The crisp night air blew my hair all over my face, I had to find some way of wearing it down, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long. I no longer cared if I cut it, it was only annoying me then, and honestly, I liked it. I decided to grow it out, so my long dark locks would be tolerable for a change, and so when it was all down I’ll be able to tie it up. It was as if I was finally growing up. And with that, the the full moon was shining brightly in the dark sky, the clouds were thick. This time of year, the full moons appearance was more common… not that I would know.
I was driving home, the rain was coming down so hard you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. I was thinking how I would make it up to my mom, if she hadn’t already heard about the tragic death of the new guy at school. Boy, did she hear about it. She was all for him being the new kid, but after he was found dead, liquefying on the sidewalk, fears that he was the legendary ghost that my family has been hearing about.
I was more frightened of that than of the soggy evening ride home.
I had gotten into my car, when I suddenly sensed something was wrong. The air was still, and the wind had stopped completely, not a leaf moved. As I sat there frozen, I felt the air, and it felt sticky with an invisible glaze. My instincts told me that I was in grave danger, but my mind was still unmoving. Just a dead weight, frozen in place. I don’t know if it was fear or if it was something I sensed had affected me, but I had awoken my mind and felt the air.
My hand reached into the center console for my hand gun, that I kept there for protection, because for a long time, my family lived in an unsafe neighborhood. I took my gun out, and I wiped off the rain with it, because I didn’t dare put it back in the center console. The gun looked heavy. I held the gun to my side, and walked to the front window to see what was out the now clear windshield.
Paint chips shattered as I slammed the trunk down.
Something was outside my door. Something was vandalizing my car on the street, and now behind my door.
I slowly raised the gun and went towards my door, trying to take slow steps and not make any noise. I opened the door, almost falling into the cement storm drain on the way, and looked down by the door. A man dressed all in black was kneeling by my door, some sort of sharp tool was in his hand, and he was just by my door, and he was almost directly in my view from the inside the car. As soon as he saw me, he turned away from me and ran up the slanted wall of the storm drain. I immediately went back in my apartment. I locked the door, and called the police. I called one, two, three and four numbers to see if any of their cars were going by.
The phone rang out, and the man was gone. I began to look around my apartment, for anything that would help me figure out what was going on. I found that there were claw marks on my wooden table. I inspected the marks. It was as if the man had been trying to say something to me. I couldn’t figure out what he wanted.
I went back to the window, looking out of it into the night. I was slightly dazing off into boredom when I noticed something that looked like a wisp of black smoke. As I continued to watch it, I decided to get a better look outside, and walked up to the window. I couldn’t see the black smoke as clearly, as it seemed that it disappeared once I came up to the window, but I still wanted to get a better glimpse at it.
I was a kid, so I figured that there was a low hanging fog out there, guiding me to its location. Maybe it was little wisps of smoke, that would be what it was. As I got closer, the black smoke seemed to take a new form. After I was within a few feet of it, I saw that it was a man, wrapped in a long black robe. He was cloaked from head to toe in black, even fully covering his face. I saw that he had a vine clinging to him, that he had left on the ground in my front flower bed, and it was still growing out of the ground.
His back was facing me. He was kneeling on the sidewalk, and was in the middle of the street, and across from my place. I left my window, and walked towards my front door, looking down on him. He stopped where he was, and didn’t touch anything that I saw of him. As I stepped outside, my front door locked and closed.
I walked down to where he was, and saw out of the corner of my eye, his hand, reaching out towards me. I don’t know why he was reaching out for me, but I leaned down so he could touch my hand. The wind suddenly came up. The wind started to pick up, the rain started to fall, and icy air kept pretty much closing in around me.
I thought that the wind and rain was because of the wisps of smoke I had seen earlier… which I had now been close enough to see… but as the wind calmed, and the rain ceased, I looked down at the ground, and saw that the icy mist had now entirely vanished. I stood there, completely baffled as to what was going on.
I looked up, and saw that he was gone. This time I did fall down. My legs didn’t feel strong enough to hold my weight, so I fell to the ground. I stood up, upset at myself for letting my guard down, and went to my apartment.
When I finally got inside, all I wanted to do was to sit down and warm up, and kill the boredom by playing video games. I put my keys down on the table, and went to play my video game. I played for a little bit, looking out the window every five or ten minutes, but I knew that there was nothing out there. I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched out of the corner of my eye, though.
When I finally finished my video game, I was too tired to stay awake, and I fell asleep in the recliner.
Hours went by, and the sun was now beaming through my window. I woke up with a jolt, and looked at the clock. I didn’t need to rush to school, but I felt like I had stayed home for too long. I got off my couch, got dressed, and walked to my closet to get my umbrella. I realized that it didn’t match what I was wearing.
