Mason

Some answers just give the thing more room in your head.

After it happened, I started noticing how many people out there have stories they only tell quietly.

My coworker heard about my car and asked where it happened.

When I told her, she went pale and said her cousin had seen a dog on that road years before that stood up behind a fence and waved at him.

Another guy at work said his dad once heard a baby crying from a ditch out there and almost stopped, but his grandma screamed at him not to.

One of my friends told me he had seen a dead sheep in the road that was gone when he turned around, even though there was nowhere for it to go.

Before that night, I would have smiled and nodded and not believed them.

I believe them now.

The worst part is that it did not end as cleanly as I wanted.

Nothing came to my window the next night.

I didn't find footprints on my porch.

I didn't get some big final scare where I saw it in my backyard.

But little things happen for weeks.

My mom said the dogs in our neighborhood barked around 2 or 3 in the morning for several nights in a row.

My uncle found his gate open twice, even though he always chained it.

I got calls from unknown numbers where nobody spoke, but I could hear breathing and a faint clicking sound in the background.

Maybe those were prank calls.

Maybe my brain was connecting normal stuff to the worst night of my life.

I'm willing to admit that.

But there was one thing I can't explain.