The Thing in the Park © James G. Piatt
She didn't know why she went to the huge water main again, perhaps curiosity, perhaps something was calling to her subconscious, something inexplicable, dark!
Something stirred as she paused by the pipe then it slowly rose, a huge umbra in the darkness stared at her, only the red eyes, that seemed to glow, were visible. She screamed and ran away in a panic. Helen's breathing finally stopped being painful and her lungs settled down to a normal pattern. She had been sprinting for about a mile and a half, for her, being a long distance runner, a short distance. What wasn't normal was from what she was running. She leaned against a tree it was cool and soothing to the touch. There was only a sliver of a moon peeking through spider web clouds, and the bark of the tree was smooth where the outer layer had cast off its outer skin, like a huge snake during molting season. The smoothness gave her a temporary feeling of safety from the dread that engulfed her when she saw it.
She started jogging again, and finally approached a Park Ranger's cabin. She roused the man sitting in a lounger from his TV program. He was drinking beer and was in his bathrobe. Helen told him about the huge thing she had seen the water main. He laughed then looked her up and down making her very uncomfortable.
“I see,” he stated looking at her body again with his head to one side and licking his lips, “It were probably just a big coon, they is all over the park woods.”
“I don't think you understand!” Helen stated angrily. “I don't think you see at all, you don't believe me.”
“Well lady, yur story does seem a bit far fetched.” He stated as he scratched himself, stared at her body again, and burped.
“I have three college degrees, I am a psychologist, and have been practicing for five years!” She stated loudly feeling exasperated. “I am not prone to hallucinations. I am not a mentally unbalanced person!”
“Well, I ain't got no degrees lady, but I got sense enough to stay outta the park at night. You oughta know it is dangerous here at night!”
“I run at night after my sessions, sometimes. It cools me down and takes my mind off of the problems of my patients. I am a long distance runner and can run for over ten miles with ease. I can get out of trouble easily.”
“I see, well lady, I still can't believe you saw something huge with red eyes!”
“Well, just what do you think it was then, what could it have been?”
“I ain't got no idea lady, maybe jest a huge coon like ah said, or maybe just your cute little imagination, you being so pretty and all.”
Helen moved back from the door, she didn't like the way he leered at her. She couldn't understand how a Ranger could have such poor grammar, and be so rude and suggestive. He was disheveled, had a weeks old stubble and his hair was long, dirty and straggly. He had dark eyes sunk into a fat pale face and crooked yellow teeth. He was also a large, heavy man.
After a few more minutes of talking, Helen found out that the man was not the Park Ranger. The Ranger had left for another position a few weeks ago. The man said he was here to keep a watch on things.
Helen moved out on the porch and said a hasty goodbye.
“Goodbye pretty lady, if you come here at night again, drop by, I'll have a beer fir you!”
Helen ran off at a faster than normal pace. She was heated, not from running, but from frustration, frustration with the odd man and frustration with herself. She mulled the incident over in her mind as she ran toward her apartment about two miles from the far edge of the park. It was ten thirty at night, and the moon had disappeared behind dark clouds by the time she finally reached home. When she put her hand on the doorknob, she heard a low lonely howling in the far distance of the park. It sounded like something was hurt, or tremendously lonely, it echoed darkly in her mind. She shivered and entered her apartment quickly.
She turned on the copper teapot to heat water, and sighed. She wondered about what had just happened, and shivered in response. She poured hot water into a mug with a Constant Comment Tea bag, stirred in a tablespoon of honey, and went to the living room. She looked out the large bay window overlooking the park in the far distance. She eventually fell asleep on the couch. She dreamed she was running down the path toward the water main. She saw herself peering into the huge pipe, and looking right into the face of the thing. It smiled and put out a hand to take hers. She took the hand, it was soft, and she felt safe. She stepped into the pipe hand in hand with it. It was then when the large disheveled man she has seen at the Ranger's cabin rushed into the pipe. He started hitting the thing with a club. It screamed and fell down in a pool of blood. The man then grabbed her pulling her down to the dirt, and hitting her repeatedly with his bloody fists. She screamed and woke up.
* * *
A few days later, Helen read in the paper that a girl had been beaten horribly in the park. She died a day later, never regaining consciousness. Helen dialed the police.
“Yes, this is Lieutenant James.”
Helen explained about her experience in the park in detail, and told him about the man at the Ranger's cabin.
“You said you saw a what?”
“Uh, I thought I saw a, uh . . . something huge, well . . . it looked like a Yeti.”
“You say you saw the Abominable Snow man in the park, lady is this a prank call?”
“No sir, I am Dr. Helen Trent I am a psychologist in town, I am not making a prank call, I thought I saw something which resembled a . . . a Yeti. I admit I didn't get a real good look, but the umbra had to be over seven feet tall, I saw its red eyes way up near the top of the water main, which is eight feet in diameter.”
