Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-39380631-20190513192316

On a gloomy night in an unnamed town, the rain blasts down onto the pavement of roads and the concrete of sidewalks. The town is practically barren at this time of night. One man walks through the heavy precipitation to a local bar, “The Sidewinder”. Making it blatantly obvious the bar is up ahead, the neon ‘OPEN’ sign glows an eerie blue.

The man checks his watch to find it reads ‘11:15 pm’. He looks up and continues walking to the pub, only to see a shadow beside him on the brick wall illuminated by the street light. Looking behind him is nothing. “Must be seeing things…” the man muttered to himself. The walk must have been further than he remembered since it seemed he was making no progress as if he was walking in place. Once more he saw a shadow and checked behind him. Nothing.

The feeling of eyes on the back of his neck stung him like a heat ray. When walking faster to the bar, the crack of a twig alerted him again. He didn’t bother to look behind him this time, he knew his mind was just playing tricks again. At least that’s what he thought until a voice whispered into his ear.

“Don’t look behind you.”

The man began to speed walk to the bar as if it was some sort of sanctuary or safe haven for him and only him. To calm himself, he daydreamed of warm whiskey sliding down his throat to numb the pain of his anxiety. He slowed his pace, feeling safer in his mind. That is until he heard what sounded like claws scraping against a window. Panicking and sweating he went into a short jog to lose whoever or whatever was behind him. He checked his watch again, the hands taunting him of how little progress had been made by showing him a time of ‘11:20 pm’. 11:20?! That couldn’t be possible! The bar still looked a good 30 seconds away and he’d been walking for 5 minutes? Something was seriously wrong.

“Don’t look behind you.”

That damn voice again. It sounded harsher this time like it was demanding something. Rain pattered onto his head. Shit, he realized the umbrella wasn’t covering him. Quickly preventing the rain from getting him wetter than he already was, he hovered the black dome over himself. Another sound to pester him came from behind, it sounded like groaning, like a dog on the brink of dying. He dare not look behind him in fear of what was there. It got more distorted the further he got from the light. He changed his pace when not illuminated by the street lamps to lose the creature.

“Don’t look behind you.”

He broke out into a sprint to the bar. It seemed as if the bar was getting farther away, the glow of the neon sign fading out of existence. Throwing his umbrella behind him he ran even faster. But it sounded like whatever was behind him ran on all fours. Was it a bear? A deer? He didn’t want to stick around to find out. He ran as fast as he could, sprinting to a building with more light inside, but suddenly all the street lamps went out in the snap of a finger. Defeated, he fell to his knees and wept.

“What do you want from me?!”

“Come to me,” the four-legged animal beckoned.

The man looked behind him for a final time to be met with glowing yellow eyes and a monkey-shaped figure on all fours. It looked to be wearing a black spandex suit on his abdomen. “What… what the hell are you?” the man breathily questioned.

“I am the Night Crawler,” the beast proclaimed.

Without another word, the feral animal tore him to shred with its’ filthy claws, devouring as many organs and muscles it could. It moaned in pleasure as it gorged on human meat, leaving a mess of scarlet fluid to flow down the storm drain along with the rain. The Night Crawler stuffed the body down the storm drain as well, then went back to its’ habitat in the sewer system for its’ next victim.  