What Was That

Are you the kind of person that hears a noise outside at night?

Alerted and startled then you wait to see if it happens again? Then you pull back a curtain to look out, or peek out of the blinds, or go to the door or even bravely step outside to look around instead of looking through the peep hole.

Not me because I know, without a doubt, that the weird and unusual noises will come from a face looking back at me. That has always been one of my greatest fears. It doesn’t matter if the face is a real human face, a person wearing a mask, a snarling animal, a ghostly illumination or even something that looks like an alien-nonhuman being.

Which would you do first? Run and check to make sure all of the doors and windows are locked? Then look outside again or skip looking out again and dial 911 just to be safe. Do you then turn on all of the lights or turn all the lights off? You think that lights off might give you a slight advantage because you are familiar and know the layout of the house. Do you have a weapon in a known place in case of a life-threatening emergency or do you have to scramble around looking for a weapon? Perhaps you think you could use a large knife, a fireplace poker, a gun that is safely locked away in a lock box, a family heirloom rifle that had been hanging over the fireplace. The rifle will probably be you’re last choice because it hasn’t been fired in decades and you have no clue where you could find shells to load it, or nervously scan around the house for something else you could use, a trophy, a heavy candlestick or perhaps a vase.

I was suddenly snapped back to reality. This was real, not just the paper I had been working on. As the noises had grown louder and their frequency has increased to banging sounds like the wooden door is about to be shattered into splinters, I heard strange footsteps outside, and the door knob being turned as if someone’s trying to get inside. I was thinking this can’t get any worse, but it did. I started hearing sounds from multiple beings that were now around the entire cabin, even on the roof.

Now there’s scratching on the exterior walls, nails or claws scraping across glass windows and stones being dropped down the chimney landing in the fireplace that cause sparks to fly out in every direction. At this point, I had convinced myself that these sounds can’t possibly be made by humans! It has to be monsters, aliens or maybe even Bigfoot, but I was not sure if Bigfoot had ever been spotted in this area of the state. It could happen. I’m still trying to reason in my terrified mind what could be happening.

I had made the 911 call. The police have not yet arrived. I was about 20 miles from the city. I know your time is running out. The sounds were coming from all around my cabin. I had to ask myself, do I pick a weapon and get ready to defend myself or take my weapon of choice and go into the attached garage. I decided in the garage. I frantically, prepared an escape plan. My logical mind is screaming that every detail has to be timed perfectly for me to successfully escape. Noiselessly, I opened the door leading into the garage as quietly as possible while trying to control my breathing, my loudly pounding heart and try to calm my shaking hands. I grabbed a flashlight and an emergency medical kit from a garage shelf. I also spotted a box of emergency flares that i had purchased for me and a friend that we thought we might need on a camping trip. The plan included hiking some fairly dangerous mountain trails last summer in a remote area. I let out a nervous laugh thinking now the hiking trails didn’t seem so dangerous after all. On a wall holding garden tools I spotted a large sharp pair of hedge trimmers. I add these to the emergency items.

The SUV has four doors so I was able to load up my meager safety supplies and weapons in the back seat. As quietly as possible I climbed into the driver seat while closing the door without the sound of the latch clicking.

Now I try to think of how much time I would have to start the SUV and the time it takes the garage door to raise just enough to get out. After thinking about the sequence, I decided to activate the remote to raise the garage door and count to three before starting the SUV engine. Hopefully, that would allow the garage door to raise almost completely up. So, I began. I pressed the remote button, counted 1, 2, 3 and started the SUV. I slammed the gear into reverse. I glanced back once to see if the garage door was up just enough to clear the SUV, then I pressed the gas pedal to the floor which was hard enough that the tires squealed and I sped out of the garage. Once I was out on the driveway, I saw the beings from my worst nightmare. They appeared to be about seven feet tall with long lanky limbs on a thin, rectangle shaped torso. The heads on them were silver, shiny ovals with no eyes, nose or mouth visible. They were black masses and looked like swirling smoke.

