One Friday after school, I took the bus with a friend of mine, a bus that always visits her stop, never has the driver missed it. Well, my friends name is Mandy, and we had told my parents I would be spending the night, only because it was her birthday and she was having a sleep over.

   Mandy's parents were out of town and we were going to throw a big party for some of the kids at school.

   When we got off the bus near Mandy's house,  I noticed an old man in a dark suit standing across the street. He was watching us and He looked out of place. He just stood there looking at us. I felt a shiver move up my spine as I stared back.

    The old guy looked as if he was waiting for someone. Even Mandy mentioned how odd he looked and told me, "Lets go, that guy is giving me the creeps!"

   We started down the street to Mandy's house, but when I glanced back over my shoulder the old man was gone. It was like he just vanished!

    Walking backwards I looked up and down the street but I couldn't see him,  anywhere,  and I couldn't see any place that he might have gone.

"Don't look at him Evie," Mandy whispered to me, "He's creepy."

"He is gone." I told her.

    When we got to Mandy's house we started getting ready for the party. Mandy was in the basement to get some cases of soda that were stashed down there, and I,  myself,  was setting up her stereo in the living room, when I happened to look out window.

    Standing across the street looking back at me was the old man from earlier. He was still wearing that old suit and he was just standing there staring.

    I was so startled I gave out a small scream. Mandy heard me from down in the basement. I could hear her running up the stairs calling out to me, "Okay Evie you klutz, what did you do now? Did you spill something on the carpet?" I heard her yelling to me as she climbed the stairs.

   Mandy came into the room carrying two cases of soda. I must have been ghost white, because she set down the soda and came to me immediately. "Oh my God Evie!" she said, "What's wrong?"

   All I could do was point out the window. Mandy looked and said "What is it? I don't see anything." I looked too and she was right, the old man was gone!

  The party didn't go as well as we had hoped. It's hard for kids to get away from home on a Friday night, even without parents asking all kinds of questions. Thankfully no one ratted us out and the few that did show up were pretty mellow.

  Around about 8:00 the phone rang. It was Mandy's parents. They had come home early and were at the airport and on their way home!

   Well, I can tell you that you have never in your life seen a party break up so fast! Thankfully there wasn't much of a mess, and we had it cleaned up in about 20 minutes, which left only one more thing to take care. What to do about me?

   Mandy had not asked her parents if I could stay over that night, and her parents had a strict rule about her having friends over when they were not home.

    Well, I grabbed my backpack out of Mandy's room,  and I hit the street to begin the long walk home.

    It was already dark and the street lights were on. I hadn't thought about that old man all evening but now that I was on the street alone,  I remembered him with a shudder.

I walked and walked, watching over my shoulder, and expecting him to turn up at any second. I was alone and also scared. It was dark,  and the streets and the city seemed unnaturally quiet.

   Soon I passed the last street light and started down the highway towards home. I live out in the sticks and there aren't many houses or anything around us. The highway is hardly used now that they installed a freeway ramp for my hometown. There was no traffic on the road that night. No lights from friendly houses along the way. Just me, the highway and the dark woods on either side as I made my way towards home.

   When you live in the country you learn that certain things happening are bad news. If you are out at night and suddenly the crickets and frogs and every other small animal in the woods go totally silent, it is not good news for you. It's really not good news if you are all alone.

   I was half way home when the forest went dead silent. I stopped in my tracks. Slowly I backed off the highway and edged into the shadows and the ditch that ran along side the road. I listened. There was no sound. No insect sounds, no rustles in the leaves from any small animals, no tree frogs singing for their love, nothing.

  I don't know how long I stood there, waiting in the dark for the sounds to come back before finally I gave up and started walking again.

   All I could hear for the next few minutes was the sound of my tennis shoes slapping the hard top as I trudged on. Then, in the distance behind me I heard a car. Looking back I could see the faint glow of head lights approaching from behind me.

   I was still pretty freaked out and scared so I welcomed the knowing that there would be, for at least a few seconds, some light for me to check on my surroundings and progress towards home.

As the lights grew closer and the sound of the engine increased in volume, the shadows started to stretch out in front of me and the car finally turned that last corner. The lights lit up the highway in front of me and for a few moments at least I could see almost as well as I could in the day.

   I heard the car slowing when the driver saw me. I admit it must have seemed strange to them to see a young girl walking along that highway alone so late at night.

   The car moved past and continued on a short distance before pulling over to the side of the rode in front of me. I didn't recognize the car. It was a red sporty looking thing, low slung and sexy styling with wide tires and a nice sound to the engine. The inside light came on and I could see the driver turning his head to look back at me.

   He was cute! He didn't look old. He was kind of young, in his mid 20's maybe. He was well dressed and his hair was neatly trimmed. He leaned back over his seat and motioned for me to come on. Riding beats walking any day, right?

   Walking as fast as I could I was closing on the car when off to my right, across the ditch and in the shadows I saw him standing there. It was that same old man from earlier in the day. I was so frightened I froze in place.

