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Running



Estimated reading time — 5 minutes

Dear Hannah,

I’ve been doing a lot of running lately.

It’s an excellent way to stay in shape. Obviously. But that’s not really why I do it. Mostly I just like the fresh air and the freedom, y’know, it gives me time to think.

An hour or so with only my Mp3 player and the pavement for company can really put those office blues and relationship issues in perspective. Like it all seems a whole world away.

Not that its an avoidance tactic either, I really feel that this time to myself, just thinking, helps me deal with my problems in a more level headed and effective way when the time comes.

I heartily recommend it.

Just. . . be careful. . . I guess. I don’t quite know how to say this. . .

A couple of weeks ago you and I had this huge argument, its funny, I forget what that argument was even about now. Like I said, the running. . . It takes your mind off things. . .

So I was stressed, y’know, needed to get outta the house, pound the pavement a little, take my mind off things. I decided upon one of my favourite routes, in a city like this you’ve pretty much gotta resign yourself to the urban scenery, but there’s a nice little park not too far from where I live, you know the one, I’m sure we’ve been there once or twice.

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Ordinarily I’d avoid the park after sundown, just common sense really, but I needed a little greenery to improve my mood. I decided that I’d do a circuit around the outside of the park, close enough to be scenic without being too reckless.

It was about 10:15, so while the streets weren’t exactly deserted you could go quite some time without passing another pedestrian or even seeing a car on the road. I was glad for that though, usually my mind can only wander freely if I’m completely in a world of my own and solitude always helps.

I was glad at first anyway. . . As I saw the dark outlines of the trees that lined the park come in to view I became dimly aware a of weird, creeping sense of unease. I was unable to drown out this irrational feeling with music, even, because it was around this point my Ipod began to malfunction. As I got nearer to the park the reassuring sounds of the White Stripe’s Seven Nation Army (a classic motivation song, if a little overplayed) were steadily overtaken by a weird sort of static, unlike anything I’d heard before, it almost sounded like a quiet but persistent cacophony of voices speaking or laughing but mingled together so as to create a single unintelligible sound.

I made a note that I had one more thing to deal with tomorrow. Creepy as the sound had been a broken Ipod made me all the more determined to calm my frustrations with a nice long run. Still, I was starting to wish that there had been a few more people around or that it was a little lighter out. It would have been better, even, if the moon weren’t hidden behind a dark, foreboding cloak of cloud.

But I pushed on, what’s the worst that could happen, right?

Well I’ll tell you.

As I began my circuit around the outside of the parks 3 foot metal fence, the large, central field came into view through a break in the tree line. In the day the field would be occupied predominantly by people playing sports, football, Frisbee, running like myself or whatever. Obviously, that was not the case at night, but neither was the field empty.

A muffled cry drew my attention to the figure, no. . . two figures near the center of the field. One is holding the other as though in an embrace, in fact seemed at first that they were kissing, or possibly that the larger one was. . . Nuzzling the smaller’s neck. . . Seemed an odd time and place for romance but I kept on running, it was no business of mine. On the field the larger figure suddenly jerked its head up away from the. . . Kiss? I was becoming less sure. It released the second figure who seemed to be falling to the ground. . . But the view was obscured by trees as I ran.

At this time I felt no need to stop and watch, the scene had increased my sense of unease but, I was still able to convince myself it was just a couple weirdos macking in the park. As the tree’s thinned out however my illusions were swiftly shattered.

The second figure was indeed lying on the ground now and the second was crouched over it. This stopped me in my tracks, though it was difficult to see in the dark and I still wasn’t totally convinced that I wasn’t accidentally peeping on someone’s weird outdoor sexcapade.

But then that moon that I had been wishing for earlier came out.

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Suddenly the scene, bathed in the stark white light of the almost full moon, was given a disturbing clarity. While the distance still made details a little difficult to make out, I could see clearly enough that the victim’s (That much was now obvious) body and limbs were jerking about violently as the hulking form crouched over it, ripping, tearing. . .

Feeding!

The moonlight must have illuminated me too because the . . . Thing in the field stopped suddenly and looked directly at me! I wasted only a second of standing there, panic struck, but that second will haunt me as long as I live, the two eyes, which I couldn’t possibly have seen from where I was even if they were glowing, (which seems impossible) burned into me. I could feel it looking at me.

No it wasn’t just that.

I could feel it smiling at me.

With huge, jagged, uneven teeth crammed haphazardly into a maw still bloody and red from its latest meal, it smiled. I knew that much. I didn’t see it, I sure as fuck didn’t imagine it, I just knew.

Then I ran. The road I had been on ran parallel to the park and there were few turnings along its length so I knew I had a long way to go before I’d actually be putting distance between myself and the Thing. I chanced a couple of glances at the field as I raced down the middle of the deserted road, moving faster than I’d ever thought possible, even as an experienced runner. There was the victim, left sprawled carelessly on the grass. No sign of the thing.

