Bloodied Trees and Bright Lights

As strung on hallucinogenics and other less reprehensible pills I am on right now, the story I am about to write is one hundred percent true. I hate beer, I never drunk any of the stuff since the events that occurred. So I relied on hard drugs to prevent myself from doing anything crazy.

The memory of the events was what I wanted rid of. The question next to be pulled from your mind is, Why am I telling it then if I want to escape from it?

Because, even after using pounds and pounds of illegal drugs, ranging from LSD to heroin, sniffing and injecting so much of the shit that blood dripping down my nose was a daily occurrence, in the back of my mind like an old TV, the scenes that played out ten years ago keep rewinding and playing. So much so, that I have now memorized it to death.

Death...

This story is about Him.

*****

Ten years ago, I finally graduated from high school. My entire class got together and held a celebration party, filled to the brim with booze--despite our teachers warning us that drinking was never a good way to end the school semester. We, as young adults, of course did not listen to the old timers. We got hammered, my friend and I, and began doing the usual business of swooping in on equally intoxicated women and seeing if we scored.

Despite our best efforts, it was to no avail. Whilst they were unable to stand still without swerving left to right like grass in a light breeze, they still had a bit of sense about them and rejected us as politely as they could through drunken slurs.

Now I want to clear this up before continuing: ''My friend and I were not flirting with malicious intent. ''We ducked out when the girls said no and that was that. The son-of-a-bitches that continued even after being repeatedly told "No" are as equally disgusting to us as they are to you.

So after being rejected for the seventeenth time that night, my friend suggested that we should just ditch the place and head out to roam the quiet town.

After exiting the school grounds, the only thing you could hear was the light rustling of trees blowing in the wind. While in the daytime the roads would be packed with cars that barely anyone made it to where they wanted to go within the hour, at night you could play a full game of soccer and not expect more than one or two cars interrupting your game. We didn't play soccer of course, still intent on just exploring the town.

My friend and I had been going to this school for all of our teenage lives, we had been down town multiple times. We walked past the nearby ice-cream parlor, the blessing to all students who went to the school. As duo, we swaggered past the gas station, the bus center, a few residential areas before reaching a road that went off into the countryside.

I nudged my friend, "Hey, lets just go back to the school and wait for our... parents."

He just nodded, turning his body one-eighty and making his way back down the street we came. I regret look back down the road. That second glance changed my life forever and I could never take it back.

Ever.

I saw a figure standing on top of the first blind summit of the road. His silhouette was visible to the starry night sky and he stuck out to me as he had both of his arms spread open and hugged towards the sky. It was like he was trying to collect all of the twinkling stars and embrace them in his arms, which I noticed were inhumanly thin. They looked more like the branches of a dying tree than of flesh and bone.

"Bro," I mumbled to my friend, slapping his back while keeping my eyes on the man, "look at that weirdo up there."

He glanced up at him and a huge smile stretched his cheeks. "Do you wanna fuck with him?"

"Not really. I don't want to... fuck..." I burped, "I don't want to mess with someone like that."

"Come on. We won't beat him up or anything, just a few harsh words here and there. Come on..." He began staggering towards the man. I understood why he was so intent on screwing up someone's night. Years of being in academia really repressed his desire to be rebellious and now, freed from that torture, he wanted to wreck loose. I decided to follow along, my eyes keeping focus on the shadow.

My friend reached out to touch his back, saying, "Hey, buddy, are you talking to Jesus or somethi--" His words were cut off by the man slowly turning around, his arm still raised in the air. Then, as his glowing white eyes came into view, he dropped his arms onto my friends shoulders. I stumbled down the hill away from them, my heart pumping rapidly. My friend, pissed out of his mind, thought he was trying to start a fight and began punching at the man's chest.

He did not react.

"Only Death," the man rumbled with a deep, crackling voice, "only Death."

"Get off me you bastard," my friend shouted, not particularly scared by the man's white eyes.

"Only Death can save you now."

And with that, the Shadow Man stretched in size, like a shadow reacting to the setting sun. My friend was frozen on the spot and just as I was about to run to him and pull him away, the Shadow Man's arms pierced him. The arms stretched towards the sky, my friend's lifeless body going along with it. It It took on a few seconds for blood to begin dripping down from his body.

The moonlight reflected each crimson drop as it splatted against the hard tarmac and grew into a puddle. The Man's two white eyes were glowing more now, encapsulating the scene with unbearable white eyes.

I tried to scatter away from the scene, my throat too tense to even let out a word, before the world around me was shrouded in darkness.

*****

I woke up in a pool of my own vomit. Two men were looking down at me: Policemen. It was the beginning of morning when I raised myself off the tarmac. One of the men urged me to stay lying, but I refused, staring towards the hill where my friend was killed.

I could not believe it.

A car sat near me, its bonnet dented in and windscreen cracked. Small spots of blood traced the top of the car and on its side windows. A yellow tape surrounded the car.

This was the summary given to me by the Police, the conclusion they came to after hearing the Car Driver's alibi.

My friend and I were walking up the hill. The car's front lights were working, but we must have not seen them. I was cautious enough to be walking on the side of the road, while my friend was staggering over the white lines in the center of the road. He was hit by the car and was flung into nearby trees. I saw this and, because of how intoxicated I was, began running away before kneeling over and vomiting. Then I passed out.

My head, as if told by an unseen force, rotated and stared at one of the trees nearby. My friend's body still hung from one of the branches, two of them sticking out of his chest in the same manner the Shadow Man pierced him. His head was dipped and dried blood surrounded his lips.

But...

For a split second...

...I thought I saw his glazed eyes flash white.

*****

Now I am sitting in my bed in my shitty apartment, laptop sitting on my knees. Pounds of drugs sit by my bedside, just waiting for me.

But I will never come to them.

As of right now, I notice something strange happening to my room. An occasional drop of dark liquid dripped from the top of my window and down the dirtied glass. The shadows cast by the moon are now stretching, twisting and turning.

I will not let him get me.

I have a pistol right beside me and I will use it for the first time.

After I finish this post, I will not fire it at him.

But at the roof of my mouth.

Please, don't approach any man who looks like they are worshiping sky.

Because...

...that man might be me.