>>7749610>>7749812I'm like most of /x/, I imagine. A light sleeper, and a bit of an insomniac. An outdoor smoker. A night-time wanderer. The owner of a curious mind and the spirit of a loner.
I used to have a routine. See, I worked evenings, and I'd get off around ten PM. I'd come home, let the dog out, step on to the porch, light a cigarette, and wander off into the dark, allowing my thoughts to collect and organize themselves as they saw fit.
/x/, I don't wander at night anymore. Not since...
One night- I recall it being a bit foggy but nothing out of the ordinary- I walked off my porch and found myself surrounded by complete darkness. No stars. No moon. The meager light from my cigarette did nothing to penetrate the now-cloying darkness that hung around me. I swiveled around, becoming disoriented. From somewhere that sounded impossibly far away my dog howled and whined.
A crunch in the leaves beside me alerted me to someone's presence. I couldn't see my mystery guest, but straining my ears I managed to hear him dragging in each breath. He sounded as though he were dying.
"Who's there?" I asked, foolishly.
There was no response, only the shuffling of robes and scratching, wheezy, moist, disgusting intake of that creature's horrifying breath. I could feel the heat of it, close, blasting warm putrid air across my face. I tried to run, but we all know how these things go. It was pointless. And by the time I felt its bony fingers wrap around my wrist I was already resigned to my death and panting, sobbing, lying limply on the ground where I presumed I would shortly meet my end.
I saw him, at last. He looked like Death. In his awful hand he clutched a box that looked older than earth itself. "You will know," he whispered to me, right in my ear, his spittle landing on my ear and making me gag. His voice was...it was the sound of a thousand bats screaming, screaming in pain and anger and hate. And then...