I looked back to where I was headed and there the fucker was! Perched languidly, mockingly on a streetlight right in my way. How was it so fast!? This was my first good look at the thing, blood was still dripping from the wicked claws at the end of arms that hung, disproportionately long, past the light on which it squatted. The mouth, still grinning, was exactly how I’d seen it in my mind and yet, somehow even worse, it covered a large amount of the creatures face, more that seemed biologically possible. The eyes glowed with a faint, red intensity. Overall the thing put me in mind of some kind of giant, emaciated monkey or deformed, hairy man.

I was trapped, there was just no way to outrun this thing. I wasn’t even sure I could start running, up close the Thing’s gaze was hypnotic. My limbs felt heavy. My eyes began to burn. I just wanted it to be over. Slowly a loud rushing sound filled my ears.

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Suddenly the Thing hopped nimbly from the light and into a nearby tree, disappearing from sight. It was gone but I felt heady, it was as though I had been marked in some unknowable way, my eyes still burned, the area around me seemed to grow lighter as though illuminated by a pale light, the rushing sound only grew louder.

Then it hit me.

The car I mean.

Don’t worry, no major damage, apparently the driver had seen me in time to slam on the breaks so just bruising mostly. When I awoke in a hospital bed the doctors told me I was a lucky man but I’ll admit I didn’t feel so lucky when I saw that flash of red eyes and yellowed teeth through my 3rd floor hospital window.

Anyway I wrote you this letter to explain why I wasn’t at the hospital when you came in to see me, and why you haven’t seen me at all since.

And, well. . .

I’ve been doing a lot of running lately.

Pray for me
Love, John.

Credit To – T.R. Swain

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25 thoughts on “Running”

  1. Nicola Marie Jackson

    It’s nice when someone can write something that’s a bit predictable but do it so well that you care that you know what’s going on. Vampires, decent and twinkly have been done to undeath but still enjoyed it xx

  2. CreepypastaReviewer/Survivalist

    Bad news. I can’t fucking write a survival story about this. Two reasons. 1, the guy survives. If you pay attention to my comments, the origonal story has the protaganist die. And 2, I have no fucking idea what this thing is. First it sounded like a vampire, then a zombie, and the final description left me thinking “What the fuck is it?”. But…………….6/10. A wee bit confusing.

    1. So you want the creature to be cliche, do you? Some guy wants to come up with something new, and you can’t go without bottlenecking the guy.

  3. You see kids, this is why you don’t go to parks at night, or anywhere. X) At least if I go out at night I am prepared. Better save than sorry.

    Also, I liked this story, it was intriguing.

    I’ll add to my favourites. :)

    Sincerely,
    Grim Gamer

  4. I found this story interesting, but because it was in a letter format, I feel when he wrote, “A muffled cry drew my attention to the figure, no. . . two figures near the center of the field”, It doesn’t fit the idea of a letter, because he would be saying what he saw, instead of saying one, then realising the were two, if you get what I mean?
    Other than that I loved it and thought it was a good story.

  5. Maybe I’m missing something, but I didn’t like this story at all. The creature was so stereotypical, the story telling was awful, and it didn’t scare me at all. Did the guy that was running turn into one of those creatures after he got taken to the hospital? And he wrote that letter to warn her? Or if he didn’t turn into a blood thirsty freak, why did he write the letter to her at all? And why wasn’t he at the hospital and why did he tell her he was still running? Like I said I found the story telling to be weak, and I felt the over all plot was ridiculous, I just didn’t get this story at all. 4/10

  6. Loved it. Loved the writing, the premise, the imagery. It was so good. The only comments I have are of creative criticism, and are only if desired. Definitely not needed.

    Obviously the author is running from this thing, right? But the way the letter starts is so casual. This is purposeful, sure, to set up the tone, but makes very little narrative sense by the end of the story. He’s relaying a message of warning, possibly a cry for help, yet he heartily recommends that she, too, go running?
    I wouldn’t recommend changing the writing, though. I’d either want to see some kind of mental instability, something that shows full intelligence but a dis-awareness or disengagement from the gravity of the narrative. Like the housewife who jokingly says she stabbed her first husband to death while telling stories at the knitting circle while sipping earl grey.
    It just needs something, some reason why he would start off such a dire letter so casually. To do so in the spirit of the story seems hard, but judging by the strength of your writing I have no doubt it can be done.

    Again, loved it. A conversational tone, engaging idea, and smart writing is a recipe for deliciousness.
    “Then it hit me./The car I mean.” Awesome.

    1. It’s indeed a weird start for a letter that then is revealed to be about a man-eating smiling monster, and from his tone, the narrator doesn’t seem too scared either. But I agree it’s a nice story, just more entertaining than creepy.

    1. eatthechildrenfirst

      did you even read the damn story ?..do vampires have jagged ,uneven teeth , inhumanly large mouths or deformed faces and limbs ?

      1. Yes, they do. While vampires are shown quite immaculate in popular culture, the original vampires, the one discussed in some of the oldest legends, were very beastly.

  7. I really enjoyed this :) while the creature seemed a bit cliche I feel that the story was compelling and well written.

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