The SUV was in the street. I shifted gears to drive and shot forward. I repeatedly checked the rearview mirror every five seconds to see if I was being followed. Nothing so far, but it has only been about two minutes since I had successfully escaped. I began to relax a little and loosened my grip on the steering wheel.

Soon I spotted flashing lights coming toward me with sirens blasting down the country road. It looked like they must be traveling at a high rate of speed because the distance between us is closing fast.

My next decision is do I pull over and wait for the police or keep driving away from the cabin as quickly as possible. I was thinking I really wanted to keep driving but if I kept driving, the police would not know what to expect. They could be injured or killed. What should I do?

I pulled over and jumped out of the SUV waving frantically at them and yelled, “ I’m the one that reported this incident and I’m the homeowner. They both quickly exited the patrol car and joined me on the road.

This is what’s going on. I rushed through trying to tell them about what had happened and described the beings that I saw outside that were attacking you at your home. Then I tried to describe the noises I had heard and the escape I had made while fearing for my life. I was still thinking about danger being a short distance back down the road.

Just as I finished the explanation and gave a description of the beings, the police officers I had been speaking to took a quick side step towards my SUV and shown their flashlights up toward the top of my car. As soon as the light hit the top of the car, two of the dark, swirling, beings leapt down onto the pavement in one smooth, silent motion. Now they had taken on a neon, blue glow and looked even more menacing. They had apparently been lying on the roof of the car without me ever suspecting that they were there. Both of the police officers had dropped their jaws wide open as they were obviously scared and confused. Their faces drained of all color as they realized they were experiencing unexplained, sheer terror. The one with the name tag, Robbins, asked,”what the hell are those things? ”I replied, “I don’t know. I was hoping you could tell me.” We all started backing away slowly. The creatures began making a growling sound like a dog mixed with the sound a screech owl might make.

The two beings looked very aggressive and very dangerous. They were both a swirling, black mass again. The blue neon was disappearing. A black slit had appeared near the bottom of the silver heads. There, a thick, orange liquid was bubbling out the side of what we determined to be mouths. Both were at least seven feet tall with unusually long arms ending with hands or paws containing long black claws extending like fingers. I hadn’t been close enough to see the claws earlier.Their legs looked similar to a kangaroo which would explain how they could jump so easily. The eyes on them were now glowing in the oval faces like no other creature I had ever seen or heard of. The eyes were not very large but glowed in a neon yellow and were set back in cavernous, pitch black circles.

The officer didn’t yell a warning. He just opened rapid fire, once, twice, three times into the first creature. It didn’t faze it. Absolutely nothing happened. The thing continued toward us. The second police officer started firing as well. The first officer ran back to the vehicle and pulled out a shotgun and blasted them over and over. Both officers stopped only a few seconds to reload. The creatures each attacked one of the officers. I supposed they attacked them before me because they held the weapons. Officer Robbin’s was screaming while desperately trying to free himself from the thing. It was dragging him off the road and into the woods. I looked for weapons but the nearest gun was right if front of the second creature. I realized that the second officer had not made a sound. I had jumped back into my SUV. I glanced in my rear view mirror and saw that the second creature had severed the head of his prey. It glanced once at me as I sped away. I was afraid it would chase me or leap onto the top of the SUV again but it appeared to be completely occupied with its kill, the second police officer.

I threw up in the floorboard of my car but I never slowed down. I remembered a diner that was open 24/7. I could call for help there. Somewhere during my escape from the cabin, I had lost my cell phone.

The diner seemed to be miles further than it actually was.

