Kaitlyn Moss

It was meant to be a party, nothing more. A celebration of life for a lost grandfather.

Grandpa had always been such a kind person, but I could never shake the feeling that something was seriously wrong with him. When he passed away I was only 11, so the impact of his death wasn’t severe. I had just wished we would have a quick funeral and move on, but instead, my deranged family decided to have a celebration of life.

We invited everyone we knew, from distant cousins, to my best friend Katie. Although Katie did not know Grandpa well, she still managed to have kind words to say about him. At around 3 pm a taco cart arrived and the party enjoyed Grandpa’s favorite meal. All of the festivities were hosted in order to celebrate the “great life” Grandpa had lived, and partially to conceal the horrors of death.

As I ate my taco, Katie and I sat on the hill and looked down into the yards of the distant neighboring houses.

“Emma, what do you think death is like?” Katie asked abruptly. I pondered, as an eleven year old, I wasn’t sure how to respond.

“I guess it would be a lot like falling asleep” I answered after a few silent moments. Ironically enough, we would be getting very little sleep that night.

Before we knew it, 6pm had come and the guests went home. Katie and I had spent our hours on the bouncy castle that had been rented out for the children. It was oddly fun, bouncing at the bottom for a few moments, climbing to the top and then sliding all the way down, just to start the cycle again. The sun slowly began to set over

the distant mountains. An array of wonderful pinks and violets splattered the horizon, stars began to pop up in the midst of the night sky. Katie suddenly set off towards the patio of my house.

“Let’s go eat dinner Emma!” she called.

She was craving the meal she knew my mother would make. Chicken teriyaki and rice, the only thing my mom apparently knew how to cook. My mother made our plates and we headed back onto the bouncy castle, a light breeze chilling our skin, sending goosebumps running down my arms.

It was dark by now, but I didn't want to leave, it felt peaceful out here. A brilliant idea lit the dark corners of my brain and exploded out of my mouth. “What if we slept outside on the bouncy castle?!”

Katie looked at me blank faced, but slowly a smile crept to her lips. We had attempted to sleep out on the old trampoline for the night before but were disturbed by the howling of the coyotes. But it would not be the coyotes that disturbed us this time.

My mother helped us bring pillows and blankets out and then bid us goodnight. This was finally it, we would be staying alone outside for the night. I would like to say I wasn’t nervous, but in all honesty, I was terrified. Despite being bundled up, goosebumps still littered my arms and legs.

It was almost 9 pm by now, usually we would stay up later but the need of sleep crept upon us. I was the first to fall asleep. Katie woke me up hours later, the time on my phone read 11:34 pm. I looked at her confused and noticed the look of horror she wore.

She appeared as if she hadn’t slept. She quietly put a finger to her lips and pulled her own phone out. She opened the notes app and began typing.

“There is someone Here!!! I keep hearing footsteps around the Yard”

I listened silently and heard what she did. The yard was black, the only light coming from the moon and reflecting off the water of the pool. Peeking out from the bouncy house, all I saw was the swaying of the trees, not a man in sight.

I looked back at her equally terrified, that’s when we heard it again. The footsteps of a man, slowly creeping around the yard. After typing some more, Katie explained to me how she had first heard it shortly after I fell asleep. She carefully listened over the next hour, believing herself to be crazy. After spending so long alone in fear, she decided to wake me up.

We were unsure what to do, our initial thoughts were that it was my pet pig, but we saw him fast asleep in his hut. Our terror tripled, the footsteps were becoming more frequent, and were jumping from place to place around the yard. Hours went by and by 3:30am the noises still had yet to stop. Our bodies were frozen at this point, frost settled on the grass around the bouncy castle and onto our skin. The frost reflected the moon light and made the yard sparkle.

As our eyes adjusted to the dark, that is when we saw it. A creature within the trees, swaying with the very branches themselves. Not a man, simply a darkened figure. As soon as we saw it, the creature vanished. And the footsteps appeared in an area we could not see. We were sure of it. The creature we had saw within the trees was the one walking around our yard.We sat for what felt like another hour in complete silence, not even daring to take our phones out to communicate.

When the silent hour was up, the bouncy castle began to shake, someone, or something was jumping at the bottom. We held onto the ropes, not wanting to fall down the slide. I wept tears that thawed my body. I thought surely I would soon be meeting my Grandpa. As the bouncy castle continued to shake, our vision went black, not even the moonlight was visible.

We woke up in the morning, together, laying at the bottom of the slide. We looked at eachother, and with out a word ran inside. As we journeyed inside, I noticed my surroundings. The sun was just making its way over the horizon, on the far side of the yard I saw something I wish I had never seen. Footsteps were embedded into the mud, right where we had seen the man in the trees.