Syndey

              I dare not tell the police this information. If I did, they’d just think I did it, or worse, they’d think I was insane. But I’m not crazy. I’m the only one that really knows what happened to Sydney Carson. And I can’t tell anybody. Or, at least, I can’t tell anyone in person. I feel like I have some responsibility to put the events of that night down somewhere, hence why I’m writing this. I know I can’t show this to anybody either though, because anybody who saw it would also call me crazy. But ironically, writing out the truth is the only way to keep myself sane.

              Now don’t get me wrong, I had no love for Sydney. The guy was the biggest prick I’d ever met. He was completely self-absorbed and never gave a rat’s ass about what anyone else thought or wanted. I remember he would be in the town’s bar every Saturday night, like clockwork, hitting on everything in a skirt and trying to show off how good he was at billiards. He wasn’t bad looking, I guess; he was about 5’ 8” with a seemingly natural tan, dark brown hair that always had a hard side part, and a confident smile. But that confidence went way too far in everything else he did, and his personality was pure poison. Watching him was like watching some high school jock or bully in a movie. He had no class in anything he said or did and was every horrible stereotype you can imagine. His just deserts, though, was that word of his douchebaggery spread quickly in a small town like ours, and so as far as I knew he never really got with any of the women he hunted after. That sure didn’t stop him from trying though, and so the rest of us had to suffer this creep’s antics. Or, at least we did until three weeks ago.

              The height of Sydney’s asshole behavior came about in late June, when he must have gotten some pay raise or summer bonus as work. That day he came barreling down the county roads in a new lifted truck that had the loudest engine I’d ever heard and smelled like it ran on burning tires. Not only was this new monstrosity an eye-, ear-, and nose-sore, but it also magnified his already unbearable personality. Sydney had been known to catcall as he passed by in his old car. Now he did so even louder, so he could be heard over the sound of his own compensation machine. I’d even overheard a little game some of the girls I work with play where they would keep track of any time they heard him catcalling someone else but couldn’t actually see the truck. And despite still having his old sedan to drive, Sydney always opted to take this thing no matter where he went. The rest of that summer he grew worse and worse with each day. It was also around that time that I started seeing It.

              I had been up at my parent’s house for the weekend celebrating my dad’s 60^th birthday. We were winding down a great day’s party when I got the phone call that ruined it all. Back home, Sydney had found some little flaw in a lawnmower he had just bought from our store. He had apparently turned to the almighty Google and found that a few other people had encountered the same problem and came crying about it to my manager. My manager then called me and said I needed to be in first thing in the morning to check the inventory for any more of this defect. And so, I found myself driving along a deserted country road at 11:00 at night, cursing Sydney the whole way. That’s when It first appeared. At first, I thought It was some bum or a hitchhiker on the side of the road. It just stood there and looked like some guy with his jacket hood pulled up. But as I got closer, it became eerily apparent that this was no hitchhiker; this was not even human. I hadn’t noticed from the distance, and without any trees or signs along the road it would have been hard to tell anyway, but close up I saw that it stood nearly eight feet tall. Its limbs were disproportionally long and slender, and what I had thought was a hood was just the shape of this things head and neck. But the worst feature by far was Its eyes. I don’t know if I ever saw the real look of the eyes, but the light reflecting off them wasn’t yellow or green like an animal’s and wasn’t contained to just the iris. Instead, they reflected a pure white light that illuminated the whole shape of the eye, as if no light were passing through at all. The sight of this thing up close scared me shitless, and I floored the gas pedal as I passed it. I immediately looked in my rearview to see what this thing did. Somehow, without moving, It was now facing the same way I was going, seeming to stare back at me in the mirror. I turned away and focused on the road, speeding home as fast as I could. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep at all that night.

              The first sighting of It was a disturbing experience. The rest of the sightings throughout that summer were terrifying at worst and unnerving at best. Usually It appeared on long stretches of deserted roads like it had the first time. It just stood there and stared at me as I passed. Other times It would appear in more personal settings. A few times, after a long day dealing with Sydney’s bullshit at work or seeing him drive by in his wannabe monster truck, I would see It while I was alone in the storeroom, peering out from between the inventory racks. The most frightening one was when I saw it in my home; the last time I saw It before THE night. I was cleaning up after dinner when I heard Sydney yell some disgusting bullshit at someone walking down my street. I poked my head out of the door to check on the poor soul that was the object of this profanity; my sweet neighbor Shelby. She said that she was fine and just called Sydney an asshole. I went back inside and turned away from the door. As I walked back towards the kitchen I happened to look in the mirror that faced down the hall adjacent to my foyer. And there It was. From down the hall It stared at me in the mirror, its dead eyes just barely reflecting the light coming down the hall from the kitchen. Mortified, I threw my gaze down to hall, but nothing was there, and when I looked back to the mirror Its reflection was gone too. I ran into the comforting light of the kitchen and tried to slow my racing heart. After what seemed like hours I was finally able to muster the courage to go anywhere else in the house, turning on every light as I went. I hastily packed an overnight bag and went to stay with a good friend that night, giving some excuse about a rat or something I was trying to trap.

