SHORTSTOY - MIDNIGHT RUN

Bob wakes up and looks in the mirror. “*Sigh* just another boring day as usual.” he says as he looks at his messy brown hair and blue eyes. Bob cleans himself up and sets out to work.  

When he arrives at work, he sees his co-workers already. "Hey Bob, how are you doing? We have a new rookie coming in so you’re going to be the one they shadow for a while.”  

“I'm doing fine. When are they going to be arriving? The shift is about to start.” 

 As Bob finishes talking the door bursts open. A young man breathlessly says, "I'm not late, am I? The bus I was taking was late and I had to run here.” 

 Bob shakes his head and replies, “No you’re not late follow me. You’ll be shadowing me for the first week before you do your own work.” The young man nods his head and follows. As he follows, Bob tells him places to put certain produce and what to stock in certain isles. As the day neared the end, Bob suddenly felt sick and feverish. He almost passes out, only being able to stand after sitting down for a few minutes. He gets excused for the rest of the day.  

He goes to the doctor the next day and explains what had happened. The doctor somberly looks at him and says, “While I hope it’s not this, the worst-case scenario could be the possibility that you have cancer.” 

 This news shocked Bob. His instant reaction is disbelief. He is unable to believe that he could have cancer. With thoughts overwhelming him, Bob knows he shouldn’t be out on the park trail in the late evening. He decides to take a run to clear his thoughts and mind. Bob begins to jog on the path clearing his thoughts and his mind. Bob thought about how he has treated life, and how he should start to try and do more stuff. After clearing some of the thoughts clouding his mind, he looks up and realizes that it's sunset and he needs to start heading back. With Bobs’ mind now somewhat clearer he starts to jog back to the entrance. While jogging he starts to have the feeling that he is being watched. At first, he ignores it, thinking it could be a wild animal. After a while more of jogging, he feels something is off even more. He looks around to see if there is someone or an animal following him. But when he looks around, he realizes this doesn't look familiar to him at all. He’s run this trail more than a hundred times. This path looked so familiar, yet completely different. The trail beneath him was no longer smooth man-made pavement for an easy path. Instead, it has become a rough dirt path, with rocks sticking out here and there for as far as he can see and the trees blocking his view.  

Bob begins to panic a little, thinking to himself “something can’t be right, I need to get out of here as soon as possible.” He begins to run, realizing whatever is happening can’t be good. As he runs, he pays more attention to his surroundings. Suddenly, he thinks that he must be seeing things. As he sees beady white pupils staring at him from the trees, he notices the world around him turns redder and redder. The sunlight that should be getting dimmer has gotten brighter, redder than the surroundings around him. To fully see what is happening Bob stops for a second to look around. It’s only then he realizes that those aren’t animals that are staring at him, and those trees don't just look red. Panic sets in even more. As his breaths get faster and faster, he turns around and looks up to look at the sky. He sees an eyeball the size of a football stadium staring at him from the sky. The eye, with beady black eyes in a sea of white suddenly emits a sound. The sound of flesh being torn apart, or a watermelon being torn to pieces with bear hands. Bob watches in horror and he sees the singular dot for an eye turn into two. A wide slit opening more and more beneath it, slowly curling up into something resembling a grin.  with boney teeth and what seems to be blood pouring out of its grotesque amalgamation of a mouth.  

 

Bob starts to freak out, turning around and stumbling before sprinting. Trying to find any way to exit this forest. As he takes his step though, it's no longer the hard dirt thumps he hears. Bob hears a sickening crack and pop, as if a giant had descended and cracked his back while popping his knuckles. The path Infront of him has now turned into eerie dirty white. As if bones from one hundred years ago were melted down and unevenly forced into the ground. Bobs mind starts to break down, he struggles to breath, his heart is beating faster than a bullet train. Bob stops running and starts to clutch his head. before his mind finally breaks down. He hears a gut-wrenching guttural howl coming from far behind him. The sound startles his mind to focus on springing as fast as his legs could carry him. As he runs, Bob hears thumps behind him. Starting slow but slowly picking up. Bob sees the end of the forest. Joy fills his heart, and his adrenaline makes him go even faster. As he gets closer and closer the footsteps behind him have already sped up. The thumps are getting louder. The footsteps are getting more frequent, more chaotic, and more desperate to catch up to him. The smell of rotting flesh hit Bobs nose as he is just a few more steps away from the exit. He sees a shadow appear in front of him. The shadow is a giant human Esque shape. That's the final thing he sees before he passes the entrance of the forest. It suddenly goes silent, no more sound. He turns around refusing to believe it was just a delusion. When his eyes lay upon the forest once again it looks normal. As if everything he just experienced was a dream. Dream or not Bob no longer wants to stay. He quickly prepares to turn around and leave. Before he goes in the corner, he sees an inhuman shape half as tall as a tree with deformed limbs look at him. His head whips back and looks at it. The creature smiles and pulls a finger up to his face, letting the bottom of his head tear open into an unsettling grin. As Bob slowly backs up while staring at the creature, he puts the finger over his mouth as if telling him to be quiet. He then hears a laugh. A laugh so quiet, yet as loud as a thunderstorm. A broken laugh, as if the thing laughing has never heard a laugh before, only mimicking what it thinks it sounds like. Bob finally has had enough and bolts away. He only stops running when he gets back to his house. Unable to sleep he stays up all night thankful to be alive and changing his mind about how he views life. Vowing to live a full life and not go back to living just to live. He finally calms down and slowly falls asleep. The next day he called his work and took a few days off to get over the event that had just happened the other day. He also gets a call from his doctor telling him that it wasn't cancer, but something else that is treatable with some medication.