The Night-Gazer

Have you ever felt like you were being watched? Not like that feeling when you think something’s behind but you know there isn’t, the one that goes away in a matter of seconds. I’m talking about that feeling that constantly stays with you, where you can almost feel whatever is watching you breathing down your neck. That feeling. I didn’t always have it. I used to be a guy with a steady job and happy wife. But not any more. That’s all gone.

You see, I was in a mining industry somewhere in Oregon at the time. I can’t exactly remember which one it was. I was underground particularly late at night with a few of my co- workers. I can’t remember if we were mining gold or coal, but I do remember a lot of sweat. We were just about to wrap up for the night when my buddy Burke reminded me that I left some of my equipment further into the mine. I told him to go on ahead to the bar that we had agreed to go to after we were done while I went back to get my stuff.

I looked around while I was walking, impressed with the amount of work we had gotten done that day. I looked up at the ceiling and the stalactites that hung down. I was feeling proud of myself at the moment and got lost in my thoughts. I looked down again, just in time to see the equipment I had forgotten earlier. I stopped my self quick and grabbed onto a sturdy stalagmite to keep me from falling. Once I had righted myself, I picked up my equipment and was about to head out when I realized something. The tunnel wasn’t the same.

I don’t mean that it looked different because of the mining, I mean that it was not the same tunnel. The ground here was far too smooth to be the one I was working in earlier. The only light to be found was the one shining from my hat. I suddenly got extremely confused and a little scared. I kept thinking to myself that it wasn’t right, that this was impossible. But as I always say, it doesn’t matter how you got there, what matters is right now. I knew that there was a way out of this tunnel, and I was going to find it and get to the bar with Burke. I licked my finger and held it up, finding a breeze coming from both ways. Now I was more confused than ever. Maybe it was just a tunnel for sight seers and tourist groups? That must be it. I started walking, expecting to find a way out in a matter of minutes.

Well, those minutes turned to over an hour. The breeze was stronger though, so I must’ve been near the exit. But in that hour, I had become more and more nervous. My wife must’ve been wondering where I was, Burke also. I started running, soon finding out that it wasn’t easy, carrying everything that I was. I stopped for a second to catch my breath. It didn’t seem like I was going toward an exit. It seemed like I was going deeper underground. At this point I wasdesperate. I didn’t care what it took to get out of there, just as long as I did.

I put my hand to the wall, righting myself once more and preparing to get going again, when I suddenly felt something. It wasn’t an earthquake or anything, though looking back on it I wish it was, but a movement. It felt like someone was behind the wall. I got excited, seeing that if someone was indeed back there, they must know the way out. I started swinging my pick at the wall, quickly trying to knock it down. I knew from experience that this was a supporting wall, and that the tunnel would collapse if I did this, but I was beyond the point of caring. If it was a chance then I would take it.

I swung my pick for the last time, finally breaking down the wall. Just as I was about to call out for help, my light went out. I stopped moving. Not because of my light, but because of what laid in front of me. I saw something glowing. I can’t remember the exact color, but I don’t think I even noticed, as my brain was almost over loaded already. It looked like someone had put a glow stick inside of a glow-in-the-dark sphere. Suddenly, another one appeared. And another, and another, and another. There must’ve been about twenty of them. “What the Hell?” I whispered. As I did so, all the spheres turned towards me. I backed up a little bit, and as I did so all of the spheres moved too. I then realized, to my immense horror, that they were all part of one, massive creature. They were all eyes. That was the first time that I felt like I was being watched. It looked at me. I don’t mean that it just looked at my body, it looked at ME. Everything that I was, everything that I had experienced, my brightest memories, my darkest secrets, everything. It looked at all of me.

The eyes blinked. As they did, I was able to snap out of it and ran back out the way I came. I felt a rumbling, causing me to run even faster. At first I thought that it was whatever I had seen, but then I remembered that the wall I had taken down was supporting wall. The tunnel was caving in, and I picked up my pace even more as rocks started falling behind me. I finally saw something that looked like light, after all that time in the tunnel. The roof started collapsing as I ran for the light. Just as the entire tunnel went down, I made a final sprint and managed to escape into the outside world. I fell down, exhausted from the amount of running I had done.

I almost fell asleep immediately, but one more shock awaited me that night. The shock was that it wasn’t night at all. The sun was shining over my head, casting an 8 o’clock shadow on the area. I knew that I wasn’t underground for that long. It couldn’t be day, it just couldn’t. That was my final thought before I passed out.

After I woke up, I made my way back to my home only to find my wife worried sick. I reassured her that It was all okay, not mentioning to her the creature in the tunnel. That seemed to calm her down. I thought that I would be able to get everything back to the way it was. I was wrong. I had to quit my job later that day, knowing that I couldn’t go back underground. I found that I couldn’t get any sleep that night either. I still had that feeling that I was being watched. I had hoped that the cave in had killed it, but I guess it hadn’t. I still felt it’s presence every night. Over the next few weeks, I had become more agitated and nervous. It all led to my wife and I getting a divorce.

Once that happened, I had to go nocturnal. Day was the only time that I didn’t feel it’s presence, the only time that I could sleep. I still feel it though, every single night. It’s watching me. It always will be, in life and in death. It knows me. Once it gains sight, it never loses it. It told me it’s name, that night when I looked at it. I don’t know how it did, I don’t even remember hearing a voice, but I know that it told me.

It is the Night-Gazer.