Nocturnal's blog: "Nocturnal A Nicodemus sheridan Novel"

It was starting to get late, and to make matters worse, the moisture in the air formed a thin layer of fog on the ground. Finding it a bit strange for this time of year, I figured anything was possible and let the thought slip away. I was certain the best thing we could do was to get out of here. It meant I would have to put my curiosity on the back burner so to speak, at least for the night anyway. Tapping the side of my leg, Rambo took a few steps towards, me stopping at my feet. “Lets go home boy.” I began walking knowing he would follow. Noticing the fog, as it thickened further up the road, my eyes found their way down to Rambo. He was taking small cautious strides. They were just enough to keep him at my side. “You okay boy?” Lifting his head so his snout faced me, I noticed his eyes weren’t the same anymore. They held a sorrow deep inside. Looking his frightened face, I think we both had the same feeling that with all the strange things going on one of us might not make it out of here alive. “What the fuck is going on around here?” I shouted. In the short time we were walking, the murkiness made its way to the top of Rambo’s neck. If it wasn’t for his head being slightly past my knees I don’t think I would have been able to see him at all. It was all I could do to imagine what he was feeling having to be down there just barely able to see. “Whoa, hold up a sec boy.” As we stopped, I found that the motion of our legs stirred up the fog. It left a little opening behind us then closed up like we were never there. My eyes found Rambo in enough time to watch as the last of our paths disappeared and the fog completely engulfed his body. “I know boy, this isn’t normal.” I bent down to give him what little comfort I could offer. Rambo looked as though he was a lost child who couldn’t find his parents. I could tell he wasn’t sure what to do next. It was the first time I had ever seen him like this. His sudden display of anxiety left me puzzled. He had always been a fun, loving, and carefree dog. Nevertheless, we had to keep pushing forward. I mean we weren’t going to get home standing there looking at the awkwardness of the fog and how fast it was rising like a bunch of morons now were we? “Come on boy, we need to keep moving.” I gave him a gentle rub then stood up and began walking again. We were almost at the old covered bridge when a loud, bone-chilling cry broke the tranquility of the night. Stopping instantly, Rambo’s ears shot up and his head jerked to the side. We listened until everything went back to a dead quiet. Although the noise had stopped, and we were close to home, the sound ate at my curiosity. I looked at Rambo. “Hey boy, wanna go see what the noise was?” I waited patiently for a moment as he glanced at me with his tongue hanging out his mouth. I was kind of hoping he would some how magically be able to speak, and tell me, “Hell no.” “Yeah, I do too.” A half grin covered my lips. I knew we didn’t have time to stop, but I just couldn’t resist the urge. I had to check it out. My friends didn’t give me the name curious George for nothing. Leading the way to the edge of the woods my stomach tied itself into a tight knot. Standing at the frontline of the tress, I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly pushing the last of my doubts away. I looked to my side for Rambo. He wasn’t there. Turning around I became aware he had stopped just behind me, and wasn’t going to follow me in. Reaching down grabbing his collar, I was going to make sure he went with me. He wasn’t budging. “Come on boy.” I said giving him a little tug. Rambo tried turning in the other direction, he wasn’t going to make it easy on me. “Please Bo, don’t make me do this alone.” Nope, he still wasn’t giving in. Stubborn mutt. Pulling at each other, eventually loosing, Rambo stood and allowed me to drag him in with me. I began walking comfortably with him by my side deep into the woods. Faint howls could be heard from somewhere off in the distance. I knew they hadn’t come from a coyote, but I chalked it up to being one. Rambo whined and slowed at the sounds drifting around the woods. I slowed my pace to match his. I wanted to make sure he was staying by my side, and wasn’t going to take off in the other direction leaving me here alone. “Its okay Bo, don’t worry, nothing is going to happen.” I knew I to convince him as much as I did myself. We walked for what seemed to be an hour in a wide zigzag pattern listening to the sound of the growls, as they grew deeper and louder. The change in their volume told us we were close. I began to wonder if looking for this thing was the right decision. I took in a deep breath trying to settle my nerves. A foul stench filled the air. It was a rancid odor carrying the smell of rotten flesh. It reminded me of leftover