Saturday, January 24, 2009

A passing stranger

The night is as still as the grave. Everything around glistens white with the harsh winter frost.


My white breath drifts skyward as a shimmering moon shoots shafts of silver light twixt the frozen trees and across a blanket of pure white snow.

So bright is the light that long black shadows stretch out from the hedgerows and wooden poles that line the narrow lane. My own walks alongside me.


I see the vague figure of a man coming towards me. He wears a hooded cloak and although he becomes clearer in the moonlight as he approaches, I am unable to make out his face. Just a hollow void.


As we pass I nod my head in greeting, but it’s as if he doesn’t see me. I look over my shoulder and notice he has no shadow, and leaves no footprints in the virgin snow.


Suddenly I am blasted with a rush of freezing wind that stings my face – then it is stops as suddenly as it started.


When I open my eyes he is gone.

20 comments:

  1. sounds like someone i "know" encountered a vampire.... always wanted to meet one... poor dears... living forever has got to be the dullest of proposals.....

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  2. Not an experience I would like to 'enjoy' myself!

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  3. oooh so eerie Keith! that reminds me of how I felt the time i passed a hearse and the driver tipped his HAT at ME! i thought I was at deaths F*&&^ door! haha

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  4. Eeek that sounds scary Did he wear a kind of sickle with him?
    I loved the line about your white breath

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  5. This definitely scared me! Well done.

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  6. Hauntingly beautiful into abject terror. Nicely done!

    PS. Love the picture!

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  7. Keith- this is wonderful!

    Your words 'a shimmering moon shoots shafts of silver light twixt the frozen trees' seem to melt on my tongue. I find myself repeating them again and again, as if I'm trying to capture your scene for myself ...

    And your observation of how your shadow walks alongside you...(instead of behind you, as often assumed) is so clever.

    Spooky and scary, but I'd love to know more. Thank you!

    Bella :)

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  8. how mysterious that he should have no shadow. this feels like a meeting with death. and strangely intimate.

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  9. Scary!!!- I think you've done an excellent job describing a ghost to a T - ghosts don't leave
    footprints ;)

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  10. Oh I feel a chill down my spine. It all works out very well - the photo with your story and even the dark background does wonders for the overall effect.

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  11. Are you sure he wasn't carrying a sickle over his shoulder? If I were you I would ask your friend Rosey for some of her dried garlic!

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  12. Scary! Very descriptive as well. Sends chills up my spine. And the picture complements the piece quite nicely.

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  13. beautiful words. I love the sounds and the images.

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  14. Poetically penned. The words were a delight to read ~ the event just plain eerie and more than chilling - a touch of vapours, perhaps?

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  15. I bet you are glad he didn't look you in the eye as he passed!
    This reminds me of something funny that happened to me once. I was working in an empty hospital ward that was known as being haunted. When I walked into a certain area there was a really overpowering smell of men's aftershave. Each time I went into that room I could smell it and I scared myself into thinking I was being haunted until I found the source. The hairs on my body were standing on end and I had the shivers. A broken bottle of aftershave was in the dust pan under the bed.He he. A rosey type story.

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  16. Hey! I love no 11 on your music list. I have not heard it for years. Thanks.

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  17. I was right there, chilled to the bone, loving the beautiful evening, and then I had a heart attack.

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  18. Hmm, i suppose ya had a few whiskeys ta warm the cockles after that?

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  19. it reminds me of that guy who comes in every night and i wrote about him
    sends shrills up my spine!!!
    sppoky!!

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