Have you ever been walking alone, or high AF, and from the side of your eye you think you saw something and when you turn to look nothing is there...yet the hair in your arms and neck is standing up? sweating a bit? congratulations you had an encounter with something.
These encounters is what I like to call brushes from the wild side. They are generally benign and lead to nothing other than you being scared, very rarely do they lead to anything more. Mind you very rarely. Most of the time its just a passing creature or spirit who brushed against you my accident or wanted a quick top up of energy and drained you for a split second. The problem comes when these creatures like what they tasted or you called them inadvertently or on purpose.
All my life I have seen these shadows just outside of my sight but never thought much about them and dismissed them as an overactive imagination. I have always been attracted to what comes next and am a fool for a good tale of good vs evil. As things go, things always change when you least expect them.
It was with this mentality that I found myself staring at what can only be described as a walking nightmare, its black dead eyes staring straight to my soul as its mouth opened impossibly big as it held me down with its foul hand and its black disgusting hair gently caressed me as a predator caresses its prey.
I digress, let me tell you first how it all started first.
In the eve of 1998, as young man, in a youth group I was told- "open your bible and you will hear the voice of the Lord" and by God I believed it. Thus started a long learning path that was very eclectic. You see my mentors where of the mind that you need to question everything and questioned I did and do. From spiritual leaders I learned about powers, angels, devils, and where they fit in the world. From my culture and local "shamans" I learned about local creatures and how they came to be and how they too fit in our cities and land.
(Maybe you don't believe in any churches' mumbo jumbo, good for you! go out there and question it!!! Just remember that if you stare into the abyss it will stare right back and if done half-assed without some sort of filter, like a particular dogma/religion, it can be deadly. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!! )
Where was I?, Yes:
Everything started with a prophesy I was given many years ago while in one of the many charismatic events I attended, I loved using my super power of meditation in front of the sanctuary and always awoke refreshed many hours later. While attending one of these events, I was debating at the time my path, and I was told the next time you raise your hand and say "rise up you are healed" it shall be so. As any normal young man I was scared shi-tless of course. Damn prophets opening their mouth when you least want them to, just when I thought I had everything figured out... to my chagrin and confusion I was always too chicken and lacked faith to ever say those words. In time, this "prophesy" went to sit right next to all the many other books of stuff I have ever read in the past and promptly semi forgotten.
It was the eve of the end millennium, when the world was supposed to end, that I found myself leaving church after midnight, yeah I know I was such a party animal, and felt it would be cool to go look at the ocean of all places. Let me tell you, going to the water at any time of the night is iffy at best but this was definitely not my best idea. Growing up in good old Daly City, a small town that borders San Francisco, there was fog ever present at almost anytime of the day before good all global warming took it all away. Driving down Westlake street towards Merced lake was quiet as usual, not many cars and after a quick stop for a burger I was on my way to see what was calling me. By this time is was probably around 2 or so in the morning, when out of the corner of my eyes as I was passing lake Merced I saw a white figure jump into the water from one of its cement bridges. As any normal person would do I immediately stopped and got out to help.
As I ran up the dusty trail leading from the road to the bridge, the cold wind bit at my innards and my breath quickly fogged by glasses and my surroundings. I quickly crossed the bridge, I took out the big Maglite flashlight I carried with me, I saw nothing in the water but it was then thick fog that would shame London fog descended. It was then I noticed both my arm and back hair were standing up as if frozen while my back was drenched in sweat. As I looked back and forth through the fog, I knew something was wrong and felt something grab my leg and pulled. I face planted hard and blacked out for a few seconds and lost my breath for few more. As I started to crawl toward the car I heard a deep mocking growl coming from the water. What I thought was a person jumping in was but a limp tuber connected to gigantic fish head, in all honestly it looked like bad impression of an angler fish complete with rotten smell and everything. At this point I figured I was either doomed to be eaten or it would drag me to the bottom of the lake and see me drown as it laughed, I was betting with my luck it would be number 2. It was then pragmatically speaking I chose the only sane thing to do, I chose to fight. Ever since I was little I was told the bible was not a weapon but no one said anything about the cross hanging on my neck. Thus, I quickly wrapped my cross to my right hand and charged at the creature. As I got closer and closer time seemed to stop, the creature opened its nasty maw all the way as if to swallow me hole and at that moment I looked at its feet and I saw they were TINY!!! and off center, this is when I remember something and acted, instead of punching the creature on its giant face I fainted and instead punched at its disgusting black abdomen. It was then the creature took a step back but it was too late, i saw my hand go through its abdomen and I hit something soft and crunchy.