meat that was forgotten in a slaughterhouse on a hot summer day, but mixed with the thick damp musty smell of an old moldy basement. Even the smell wasn’t going to stop me from finding out what made the noise. And I wanted to satisfy my curiosity. I decided to push on, I needed to know what had happened. Pushing the foul odor from my senses, continuing forward my foot landed on a stick, breaking it. A loud cracking noise echoed through the trees. The echo was followed by a ferocious growl, and sounds of footsteps from something big running behind us. Unable to see what it was, I figured it must have just been my nerves playing tricks on me. Shrugging it off, Rambo let out a loud bark and bolted off ahead of me. It wasn’t my imagination, I knew he was after the sound of the footsteps. “Rambo, get back here!” Running through the thick cover I tried to keep up with him, but found myself watching as he slowly left my sight. I could still hear random barks from him and sounded a good distance from where I was. A few seconds after his last bark the silence was broken by the sound of a nerve-racking whimper. “Rambo!” There wasn’t a sound. Receiving no indication, of whether he was all right or not, I shouted into the night again. “Rambo, come on boy.” My voice trembled with fear. I knew that thing was out here with us and had possibly found him. Pushing myself to run faster through the murkiness, my foot became wedged between some roots from a tree hidden beneath the leaves. A loud thud filled the air and I received a sharp burning sensation in the side of my face. My body had slammed against the cold soggy dirt forcing the air from my lungs. Warm liquid trickled from the corner of my lip as my eyesight clouded over with blackness.

Walking through the darkness, I began enjoying the pleasures of a late night walk more than usual. Embracing the peaceful bliss, something told me it was too good to be true. An awkward feeling quickly rushed through my body, stealing my much-needed enjoyment. It was the kind of feeling you get when you know you’re not alone anymore. It forced my feet to stop dead in their tracks. I was left alone in the darkness with only the sounds of silence filling the air. The sinister atmosphere was suddenly broken by a faint noise from somewhere off in the distance, my eyes scanned the grim surroundings. There, standing close to some trees on the side of the road, was a rather large figure, which seemed to be lingering. My eyes widened from the shear size of it. “What the fuck do you want?” I shouted. The shadow moved to the edge of the trees, disappearing from sight. “I know you’re still there!” My words echoed through the darkness, ricocheting from tree to tree. I received no response. Was it gone? I was left to wait in silence, staring into a black abyss. A slight breeze rushed through the narrow passage of the street. It carried the sound of soft growls from behind the branches. My feet cautiously went for the safety of home. Only a few steps from where I stood, a rather deep snarl forced it way into my ears. Frozen again, my head spun without a thought. I watched as the terrifying shadow crept out from the trees and back into the road. Closer to where I was this time, but still far enough to keep its identity hidden. Terrified, I swallowed down the lump in my throat. “Leave me the hell alone!” My blood tingled with fear as the figure bolted back into the woods. I listened as the sound of breaking branches faded away. If it only wanted to frighten me, then the job was complete. I didn’t want to play some silly ass game, and I sure as hell hoped it was just a game. After waiting for a bit with nothing more taking place, I pushed everything from my thoughts, hoping it was gone for good. My nerves calmed as I headed for home. The sounds of large branches breaking echoed onto the street. My heart instantly jumped to my throat. I knew it was that thing, the very same thing, which seemed to be playing with me. “Who the fuck are you?” Screaming at the top of my lungs left a slight discomfort deep in my throat. Gently rubbing it, I waited for an answer. Still nothing, not even a hint had blessed my ears. My eyes strained to penetrate the darkness of the woods, while I wondered if it was just my imagination and I was going crazy. No, I know something was there, I know I’m not loosing it. Taking one last look around, another figure came into sight. It stood close to where the other had. After a several glances, I noticed there was something different about it. It was much smaller than the one other had been. It didn’t really matter though, seeing it made me just as nervous. I didn’t know what either of them were and at this point finding out wasn’t exactly high on my to-do list. My legs began to back up slowly while my sight was fixed on the shadow. Watching it bounce around, not paying