Dangerous Night

• Michelle Nieass, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2011

Sometimes at night a street seems much longer, and things not noticed during the day are much more apparent.
The heat of the day had passed. The air was cooling, the streets were becoming empty. The shops had closed an hour ago and it was time to head home. The sun was setting behind me casting my shadow two metres long in front. In the distance something glistened. I ran to it hoping to find money to pay for a warm, safe bed for the night. Instead I found a puddle. I ignored it and walked on. The sun had gone behind the buildings and the street was now deserted. Everyone but me had gone inside, to safety, away from the dangers of the night.
Darkness had taken over, the only light was that emitted from house windows and the dull street lights which had started to flicker on. I walked on down the street jumping at every little noise I heard, even my own footsteps crunching on the loose gravel. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Those were not my footsteps. I picked up my pace and so did my pursuer. I turned down the nearest alleyway and thankfully my pursuer did not. Halfway down the alleyway I turned around and saw the shadow of my pursuer go past the alleyway entrance. There was one lonely light in this alleyway and it cast a dull light just bright enough to light up a metre circle around the light. CRASH! BANG! BOOM! Something had been knocked down at the far end of the alley. The sound echoed throughout the alleyway. It was as loud as a jet plane taking off. I jumped out of my skin. When I had calmed my nerves I strained my eyes to see what had caused the noises but didn’t see anything.
Footsteps came towards me. I turned around and ran. Every little noise which would normally go unnoticed I heard and each one freaked me out. The alleyway seemed never ending. To add to all this horror it started to rain.
Running away from my safe, warm dry house was my worst idea yet.