew well. Somehow knew too well. I replayed the voice in my head over and over.

“Hey, are you ok?”

Where did I know that voice from? My mind was foggy, nothing made sense. Was it from the fall? Was it from the multiple impacts as I descended downwards? I knew the voice. That much I was certain of.

A moment of clarity hit me. It was my voice.

I mustered all the strength I had left and turned my head slightly to the side. I opened my mouth to talk, but I didn’t have the strength to speak.

I breathed in and out, shallow raspy breaths, forcing the air into my lungs, forcing some glimmer of light back into my soul. I heard the stones dropping towards me off the edge. I don’t know how to explain it, but I was certain of what would happen next.

I breathed in deeply and screamed as loud as my dry throat would allow. “Noooo!”

It was all I could do. My strength finally failed me. Silence wrapped around me. But then…

I was walking along, daydreaming about something or other. My mind often wanders when I’m walking, but then…

I saw them.

Photo by Sergei Gussev on StockSnap