Out of Sight

What’s a time you followed your gut and it turned out to be exactly right?

There was a time when even the metropolitan areas weren’t so crowded. One could still find a place to walk or drive around with peace of mind that was not interrupted by honking cars or rushing bikes. But the fear of night was real, as something unexpectedly horrifying could be just around the corner.



Youngsters who have never seen that time, will never truly know what kind of terrors the darkness of nighttime can bring. I know it well, and I wouldn’t forget that one terrifying incident that occurred, that was one of those moments when I could truly feel the end chasing.



I was fifteen, in tenth grade, a time when most children start going to tuitions actively for studying different subjects. This is also the time when they begin exploring the world on their own with a better vision for life, a certain amount of seriousness beginning to pour into thoughts.



I went to tuition with one of my good friends or I should say we did not go often and we did not tell about it to our parents, especially for the last two months where we didn’t go at all and we planned to divide the collective tuition fee each month for our daily expenditures like a snack or two with a bottle of juice.



We would find places to go around, the beautiful parks in the neighbourhood, where I find no time to visit in the present. The weather wasn’t so intolerable back then, some greedy humans were still in the process of conducting their stupidity for the resulting  climate change later .



So, one day, when my friend did not show up at the decided meeting point, I decided to walk to his house. It was winter time; it became dark early, but that wasn’t an issue, the road to his house passed by a school that was well lit and had a good number of houses around. But then there was a problem, one of the aunties of my neighbourhood was talking to someone standing beside the road. Hence, I had to take a different path, one that was a bit unfamiliar. It was all fine until I reached a part that was dark except the scarce lights from the houses and I could feel something was not right.



I walked ahead a few slow steps, wary of sounds and movements around, I said a few words that the government deserved for not taking care of the streetlights everywhere. There was a park ahead and it was dark as well. I heard a sound then, someone was running, quite fast. By the sound of the feet, the person was not running on the road. I was right, a boy elder to me ran hurriedly out of the park entrance and he rushed towards me. I froze for a moment, ‘Was he going to hit me? Take my messenger bag? Would I lose a lot if the messenger bag was gone? Should I fight him?’



I noticed a stone lying near the road. But there was no time and he was almost upon me. There was nothing to be done, I simply had to accept what would happen. I waited for that sudden push, throwing me down on the ground. But instead, I heard ‘run’ and noticed the boy ran past me and then came the growling noise.



Three dogs ran out of the park entrance, they were clearly chasing the boy and I don’t know whether they would have simply ran past me chasing the boy if I had just stood there. But I ran and instantly became a target as well, there was no thought of accepting what would happen there, it was do or die, so I ran behind the boy thinking he would know a way out. The boy noticed this and he tried to get me off his trail thinking I was bringing the dogs to him. I knew I wouldn’t be able to run for long, I had a dog at home, there is no out running them and there is no fighting them unless playfully.



I waited for the feeling of teeth sinking in my leg or swipe of the claw, but it did not come. I turned around to see an old man raising his walking stick to the dogs and the dogs surprisingly stopped, not only out of fear but also out of familiarity. I did not wait to find out and ran straight back home. I haven’t gone that way since then, but now that I am writing about it I have a sudden wish to go and see how things have changed over the time, I hope those dogs don’t have their future generations there.

Written by Anuran Chatterji

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