I had stopped wearing jeans when I first moved, and only wear cargo pants. My previous charlies I had to pass on, so I bought a new pair of cargo pants. I got them from a thrift store for ten dollars. They were old and worn out, but they fit me well. I open up my closet, and reached in for my umbrella. I looked at it, and put it back. I decided to leave it, because I felt like I was getting a little over dressed for the weather. I grabbed my trusty backpack, and walked out the door. I locked it behind me, and walked past the man. He was still kneeling on the sidewalk, in the rain.
Because my apartment was so close to school, I decided to walk to school. I hadn’t been walking too far, when I saw something in my eyesight. I really couldn’t tell what it was, but I followed it for a little bit. I turned around, and looked at it again. I got to the point where I didn’t know if it was some person or a thing. It looked like a person, but something about it was different. It was more compact, like it was solidifying itself. Maybe it was a person. Maybe it was a spirit. I wasn’t sure.
The person was in a small, white park, hidden away behind some bushes. I wasn’t sure if the park was a part of the school grounds. I decided to go over to the person, to see what they were doing. As soon as I was behind the bushes, though, the person vanished. I was really confused. Where had they gone?
I look back towards the park, and there it was again. I don’t know if it was a person or a spirit, but it didn’t matter. I stood, with my umbrella in my left hand, and my backpack in my right hand, and looked around the park. As I stood there, not sure what I should do next, I came very close to my old elementary school. I was about to walk into it, when I saw my old gym teacher. Mr. Watkins. He was volunteering to watch over my class, because we had to do a science project, and he had volunteered to help out. I ran over to him, and realized that he was surrounded by water. My eyesight sometimes played tricks on me, so I wasn’t sure if I should believe what I was seeing, but then the water started to dissolve. That’s when I realized what was going on.
It was Mr. Watkins.
Nobody else was around him. I wasn’t sure how he had materialized from water. Was it really my Mr. Watkins? He did teach biology, and was a biology teacher. Maybe this was something that had to do with science. I walked over to him, and tried to reach out to him, but the water was still there. It was around his waist, and a little higher. I hoped that I could get to him, so I carefully stepped through the water, pushing my hand through, as it was still very hard to see. I decided to leave my umbrella behind, and walked through the water. Water was now going over the waist bands of my pants. It didn’t stop the material of my pants, but it was tickling and annoying. I continued to walk through the water, not really sure of what was going on.
I finally got to where I thought he was. The water had started to slowly close in on my feet, and ankles. My eyesight was still blurry, but I could see some sort of outline of a man. He did look like Mr. Watkins. Even though I couldn’t see his face, nor his body, even though I couldn’t see anything but his black clothing, the outline of his stature was enough to prove that it was my old biology teacher.
He turned around, and looked at me. He didn’t say anything to me, or move an inch. I decided that the water wasn’t going anywhere, and that if he could just tell me where he was going, maybe he could help me. I decided to stay, and wait. I didn’t know what I could do.
“Mr. Watkins,” I called out, but he just continued to stare at me. “Mister?” I called out once again, but he still stayed silent. Finally, I decided to get his attention. I reached my arm out. I reached my arm out, and thought of the funny times I had with him, and those nights he stayed past school. I thought of how he cared for the students, and how he would always praise me for my grades. In the end, he was more than a gym teacher. Mr. Watkins was a guiding light in my life.
Mr. Watkins was my poor man’s father. I didn’t have much, but I had more than if he wasn’t around. He took time out of his life for me to show me what I could do with my life. He was there to guide me, protect me, and show me direction. Without him I’m sure I would’ve left for some other place when I graduated. I decided to reach out to him with my hand, and I felt like I had reached for an eternity before his cool hand finally gripped mine firmly. I gripped his hand, and suddenly the water subsided, and the colors in my eyesight were now clear.
The pale colors of a white haze started to morph into the colors of a black park. I saw benches, lighted lamp posts, and even a little fountain with a statue sitting in it. Finally, Mr. Watkins was now a solid figure, and he looked at his surroundings. It was then that I realized where I was.
I was in my old elementary school. I was standing in the middle of a park, that I had sat on benches, and throw balls in. This was the very park where I walked my dogs. I was so frozen in the moment, that I didn’t realize that Mr. Watkins had spoken to me.
“Hello,” Mr. Watkins said, in a somewhat cool tone. I looked at him. His voice sounded the way it used to when he was alive, and he was in the earth. “I wasn’t sure if I’d find you. I thought you might be… dead.”
I wasn’t sure how to answer the question, because I wasn’t sure if I was dead. Before I opened my mouth to say anything, I wrestled with myself on what to say. In the end, I decided that the truth would be best. “I’m not sure.