              Three days after the incident in my house was that horrifying night. It was September 16^th and once again I found myself driving alone on the roads just outside of town. We had just gotten a big shipment of gardening hand tools at work late that day and I had been sent to help deliver a few of them out to the Wilder’s and Mrs. Lennowitz; a few of the older folks who lived outside of the main town. Mr. Wilder had invited me in for a drink or two, which I happily obliged to, and it was around 9 or 9:30 when I finally headed home. I was driving down the deserted road, thinking to myself about what setup at the store in the morning would be like, when suddenly I heard a loud truck horn and saw blinding LED headlights directly in front of me. I pulled the wheel sharply to the right and swerved off the road, spinning the car a full 180 degrees as I wrestled back control. Thank god there were no trees or streetlamps to hit or else I’m sure my car would have been totaled. I shut off my engine and looked up to see none other than Sydney Carson climbing down from his stupid ass truck.

              I got out of my car fuming mad and marched straight up to Sydney. He looked at me and said, “Hey man, are you alright?” in his cocky, accusing tone. I immediately spat back “What the fuck is your problem?” He gave me an indignant look and then got all defensive.

              “What’s MY problem? Asshole, yo-“

              “I don’t want to hear your shit Sydney! We’re all sick and tired of the crap you pull and now it’s almost gotten me killed!”

              “What the fuck are you talking about man?”

              “Don’t play dumb you creep! The catcalling, the obnoxious truck, the ‘world revolves around me’ attitude. And now you’re even acting like you own the whole fucking road!”

              “Fuck off man! I came out to see if you were alright, I don’t appreciate you shitting on how I live my life! I could tell you off about a thing or- hey asshole, where are you going?”

              I had had enough of that prick and his self-righteous shit. I decided to head back to my car and get out of there before I decked him in the face. Meanwhile, Sydney continued to stand in the middle of the road and swear at me, but I didn’t hear anything he said. I got in my car, slammed the door, and started the engine back up. My headlights flashed on and lit up the scene in front of me.

              I sat frozen in terror in my seat, clutching the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. My headlights fell on Sydney, still standing in the road yelling, I think; if he was I couldn’t hear him over the sound of my own heartbeat. Right behind him stood It, bathed in the light from my car and more clear than It had ever appeared before. It had dark brown, parchment-like skin that clung to it’s tall, skeletal frame. Its shoulder’s rose and fell with an unnatural rhythm at is towered over Sydney and Its deeply sunken face bore only the palest outline of a mouth and nostrils. It was not looking at the man in the street before it, but instead stared directly at me in a gaze that froze the very breath in my throat.

              Slowly and deliberately, It lifted Its slender arms and reached out towards Sydney. It placed Its hands on him, the cusp of Its thumbs lying on his shoulders and the fingers extending all the way down his torso. I was so struck with fear that all I could do was watch in silent horror as It stabbed Its fingertips into his gut and raked them up his chest, tearing deep gashes the whole way. Blood and intestines spilled out onto the road and Sydney’s eye bulged as he coughed up blood. Gripping him by the shoulders, the thing then lifted him into the air, presenting him like some kind of trophy before me. It lifted one thumb and struck the side of his head. With a blood curdling crack, Sydney’s head snapped to the side and then went limp, his neck broken from the force.

In a single fluid motion, It flung the body off Its fingers towards the truck, where it landed with a dull thud, and then leaned forward to crouch on all fours. It opened the sliver of a mouth, revealing a gaping holing without teeth, tongue, or any innards. From that abyss of a mouth came the most unearthly sound I had ever heard, like an amplified echo of metal scraping against metal. This hideous cry melded into and was eventually drowned out by my own scream of terror; the first sound I was able to make. With this scream I found I finally had the wherewithal to move again, and so I threw the car into reverse and sped off as fast as I could. Once the creature was no longer visible in the headlights I spun the car around and floored it all the way home.

The police found Sydney’s body the next day. From the massive wounds on his chest, they said the most likely culprit was a mountain lion, but foul play wasn’t ruled out completely. There were skid marks near the scene that matched my tires, and those of about half the rest of the town. I was questioned like everybody else, and like everybody else I said I knew nothing about it. What else could I say? Any mention of what really happened that night and I would be committed. The investigation is still on-going and has lasted these last three weeks.

And over those same three weeks, It has returned every night. It never makes any more movements, never cries out or leans forward. I see It every night outside my window, sometimes at a distance, but more often staring directly in. Those eyes that only reflect light, and yet reflect it all, watch me every night as I lay in bed. I’m no longer afraid of It and have even managed to sleep some of the more recent nights, but It never goes away. Of course, I can’t tell anyone, they’d think I was going nuts. Only this paper will know the truth of what happened that night and every one since.