My mind was still reliving the skirmish as I jumped back into my SUV and locked the doors, the police were still trying to fight off the being with their bare hands. I had watched Robbins as he had managed to pull out a taser after his service weapon and the shotgun were emptied. He hadn’t survived long enough to use it. The being had slashed through his bulletproof vest with it’s claws like the vest was made of paper. Then I saw him being dragged off into the woods. Both of the officers were savagely killed within seconds. My clothes were completely drenched in sweat and I shivered from the cold night air. I shook my head trying to clear my disoriented brain. It was loud buzzing and my ears were ringing. I focused on getting to safety and to get help. Again, I pressed the gas pedal down as far as it would go listening to the engine kick into high gear. I watched as the odometer needle shot up to 90 mph. I was saddened knowing there was nothing I could have done to save either of the officers. When I called for help, I hoped they would take me seriously and not as some sort of psycho. I kept looking in my rear view mirror to make sure there was nothing following me. I thought I was no more than a mile or two away from the diner, now only 10 minutes or less. I slid my SUV into the almost empty parking lot slinging gravel in all directions as I screeched to a halt. I rushed inside and asked the waitress I had almost just knocked off her feet to borrow a phone for an emergency. A stocky man wearing a white, greasy apron stepped out of the kitchen area and pulled an old black phone out from under the counter. I dialed 911 and reached a tired sounding police dispatcher after only two rings. She listened to my report as I breathlessly spat out the details as quickly as possible. She immediately transferred me to the state police. This time I was able to explain the situation in a slightly calmer voice. They advised several law enforcement agencies were in route and for me to stay at the diner. I wasn’t about to step outside. I told the cook to lock the doors because we could be in imminent danger. He had heard my story as I recited it twice over the phone. He quickly secured the front door and went to lock the back door as well. The diner only had three customers and they were frozen in their booths.

The state police arrived about 30 minutes later in three squad cars. I excitedly, repeated and explained the story details as they had occurred. I offered to take them to the spot where the police officers were and on to the house if they wanted. They suggested I stay where I was to be safe and they would let me know what happened later. I did not argue.

The police had not asked us to stay there so the three customers left in a hurry. Carl the cook, secured the doors again. At this point I was so scared, I thought about leaving but I knew I would need to be available to answer more questions and possibly do paperwork. The state police had my contact information. I had given them my sister’s number where I would be staying because I didn’t plan on going back to my cabin anytime soon or maybe ever.

After an hour waiting to get a report or some update, the cook, waitress and I decided to leave. I drove to my sister’s apartment. She lives about 50 miles from the diner. I had called her to make sure she was at home. She was instantly anxious and flooded me with questions. I assured her that I would tell her everything when I got there.

I was exhausted but running on pure adrenaline was keeping me wide awake. Lila, my sister met me at the door. Thankfully, she could see how exhausted I was so we planned to talk in the morning.

I slept twelve hours straight. Lila had fixed me lunch and I told her all of the gory details. She was amazed that I had escaped with my life. She turned on the TV so we could check for news. The report was brief. A late night fire was reported to have completely destroyed a cabin in South Brinkley Woods and the news anchor read out my address and advised that the owner was out of town at the time of the fire. Nothing was said about the two officers that had been killed. Nothing was reported by the state police. It was like the whole incident had never happened. I was in shock.

I told my sister that I wasn’t about to let this go so easily. She warned me that it could be some sort of government cover up and I should drop it. The officials may have already known about the creatures and buried the story from the public. I decided to leave it alone since she was probably right. Someone had burned my cabin down to destroy any evidence of the creatures, monsters or whatever they were. I didn’t want to risk my life by getting involved in some sort of top secret cover up with lots of disbelief and red tape. I felt very betrayed by law and probably government officials.

I’m guessing that the people in the diner were told that I was on drugs, delirious and just crazy.

I have wondered for years what really happened. I still look over my shoulder thinking someone might still try to end me so there wouldn’t be anyone left to tell the real story. It had seemed like a dream but those noises, and those creatures were very real.

I’ll never forget. I still couldn’t believe that I had merely just been writing a paper on what different people might do in an emergency. Then events became real and life threatening. It had all started with, “What was that?”