   I could feel my heart pounding in my ears and I had to struggle to breathe my chest was so tight. I felt chilled from my toes to the tips of my hair.

   The old man didn't move, he just stared at me. I got ready to make a break for that car. My muscles tensed for the dash to safety and I was a split second from bolting when the old man spoke. "Don't get in that car" he rasped.

   His voice, oh my God! I will never forget the sound of that voice! It was as if he hadn't spoken in years it was so deep and rough sounding, and it was a voice of command. It froze me in place and I couldn't make a move. I could not force my self to move so much as a single muscle.

  After a second or two I looked to the car once more and there was that guy motioning for me to come on. Safety in a red car, waving for me. I couldn't move. I had to move, I had to run for it, but I was so scared I was like a surprised deer in the forest. I was frozen in place.

   The light in the car went out in the car. It pulled back out onto the highway and roared off into the distance, tuned exhaust echoing off the forest and the highway as it sped away.

   I was afraid to look. I was afraid not to look. There was no sound other than my heart beating in my ears and the sound of air rasping in and out my throat. Finally I had to know. I looked back to the side of the road, certain that I had finally met my doom and resigning myself to meeting my end.

   Would he kill me here or drag me off into the woods before he finished me? Would he molest and rape me before he put me out of my misery? Oh my God, I was going to die and I knew it.

  My life was flashing before my eyes as I turned my head to look once more at my tormentor, but when I finally did look, he was gone. I stood there, dumb struck and staring into the forest trying to detect some movement in the shadows there, but nothing. I stood there not moving.

   The sound of the crickets and other small insects came back first, then the singing frogs and finally the hoot of an owl and a few sleepy bird twitters. It was another minute or two before I start home again.

   I hurried down the highway towards home as fast as I could go with my heart still pounding in my chest. I couldn't run because of my legs still shaking.

    When I finally got home the house was dark. Everyone was in bed and it was simple to sneak in the sliding door from the patio and up the stairs to the safety of my room.

   I drew the curtains tight across my window and changed into my night gown. I turned out the light and before going to bed, I parted the curtains slightly and peered out into the yard.

   Nothing and no one there. I half expected to see the old man standing in the yard staring back at me but of him there was no sign.

    I went to be still badly frightened, wondering if I would be able to sleep at all that night. It seems like I had just closed my eyes when I heard my mother calling me from the kitchen for breakfast.

   The sun was shining and everything was so normal. I finally started to relax. I got dressed and went downstairs to eat.

My parents were at the table, I could smell the fresh coffee and the scent of bacon made my stomach growl. I was hungry.

   As we sat and ate my Father told me that we were going to my Grandmothers that day. Grandma was sick and my Dad and Mom wanted to check on her to make sure she was okay.

   I sat there enjoying the sense of safety and having family I loved surrounding me, and I promised to myself that never in my life would I ever be as stupid as I had been yesterday.

"When did you get home?" my mom asked me.

   I thought quickly and did the best I could with making up an explanation. "Mandy's parents brought me home early this morning." I told them. "They had a lot of stuff to do today and they wanted to make sure I got home safe before they left to do them." It wasn't much to tell them but it was all I could think of so quickly.

   Later that day at my Grandma's house, I was sitting in her living room watching the television while my Mom and Dad went back to her bedroom to check and see how Grandma was feeling.

   I had turned on the TV but my mind was on other things. I was thinking over all the things that had happened the day and the night before and not really paying attention to what was playing on the screen. Suddenly the images on the television grabbed my attention.

   There on the local news channel was a picture of the police surrounding a car and a young man laying on the ground handcuffed. I recognized the car and the young man. They were the car I had seen and almost hitched a ride with the night before.

   I felt my heart speed up and I turned up the volume so I could better hear what they were saying.

  The man had been caught after raping a young girl and strangling her to death. She hadn't been the first. As they flashed photos of the victims across the screen I realized that all of them like me, had blond hair, blue eyes and hair styles similar to mine.

  My heart fell into my stomach. I had come so close to being the girl that had been killed! I wanted to shout out and tell my parents to come see but of course I couldn't tell them what had happened. Not after the lies I had told an not without getting into a lot of trouble, and with what was on the news and my story of the close call I didn't dare let them know what had happened.

  "Eve come here!" my mom called from my Grandma's bedroom. "Your Grandmother wants to see you before we leave."

  Still shaking I walked back to say hello to my grandmother. I walked into the room and there she was laying in bed. She didn't look as sick as I thought she would and that made me feel a lot better.

  Then I saw on the table next to her bedside an old photograph of a man. The same man I had seen the day before. The staring old man. He was wearing the same suit and was staring back at me just as he had the first time I saw him when I got off the bus with Mandy. I thought my heart was going to stop.

  As calmly as I could I asked my Grandmother who was the man in the photograph.

"That was your great grandfather dear. He was my father. He died day you born."

(THE) END