The Figure

The Figure

This is the story of how, one winter, I almost died, along with my best friend and my cousin. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but you know what I mean. It all started one December when we decided to take a road trip from Michigan to Massachusetts, to see some of our friends. I was in the house, texting my friend Hazel about the plans. 10 seconds later, she was at the door. “Hi!” I said excitedly, as I opened the door.

“Hi, got everything?” She responded.

“Yep, Bea’s upstairs, watching TikTok, for a change” I said sarcastically. Bea’s always on her phone. Anyway, Hazel’s a little less than a year older than me. She has red hair, freckles, and hazel eyes. She’s a little taller than me. Bea is one of the tallest people I know, and has straight brown hair. I myself, am about as tall as a seven year old, and I have wavy brown hair.

“BEA” I yelled up the stairs.

“Coming!” She shouted, walking down the stairs like a sloth. “Hurry up, we gotta go!” She said.

“No offense, but you're not hurrying,” Hazel pointed out.

“Sorry, but can we go now?” Bea asked.

“Let's go!” I shouted.

We were driving along the road to the highway when Bea suddenly stopped. I had been looking at the map, and Hazel had been telling me to draw lines to plot the route.

“What’s happening?” I asked, confused. We heard police sirens. I looked out the window and saw a black Subaru crashing into a wall. The police cars were coming faster than cheetahs, swerving in between cars.

“What the heck is wrong with that car?!” Bea exclaimed angrily.

“Maybe a drunk driver?” Hazel suggested.

“Probably,” I said, but I couldn’t help feeling a little shiver.

Hours later, we reached Pennsylvania, and Bea pulled into a rest stop.

“Good thing, too,” I muttered. I really had to go to the bathroom. When I got into the women’s bathroom, nobody was in there, but when I was in the stall, I heard a strange, light knocking.

We got McDonalds, and gas. On our way out, we saw a black Subaru with a crippled bumper zoom past us and onto the highway we were going towards. “Is it just me, or is that the same car we saw crash into a wall earlier today?” Hazel said uneasily.

“Probably not. It’s impossible,” Said Bea. “And besides, It’s dark out. How could you be sure?” But she sounded like a mouse that just saw a cat, and sped up onto the highway. I looked at Hazel. She shook her head, It was definitely NOT a coincidence.

We stopped for the night at a hotel. After we checked in, we went right to bed. Well, Bea did, in her room. Hazel and I were sharing a room, and we sat up talking about the day’s creepy events. Suddenly we heard a weird noise outside, like a woodpecker tapping on glass. I jumped up and ran to the window. Hazel followed me. We saw the same car park in the lot. A strange looking humanoid figure got out. “Can you tell who it is?” I asked Hazel.

“No, it’s too dark,” Hazel said. Suddenly, we heard light footsteps in the hallway. I ran to the door and looked through the peephole.

“Nothing there,” I said. but I locked the door and we went to bed.

When I woke up, Bea was shaking me like an earthquake. “We have to go!” She said, sounding terrified. I checked my clock. It was 7:30 AM.

“Chill, Bea, it’s not that early,” I yawned.

“Not that, just-COME ON!” She said, and rusheds us into the car

. “So what was that?!” Hazel asked grumpily once we got onto the highway.

“Well,” Said Bea, “I woke up really early and I didn’t know why, because I hadn’t set an alarm. But then I heard a weird, soft, knocking on my door. I thought it was a person so I opened the door. But standing there, was this-this- thing. It was like a human but it was too tall and it looked like a shadow. I called for someone, but it sort of sank through the floor, only leaving a pile of black dust. Which was weird because it would land on the floor below, right? But then I saw it in the parking lot, and then it just vanished, this hotel is haunted, seriously!”

“Are you sure you werent dreaming?” asked Hazel.

“YES!” Said Bea, now really annoyed at us.

We had driven quite a way from the “haunted” hotel when I noticed that a familiar Subaru was following us again. I nudged Hazel and pointed to the car. She looked scared. Bea was happy as a clam now. “How about some mu-” She broke off as the car gave a sort of whinemoan. “Oh noooo, it broke down,” She moaned. She got out to fix it, but then A GIANT SHADOWY HAND broke the back window and grabbed at my hair. I dodged and Hazel and I got out of the car fast.I looked back for a split second and saw: the figure was tall, too tall to be a human, about ten or eleven feet. It was jet black and had one, large, milky eye. But then, I was running as fast as I could into the woods, away from the Figure which chased us. We ran and ran and ran, getting muddy, jumping over logs, and dodging small trees that kept falling- the figure must have made them fall somehow. The wind picked up and began to howl. Rain poured. Lightning flashed. The sky got dark. We ran until we came all the way back to the car, we must have run a loop. A bolt of lighting suddenly struck the figure, as if it was a lighting rod. It gave a terrible screech and vanished, leaving only a small mound of black dust. Panting, Bea called a tow truck.

The man driving the tow truck eyed us, confused. “You know, you couldve stayed in the car,” He said, indicating our soaking wet, muddy clothes. Hazel pretended nothing had happened, and said, “Oh, yeah,” As if we hadn’t just been chased by a monster, been scared to death, and just randomly got out of the car in the rain. He drove us to a repair place, and we thanked him and paid, and then drove off once the car was fixed. We finally reached Massachusetts, and met our friends. Since it was late, we went to bed, excited for the next day.

EPILOUGE……?

We’re having a lot of fun here, and we will head home tomorrow. I’m sort of nervous, after everything that has happened. But Bea says the lightning probably killed it… but I’m not sure. “Do you think something will happen?” I ask Hazel.

“I don’t know, I’m kind of nervous,”

Sirens wailed. Lights flashed. Policeman ran to the building, shouthing, “Quick! Get out! Everyone out!” A car, just distinguishable as a black Subaru had crashed into the building. People ran outside, screaming. Five people, you would recognize: Elsa, Hazel, Bea, and their two friends. They were all right, so policemen rushed over to the car to rescue the person inside, but when the fire was gone, there was nothing but a pile of black dust. The police slowly turned around and saw a giant black figure coming towards them. It was covered in the black dust. They screamed, but the whole city seemed to go black as midnight.

TO BE CONTINUED……..