blogwithvalor

The bicycle rolled down the street. The streetlights overhead passed by, momentarily lighting the road. Victor pedaled quickly. He’d just left his friend, Teddy’s place. Teddy, Tommy, Byron, and he were playing board games and Victor lost track of time. His parents told him to be home before dark and he had no idea how long ago the sun set. Getting home as quickly as possible was his only thought.

He reached a curve in the road that went around a large pasture and pulled the handbrake, the rear tire twisting outwards a little as he came to a full and complete stop. One of the effects of growing towns was neighborhoods popping up around farms. Many farmers tore down their barns to build multiple houses they sold for a handsome sum. Others just sold to development groups that did the work instead. There were a few leftover ranches, that refused to sell, nestled in the middle of an ever growing suburb. This one was Queen’s Ranch. They didn’t grow anything there, just raised a few cattle and horses. Victor looked down the curving road, well lit and safe, but almost twice the distance to his parents compared to straight through the Queen’s Ranch pasture. Victor knew the path and the fences to hop. He could do it. The dark was the only thing giving him pause. He took one more look down across the dark pasture and decided it was worth the time he’d save. He hopped up the curb and road down the worn dirt path leading to the barbed wire fence.

Victor hopped the barbed wire fence without any issue. He threw the bike over first and followed by hopping over himself, using the wooden post to gain a little extra clearance. Once he was in the pasture, it wasn’t as dark as it seemed from the street. His eyes adjusted and the moonlight gave out its soft glow, enough for him to avoid most of the cow pies.

There was a hill in the middle of the pasture that Victor began climbing. He stood up on the pedals and pushed his way to the top, huffing and puffing. He reached the apex, excited about the easy ride down the other side. Suddenly, a light shone down on him. He stopped and stared at the bright circle of light surrounding him. It wasn’t like a streetlight, whose light gradually lessened away from the center. The edges were sharper. It more resembled the circle a flashlight throws against a wall. As he turned his face upward to look for the source, he felt himself become weightless and floated upwards. Then a deep sleep overcame him, and everything went black.

A strange hum woke Victor from his sleep. He was lying on a smooth silver table, unable to move anything but his eyes. His vision traveled in circles frantically. There was a bright light above his head making it hard to see much of anything. Shadows moved about, around him. There were not at all human looking. The strange humming came from them. One of the shadows seemed to hum and then another one would hum, seemingly in response. He wondered if the hums were somehow a language, but nothing about the hum sounded different to him. It was a single prolonged hum, without any change. Even between shadows the hum sounded the same. The shadows seemed to notice he had woken up because they stopped making any noise and shifted closer to him. Victor wanted to scream but couldn’t find the strength to break whatever it was that kept him immobile. One of the shadows leaned so close that it came into the light. The light shone through the outer portions of its body, like its body was semi-translucent. It was still too hard, with the light in his eyes, to see much, but the way its amorphous body curved over him made him think of a blob monster. An arm seemed to grow from its side and gently hovered over him. The appendage started humming and began scanning the bottom of his feet, moving up towards his head. Anywhere the arm hovered over he felt a tingle. It was over his stomach and an uneasiness passed through him, like he would throw up if he was in control of himself. It traveled over his chest, and he felt as though his heart was racing. As it approached his head, he tried desperately to move. The tingling sensation was unpleasant and to have it go through his brain worried him. As it got to his throat he breathed out and a soft whimper sounded in the back of his throat. The humming stopped and the arm pulled back into the rest of the blob. It curved in the light, like a curious looking dog, a strange action from something so alien. Victor thought for a moment he had somehow stopped the arm from reaching his head, but all at once, arms appeared from every shadow standing over him. The humming became loud and deafening as the arms all joined together over his head. Victor felt his face become a little warm as his vision grew fuzzy. Then everything went black, as he fell asleep once again.

Victor awoke with a jolt and sat upright immediately swinging his arms wildly. As his vision came into focus, he realized he was sitting atop the hill in the middle of the Queen’s Ranch pasture. He turned over onto his hands and knees in a snap and threw up. All the fast food he had eaten at Teddy’s place came out into the grass. Half-eaten cheeseburger and fries, halfway digested, streamed out his throat as his stomach seemed to reject everything he’d put into it. After he spit the final chunks that got caught in his cheeks, he backed away and sat on his butt, legs spread out in a ‘V’ in front of him. He tried to remember what had just happened to him but couldn’t remember anything. Only a distinct sense of fear loomed in his mind.

He looked over at his bike lying on its side nearby. That seemed to be his only clue as to what just happened. He assumed something scared him in the dark and he fell off the bike, hitting his head so hard that he got knocked out. The handlebar probably dug into his stomach on the way down too. That’s why he threw up. This seemed to be the only story that made sense.

Victor slowly got to his feet, placing his hands on his knees to get fully upright. He felt dizzy. He grabbed the handlebar of his bike and pulled it to himself. Using the bike to help steady himself, he decided not to ride down the other side of the hill. Just take it slow and steady home. At least now he had an excuse for why he was late. He’d tell his parents how he fell off his bike.