In honor of Halloween I thought I’d share a scary incident from when I was in college. This experience really freaked me out and to this day I’m not totally sure what really happened.
I was probably around 20 years old and commuting from home to college. My car at the time had a busted flywheel. If you know anything about flywheels you know that each time I tried to start my car it would make this horrific, loud grinding noise that could be heard down half a block. Sometimes it would take 10-20 attempts to get my car started. It embarrassed me every time but I didn’t have the money to get it replaced so I just lived with it.
So one day I was heading out to school. I left my house and got into my car, dreading whether this would be one of the occasions where my flywheel wasn’t being cooperative. But before I even turned my car on I turned my head and saw a strange man walking up to the corner (we lived on a corner). Sick feelings of dread washed over me when I saw him. He was dressed oddly for the weather. It was hot but he was wearing a thick pair of pants, sweater, and a thick jacket over that. His hair was dark and totally wild. And he looked like he was in a state of decay. That’s how I would describe him. His skin was sallow, wrinkly, leathery, and yellowish.
He lumbered up to the corner, his gait zombie-like, staring straight ahead without moving his head. He creeped me out. I went to start my car. Grind. Damn. He heard the noise and turned towards me. We made eye contact and he smiled at me in a sick, leering way. I could almost hear him thinking, “Ah, fresh meat.” But what really scared me was that he started walking towards me in this unusually slow, methodical way. I quickly tried to start my car again, feeling very trapped and helpless. Grind! No! Stupid car!
He continued walking towards me, his smile getting wider. I just knew that I did not want this man getting any closer. I felt like he was going to try to do something very bad to me.
I tried my car again. Grind! Come on, Universe! Give me a break!
He kept coming towards me. Now I felt like one of those teenage girls in a horror movie. I wasn’t sure if I should get out of my car and run back into my house. I locked the doors. He kept coming. He was only 5 steps away from my car now.
I looked down at my keys and said a quick and silent prayer to whatever angels were listening to please get my car started. I tried one more time and the car started! Victory! I looked up to see where he was and he was gone. Just vanished. That freaked me out more than anything. He was just steps from my car and then all of a sudden he was gone. The area where I lived was wide open. I had to know where he’d gone so I left my car running (I’m no dummy) and got out of the car to find him (okay maybe I am a dummy). 😉
I ran to the crossroads and looked up and down every street and he was nowhere. There’s no way he could have gotten far and there’s no way I couldn’t have seen him wherever he went. He just vanished. I got back in my car and drove around the area a little but never saw him again.
Who or what was he? At first I just thought he might have been a homeless man wandering the neighborhood. Maybe a sick perverted bastard or something, because that leering smile he had plastered on his face left no doubt in my mind that he was going to eat me or worse when he got to my car. But when he vanished in just the 2 seconds I looked down at my keys I started thinking that maybe he was something else. Demon? Undead zombie thing? I really don’t know.
But you better believe I got my flywheel fixed a few days later!
Happy Halloween!