attention to where I was stepping, my foot stumbled as it landed on a rock. “Ow-w-w-w!” I yelled as my ankle twisted slightly, forcing my leg to give out. The dark figure’s movements stopped as it took in the sound of my voice. It began walking in my direction. Getting to my feet swiftly and backing up, I watched the shadow start to run. I knew by the way it had moved I was what it wanted. My body turned with my legs taking off in a full sprint. Looking back finding the figure gaining fast, I knew I wouldn’t be able to out run it for long. Quickly stopping and spinning around, my hands clenched tight to form fists as they made their way to my face. I was ready for anything. My heart raced from the fear of not knowing what was coming towards me. Still, I had somehow loved the thrill of it all. As the figure took shape and revealed to me what it was, my heart returned to its rightful place in my chest. Bending down, my hand reached out in front of me. His tail wagging, Rambo ran up. Reaching me, his front paws pushed against my chest and knocked me to the ground. He quickly moved to the side of my body. His tongue made long strokes up the length of my cheek. Although happy to see it had been him and not some wild animal, I pushed him off so I would be able to dry my chin. Balancing my weight with one hand and sitting up, a laugh escaped my lips. “Rambo, you little brat,” I said, letting out a deep breath. Giving him a few small pats on his back as I stood up and began wiping the dirt from my clothes. Rambo began trying to tug playfully at my shoelaces. “You scared me.” Rambo looked up at me through his big blue eyes. I was unable to stay mad at him for long with him looking at me like that. I was surprised he had left his yard. Normally he wouldn’t go anywhere with out someone with him, mainly Mr. Cormac. “Go home, Bo.” I held out my hand, pointing a finger in the other direction. Looking at me, his head tilled slightly to one side. He gave me the, “are you talking to me?” look. It was hard to do, but knowing he wasn’t going to leave, I turned and began walking away trying to ignore the fact he was taking small steps behind me. “Okay, Bo, you can stay the night.” He won because I couldn’t resist his fluffy black and white face. Letting out a cheerful bark, he pranced over to where I stood and stopped as he reached me. Bending down to stroke his back, a deep growl rushed from the trees to my left. Rambo and I turned to face where we thought it came from. I have always been told if you are afraid of something, you need to conquer your fear by facing it. I was going to do just that. Taking a few steps to reach the woods, I leaned forward in hopes of seeing where the vicious noises had come from. There were too many trees blocking my view. Unable to see anything I took a few more steps. My hands reached in front of me, moving some of the smaller branches to the side. It didn’t help. The cover of the forest made it impossible to see anything. Set on finding out what is was, my feet took their first steps into the front of the woods. Rambo stayed by my side, but wouldn’t enter with me. He began letting out low growls, showing his teeth. “Rambo, hush up boy.” I didn’t want him to scare away whatever it was before I had a chance to see it. Ignoring me, he continued to bark. Shaking my head at him, I turned back to the darkness. My eyes began to search every inch of the surrounding area. Letting my eyes shoot to the right, at the sound of another branch cracking, I caught a glimpse of faint movement. Moving slightly closer to where the movement was, I could see something bright yellow. So yellow it was almost a glow. While making my way to whatever it was, there was a slight pause in Rambo’s tone. He sounded quite serious. Standing only a few feet from the yellow glow, still unable to make out where it had come from, I began to look deeper leaning slightly forward. A soft growl began to seep out from in front of me, and I found myself glairing into a pair of eyes. They were gleaming back at me as they shifted back and forth, following my every movement. Rambo must have spotted the eyes too. He let out a loud whimper and ran behind a tree to hide. What a brave dog. The eyes shot in his direction, watching as he hid. This was my chance. I wanted to know what the eyes belonged to. My leg lifted to take a step towards them. I put too much pressure on a branch above me causing it to break and a startled squirrel landed on my shoulder. I let out a horrific scream. I think I startled the squirrel more. Although it had jumped off and ran back into the woods, it took several minutes to catch my breath and calm down from the excitement. When I was able to regain control of my breathing, my eyes flew back to the yellow ones. They were gone. Disappointed, Rambo and I made our way out from the woods and back onto the road.

