Imagine a man named George who was walking one day through a
crowded street. All was normal, and he was not thinking of anything that would
be out of the ordinary. However, when ahead a part of the street was clear of
most people, he saw five little animals walking about the place on all-fours
and had their faces to the ground. Curious, he got a little closer. Before
getting dangerously close, he stopped. One of the animals raised its head to
look at George. Their eyes met. George stared at it, stunned. It had a face
like a pug dog, but this thing was taller than one of those kinds of dogs, had
big eyes with pupils like a goat’s pupils, three little horns poked out of its
forehead, and right below the horns, between the two disturbingly strange eyes,
a little light from an unknown source flashed red, green, yellow, and blue. The
little thing, standing about three feet high, approached George, came too close
for his comfort and stopped. They stared at each other for a longer time, then
a low, gurgling growl came from the animal. It bared its tall fangs which
looked red from blood, whether it was its own blood or something else’s blood,
George could not discern. George backed away, looked at the person next to him,
who, amazingly, acted as if nothing strange was happening, and looked back at
the animal, from which he had not kept his gaze more than a second. However,
when George brought his eyes back to where the animal was, all five of the
creatures had vanished.
George did not know how long he had been staring at those
things. Maybe he was hallucinating, he thought. He went to a man nearby who was
selling out water and asked the water-man if he had seen the things, describing
them to the man and telling him how they had vanished. The water-man became concerned for George and
gave him a couple of water bottles for free. George accepted it, went to sit on
a bench, and tried to not let himself think about it anymore.
He walked home alone, which was not far from the place. It
was getting dark, and he hoped to get home before sundown, because he did not
bring a flashlight with him. He heard a noise on the side of the road which he
assumed was made by a squirrel or something of the like. He thought little of
it until five dark shapes started appearing ahead of him, coming from both
sides of the road. Four of them had
their heads facing the ground, just as he had seen them do in the town. The
fifth one looked around a bit, almost as if to see if anyone else was watching,
then approached George. It got even closer than it had before. George dared not
move. The thing looked him up and down, then it opened its mouth and, instead
of barking like George expected, it let out a low, rumbling noise like thunder
in the distance. The five other creatures looked up and slowly walked toward
George. They surrounded him, all with their strange, disturbing faces looking
at him, motionless. George trembled in fear. The odd faces the things had were what
kept George from doing anything in self-defense. These things were not dogs,
and they certainly seemed much more ferocious than any dog he had ever seen.
For all George knew, these animals could do anything to him, and they did not
seem to want to do a nice thing. George and these animals stood there seemingly
for an eternity, until the five things moved closer and closer to him. Another
low, thunder-like rumble sounded, and the creatures vanished.
George did not know whether or not he could move. If they
could instantly become invisible at will, then he did not want to move, touch
one of the invisible things, and make them angry. He stood there for a while,
not knowing whether to think of himself as an idiot for believing a silly
hallucination or to really believe what he saw. Finally, he built up the courage to take a
step forward. Nothing happened. He took another baby step. Still, nothing
happened – no sound, nothing touching him, no odd smells, nothing invisible
reappearing to scare him again. He remained motionless once more, heart
pounding, breathing heavily despite his trying to be quite. He clenched his
fist and ran down the road until reaching his home, locking all of the doors,
closing and covering the windows, and ended up sleeping with several lights
still on in the house.
He never saw those animals again.
~ Fintan.
