The man stumbled through the woods, half-running, half-falling. Mud coated his clothes. Blood soaked one sleeve where a deep wound carved into his arm. Every breath scraped his throat raw. Branches clawed at his face as he crashed through the darkness, too terrified to care about the pain. Behind him came something. Not footsteps. Not breathing. Just the certainty that it was there. He had never seen it clearly. Every time he turned, there was only movement between the trees. A glimpse of a shape where no shape should fit. A shadow crossing impossible distances in the blink of an eye. The forest seemed endless. Then he saw it. Light. A pale glow through the branches. The road. His heart lurched. Civilization. Safety. He could already imagine headlights cutting through the darkness. A passing car. A phone. Help. The road couldn't be more than fifty yards away. He laughed, a ragged, desperate sound. "I'm gonna make it..." His legs screamed as he pushed harder. Forty yards. Thirty. The trees began to thin. Twenty. He could see the asphalt now, silver beneath the moonlight. Ten. A sob escaped him. Five. Then everything went silent. No wind. No insects. No sound at all. The man slowed. Something felt wrong. A shadow passed overhead. His smile vanished. He looked up. For a single instant, he saw a shape descending from the darkness above the trees. Far too large. Far too fast. Hope shattered. The thing hit him before he could scream. The impact threw him from the trail and into the undergrowth. Leaves exploded into the air. Branches snapped like bones. The road sat only a few feet away. Close enough to touch. The man dragged himself forward through the dirt, trembling fingers reaching toward the asphalt. A hand's length. A fingertip's length. Then something wrapped around his ankle. He was yanked backward into the darkness. The trees swallowed him whole. By morning, the road was empty. Only a trail in the mud remained, disappearing into the woods, as though something had dragged a man away from salvation at the very last second. July 7th, 1994