After tossing and turning for hours I turned to the clock, which sat on top of the nightstand, next to me. It was already 10:00 p.m. Obviously I wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon. I hated having insomnia. Pushing myself up out of bed, I began getting ready for a little midnight stroll. For one reason or another I had found that walks at night helped me sleep. Maybe it was just that I had always liked the night time. To me, it was an eerie peacefulness, which calmed my soul. Ever since I was a little kid, I had been taking random walks whenever I couldn’t sleep. For that reason it wasn’t really a surprise I found myself getting ready to take one now. Heading for the doorway of my room, I remembered a bit of my childhood. I remembered my mother. She also had a hard time putting me to bed. She told me many times I would keep her up all night, that is unless she sat on the porch under the moonlight with me. I remember her saying she would sit in her rocking chair with me in her arms and just slowly glide back and forth until I was fell fast asleep. The thoughts of my mom had been the first bit of real peace I’ve had. At least since this whole ordeal began. It made me miss her more than I already had. Trying to remove the pain of missing her, I let myself focused on getting ready for my walk. With winter almost here most of our nights were a little chilly, but tolerable. I put on a pair of boots and a light jacket, figuring it would be enough to keep the cold from biting at my skin, and then headed for the door. Walking out of my apartment heading for route thirty-two, my hands found their way into the pockets of the black windbreaker. As usual my eyes found their way up to the night sky. I was left in sheer amazement. It was the clearest night I had seen in a long time. Stars stretched across the indigo sky reaching out as far as the eye could see. The shimmers of twinkling lights a satisfying sight, I found myself drawn to the soft light, which seemed to glisten around the moon. Its fullness gave me a subtle tranquility as it filled the heavens full of peace. Thirty-two didn’t have any streetlights to illuminate the way. It was always dark letting the moon light the sky. Even though there were no lights, I wasn’t bothered by it. For some reason, I was always able to walk at ease in the dark. It was as if it was where I belonged. Three miles down the road I decided to take a different route. Instead of just turning around and going home, I made a slight turn onto an old dirt road. I knew the street well from having walked it many times before. It ran through the middle of a rather large forest, and would eventually bring to the bridge behind my apartment. I figured while on the road, I would stop and pay a visit to Rambo, an old friend I hadn’t visited in quite a while. I have known him for around eight years. He is a black and white husky I used to play with as a kid. Usually, I made it a point to see him at least once a week, but I haven’t lately. It was for that reason I knew he would be glad to see me. Gradually coming into sight, Rambo stood on the lawn and barked. “Rambo, quiet boy, it’s me.” I whispered. Realizing it was me he began bouncing around playfully with his tail going a mile a minute. The sound of his barks faded as he waited impatiently for me to reach him. He was never chained since he normally wouldn’t venture from his yard. I knew I would have to make my way over to him quickly, or he would begin to bark again. I just hoped the barking he already did hadn’t disturbed the Cormac’s. Walking up to him, pulling my hand out of my pocket, along with a few milk bones I still had from my last visit. I knelt down and began to stroke his back as he ate. Eating them all, his snout made its way to my chin. Giving me a kiss as his paw lifted slightly to my hand, I knew it was his way of saying thanks. And, he was glad to see I hadn’t forgotten about him. Spending some time with him helped, he was always able to make me laugh, but it was time to head back. Giving him a small pat on his head, I stood up. My dark brown eyes stared deeply into his light blue ones. A sad feeling filled my heart. “I’m sorry boy. I have to go now.” My hand grazed his side as the words escaped my mouth. Turning to make my way out of his yard and onto the road, the sounds of his sad whimpers embraced my ears forcing me to stop. I found myself walking back over to give him another soft stroke down the length of his back. His fur was soft and cuddly as my fingers ran through it. “Its okay Bo, I’ll be back soon.” Making there way from my lips, my words were gentle and reassuring. Taking my hand from his back, I walked to the road blocking out the sounds he made. Rambo sat there watching as I gradually vanished into the darkness and out of sight.