I was trudging along the sidewalk, heading home from the dance, when I saw it in the trees. It was around eleven o’clock post meridiem that night. Water was sprinkling from the sky and the sun was on the opposite side of the Earth. Let me tell you, this is not a time you would want to be walking on the sidewalk, a mile away from your house, with your red, sparkly high heels in your right hand and a glass of water in the other. Barefoot, lonely, and depressed.

I couldn’t tell you exactly what I saw in those trees, but I can describe it. I saw eyes, arms, legs, but no distinguishable hair. It might have been a person, but it was more likely to be an animal. It looked too small to be an adult, but no one would leave a child outside at eleven o’clock at night. I continued walking, without looking back. It was likely just a Halloween decoration set up to scare unaware people. It definitely worked on me.

As I continued to walk, I still felt uneasy. I was really worrying now, because it appeared that every tree and every fire hydrant and every crack in the sidewalk would jump ahead of me and I would walk over them again and again, as if in a loop. The same figure in the same tree near the same house every time. The fourth time I passed this tree with this figure in it, it finally jumped out at me, at the same time I jumped out of my bed, relieved it was a nightmare.

Just then, I felt a pain in my stomach and lifted my shirt to see what it was. Three distinctive claw marks. I bolted upright, stepped off of my bed, and headed toward the kitchen to get a glass of water. That’s when I noticed my red, sparkly high heels, wet with rain water, on my floor, and a spilled glass of water in the hallway. I looked around my shoulder and saw a darkness in the corner of my dimly-lit room that never appeared to be there before.