The Thing in the Alley
I looked at my watch as I walked down the darkened street. Pressing the top-left button with my right index finger, the dial glowed blue and lit up the face. It was 2:25am; another late night. For the past two weeks I had been taunting exhaustion by keeping double hours at work, in preparation for a massive overhaul of our design facilities. I would come home at 6pm, eat a quick meal, and then take the 20 minute walk back to the factory. In the early hours I would walk home, drop into a couple hours' worth of quiet black unconsciousness, and then arise once again to start the cycle anew.
I rounded a corner to my left, intent on taking a shortcut through a deserted alley. In reality it wouldn't take more than half a minute off my journey, but the way I felt, half a minute sooner home meant half a minute of extra sleep. I lengthened my pace, in anticipation of the sweet moment when my head would hit the pillow and I would get the endorphin rush of knowing that I could stay under the covers for at least a little while.
Passing under a light fixed above a heavy wooden door on the exterior of an old brick building, I saw two yellow eyes staring back at me from slightly up ahead. I grinned as I reached into my inner coat pocket and took out a colorful bag with a cartoon cat on the front, shaking a couple pieces of its contents onto my palm and tossing them onto the pavement in front of the eyes, which disappeared upon my approach. I passed, and could soon hear the telltale crunching sound I had heard each night for the past two weeks, echoing through the deathly stillness of the alley.
One more light to go and I'm home. I stepped into the light's cone of influence, and instantly felt it - that cold touch of... strangeness... that I have never forgotten. Like a dreaming person suddenly jarred into wakefulness only to find himself in a dark empty bedroom, that's how it felt, and along with it came a sheet of icy coldness that descended over my mind like thick molasses. I heard the telltale hiss of a cat, and turned my head to look behind me. At first, I saw nothing - that is, nothing out of the ordinary. Then, like the nightmares I had as a child, in which a monster would appear and start chasing me simply in response to my sleeping-self thinking about a monster appearing and chasing me, I saw it.
I say "it" because I of course had no idea what it really was - male, female, or some weird combination of both. But what I did know was that it was nothing of this earth. It was sitting perched on top of the light under which I had passed only seconds earlier, with talons wrapped around the post to hold itself in place. It seemed to have a thin body, very thin, but in the dim light and the flurry of what happened soon after, I can't say with certainty. It seemed to be sitting with its back towards me, and I squinted to try and force my eyes to adjust better to the dim light. Then, as I stared at it trying to discern any detail of its appearance, I saw its eyes, making themselves existent to my vision like a ghost ship gliding silently out of a fog bank. It had been staring at me the whole time.
A cold shiver went up my spine at this shock of unexpected realization. I willed my drowsy mind to be more alert and aware, and was just about to turn and continue home when the thing hopped off the light and flew towards me, right at head level. I ducked - unnecessarily, for at the last moment it veered up - and as it passed I caught the sound of its wings slicing through the chill autumn air, and the sight of its talons, black like the night, looking as though they ached to reach down and rip the warm flesh right off my bones. I also glimpsed its face, of which I will not speak, for fear of having the image of that grim, alien head leech into your late night thoughts, tormenting you in your sleep as it has tormented me every night since.
The thing veered up and arced into the sky above the alley, where a second creature appeared just behind it, seemingly out of nowhere, and then a third. And then they started to make that noise, that maddening noise which has been in my head every hour of every day since then and which neither blaring music nor strong medication has been able to eradicate. It wasn't quite a screech, nor a cry, but rather a strange unearthly lilting sound which human ears were never meant to hear. A fourth creature appeared and it was then that I saw it, a small region just slightly blacker than the night sky which was its backdrop, shimmering slightly with what I can only describe as black light. A fifth creature emerged, and when it did the region rippled slightly, like water when a pebble is dropped into it from directly above. More creatures emerged, each like the first, each adding their voice to the alien cacophony, and they began to circle over the alley, like vultures. Stars were blocked by their sheer numbers now, and the noise of their combined lilting was enough to make me slam my palms over my ears for fear it would break my eardrums.
Now numbering in the hundreds, they continued to circle in a counterclockwise motion - a massive black disk rotating in the night sky - with their alien lilting, and the region of sky out of which they emerged continuing to ripple even though no more creatures were born from it. It seemed to be rippling to the sound of their song, and the horrible thought appeared in my mind that the black rippling thing was alive, and these creatures were singing to it with their terrible sounds. From somewhere came the impression that it was ancient, ancient even at the time of the building of the pyramids, and I tried to think of what it wanted, what its purpose was, but then a cold metal door was slammed shut in my mind and it was with the shock of the imaginary reverberation that I shook my head to clear myself. The creatures were still circling, and were starting to fly back into the black region. One by one they arced their flight paths into the rippling maw, the din of their horrible song growing fainter, and their legion growing smaller, with each passing second.
When the final creature crossed the boundary between here and where they went, I swear I thought I saw it glance down at me with its eyes... those terrible eyes! Was it taunting me? Was it bidding goodbye - in some sick twisted way - to me, who had been the only witness that chilly autumn night to its foray into this realm? Or was it telling me it would return for me one night, when I'm old and frail and unable to keep my wits about me? Every night the image of that horrible face, those piercing, knowing eyes, fills my vision. And every night, I wait for its return.