text: We ran screaming for the car. Jesse fell twice on the way. The first time I helped him up as he looked behind us. The second time I could hear the thuds. The water held in the pot holes were vibrating with each thud. Either he would make it to the car, or he wouldn’t. I heard him scrambling and scraping on the wet asphalt trying to get traction in his Vans. Great shoes for boarding, terrible shoes for running away. “Shit, shit, shit,” I heard Jesse repeat over and over again as he loped for the car in flinging array of arms, legs, and stringy wet hair. I ran around the hood sliding in the rain and grasped the driver’s side door handle on my way down. Thumb pressed on the button; the door swung open as I went sprawling. I heard a thump as something hit the passenger door followed by rapid pounding. “Hurry man, you gotta unlock the door! It’s right behind me!” I climbed out of the puddle, using the door as support, unlocking the doors as I slid behind the wheel. Jesse quickly got in slamming the door and repeatedly hitting the lock button. I didn’t think locked doors would help us, but you have to give an A for effort. I smashed the ignition button and the Mustang roared to life. We hydroplaned sideways as I gunned the gas. Jesse was yelling, “Terry we have to go! It’s gaining!” I gritted my teeth and hung on to the wheel for all I was worth, spinning the wheel madly to keep us out of a one-eighth where we would face whatever was chasing us. The Mustang peeled and fishtailed leaving us both screaming, but forward momentum was finally achieved. I never saw what was chasing us. As we pulled out of the empty warehouse parking lot a distraught screech could be heard. We sped down the street once the Mustang achieved purchase, and my white-knuckle grip on the wheel did not let up. I glanced back in the rearview mirror; I could still feel the thudding footsteps in my bones. I didn’t see anything, just rain glistening in street lights. Nothing was there at all. Jesse turned around in his seat looking out the rear window, “Shit. We could have died Terry. Who would have thought the stories were true? Do you think it will follow us?” I glanced over at Terry, “How the hell should I know? I’m not a monster expert. I didn’t even believe the stories. You were the one who thought they might be true!” Jesse slid back in his seat as I turned a corner on three wheels. “It didn’t seem to be following us... Or at least I didn’t see it leave the parking lot. I think you can slow down now Terry and put your seat belt on if you’re going to drive like Steve McQueen.” I did another quick glance, “Thanks for the advice mom,” and rolled my eyes. We just escaped with our lives, but from what? I let off the gas after we were about a mile or so away and latched my belt, “Better?” Jesse was wringing out his hair in my floor board, “Yeah man. We don’t want to get pulled over by the cops after all that. I don’t think I could do another adrenaline dump tonight.” We were both doing that nervous chuckling you do when you recover from a trip before you smack the pavement. Like, “Heh, heh, that was close.” I drove to a park not too far from the neighborhood where Jesse and I grew up together. I needed to make sense of what had just happened and get a grip on myself before heading home. I parked the car facing the water feature in the pond. The water feature was redundant with the rain still coming down. It didn’t matter any ways; the park was a dark Monte painting behind my windshield in the rain. I looked around the park before everything was smudged out of view to verify, we were alone. No lovers parking, no kids smoking joints outsight from mom and dad, not even a bird to be seen in the parking lot. Just my Mustang, just Jesse and me sitting in the pouring raining attempting to calm down after what we hadn’t really seen. Jesse blew out a sigh, unbuckled his seat belt, and folded forward in the passenger seat hugging his knees. I stared at him as I tried to get a grip on my own scared addled mind and process what had just happened. He turned his head to look at me through the curtains of his dark hair, “That was for real right?” I still had a firm grasp on the wheel, “Yeah. At least I know a heard something, and I know I felt something, but I didn’t see anything. Did you?” He sat back in his seat pulling his hair behind him, “I saw something. It was dark and huge, but through the rain that’s all I could see.” There was silence for a few moments, nothing but the patter of the rain on the roof of my car. I looked out into the shadows of the park. I could have sworn I saw something move in the dark gloom, but after a few more moments of nothing I decided it was my imagination. Terry interrupted my paranoid scanning of the park, “Should we tell someone? Like the police or something?” “Yeah, and what do we tell them Jesse? My friend and I were trespassing in the old, abandoned warehouse on 36th and this monster chased us out of there. No, I’m sorry officer we did not see what kind of monster it was. We only know it had to be big.” I rolled my eyes, “They’ll think we’re crazy or playing a prank. Either way, we will be the ones in trouble.” Jesse looked at me in disbelief, “But don’t you think people need to know? What if someone else goes out there and gets killed? How would you feel about that?” I turned in my seat to glare at him, “I tell you what Jesse, tell your parents and let me know how that goes. Ten bucks says they will say something about you being high and not go out there again.” Jesse glared back at me for a few moments before slamming back in his seat and saying, “I guess you’re right.” I shook my head in frustration, “Might as well go home now.” “Yeah,” Jesse said sullenly. I hit the ignition button, and the lights came on. Somehow the monster had found us. It started running towards my car. The quick thuds shaking the car and rattling my brain. I could not believe what I was saw. I reached for the gear shift, but the mechanics of how to shift left my mind in the moment of pure terror. The last thing I heard as the creature grabbed the roof of my car was Jesse saying, “What the...!”