“Hum okay.” He shook his head and looked at the ceiling. He then said. “Dr. Trent, tell me more about the man in the cabin, when we investigated the murder of the girl, there was no man in the cabin.”
* * *
Helen finished her sessions early, had dinner at her favorite Chinese Café, and went home. Around eight O' clock, she put on her jogging suit and headed toward the park. This time she carried a can of mace, and a small flashlight.
It was about a quarter to nine when she reached the water main. The moon had slipped behind some diaphanous clouds making the area eerily hazy. She turned on her flashlight, peered into the huge water main, and saw it. It was huge and was sitting down. It seemed sad. This time she was not afraid and slowly entered into the pipe. It reached out a hairy hand towards her. It was just like in her dream. She took the hand into hers, the hand was gentle and soft, and she felt safe. Her mind went back to the nightmare. It was then that she heard the noise. It was the man from the cabin. He had a club in his hand. She realized at that instance that she was no longer holding the hand of the Yeti. It had disappeared, or had it all been in her mind, had she been hallucinating? She screamed and the man approached her smiling. She grabbed her cell phone and pushed * which dialed 911.
“Well if it ain't the cute little psychologist lady. You look mighty good lady!” He stated, as he looked her up and down lavishly. “Are you out here looking fir me? I kinda figured you took to me the night we meet. Yur just like that other pretty girl that came here, you pretty girls are always after me. That's why I do what I do!”
Helen screamed again, but there was only a muted echo ricocheted in the huge pipe. She sprayed the mace but the man turned around and the pepper spray missed. Helen screamed and ran deeper into the pipe. The man ran after her laughing. She easily outran him. She went down one bend to the right, but it was a dead end. She turned around in panic. When she reached the main pipe again, she turned around to see where he was and tripped. Pain ripped through her leg. She had turned her ankle badly and could not walk, let alone run. She looked around and saw the pipe branched out, in two different directions, a few yards ahead. She painfully crawled toward the bend to the left and doused her small light as she crawled deeper into the pipe. She heard the man laughing in the distance and then in a few minutes saw the flickering of a flashlight as the man came walking down the pipe.
“Hey my little beauty, yah gotta be here someplace and both tunnels end at grates welded to the sides of the pipe. You ain't gonna out! No matter which one you use. I'm gonna get yah, we then gonna have us some fun. Pretty soon, very soon!”
Helen stifled a sob, gulped in some air, and tried to feel around for something to hit the man with, but the bottom of the pipe held only small sticks. She waited as the man went to the bend to the right, he then came back and went to the bend to the left. She looked up at the glare of a flashlight. The man was standing with a club gazing at her. His demeanor and smile was that of a crazed man. Her immediate diagnosis was that he was a schizophrenic paranoid. He was laughing uncontrollably as he watched her cringing to the side of the pipe. He slowly walked over to her and yanked her up by her hair. She screamed and he laughed louder. “I got you now, you pretty little bitch. Ain't this gonna be a lot of fun!”
* * *
Four policemen were running down the park path, which led to the water main. They had been alerted by Helen's automatic call to 911. The dispatcher had instantly relayed the message to the police. That had been over forty-five minutes ago.
“Lieutenant, the GPS tracker indicates this is the way.”
“Yes Sergeant, if I remember, there is a large abandoned water main close to here, it was used years ago to bring water to the city. It's not too far from where we found that girl that was murdered.”
“Yes sir, this is the area all right. God, I hope we are in time!”
The policeman continued running toward the pipe. Upon turning a corner, they spied it, and upon entering started calling out for Helen. Their voices were muted by the pipe, and could not be heard by those inside. They also could not Helen screaming as the man squeezed her throat, and yelled at her.
The huge man loamed over Helen as he let go of her throat and threw her to the ground. “Lady, I am going to make you squirm with fear like you have never felt it before, then you are going to feel pain, excruciating pain. Then, I am going to smash your pretty little face into a bloody glob of meat!”
She begged him not to hurt her. He laughed then brought up the club over his head to hit her. She screamed with fear and hid her head in her arms. She then fainted. Something huge appeared behind the man. It grabbed the club from him, picked him up with its huge hands like a rag doll, and threw him hard against the side of the pipe. The man yelled in pain and passed out.
The policemen heard a yell, and started running. In a few minutes, they saw Helen lying in a clump of leaves. The Lieutenant felt her pulse and sighed. “We're in time Sergeant, she's alive.”
The man woke up, but he was too hurt to run and fell back to the ground. The Lieutenant grabbed him by the neck and jerked him hard to his feet, he screamed in pain. The sergeant put handcuffs on him, and an officer yanked him toward the front of the water main.
“I ain't done nothing, this lady lured me in here to have some fun, then she hit me with something.”
At that point, Helen woke up and stared at the policeman. “How . . . how did you find me?”
“Your cell phone rang 911, the dispatcher relayed the message to the station. Thank God, your phone had a GPS locator on it. I still don't know how you were able to do the guy in, he looks pretty heavy, and strong.”
“I didn't Lieutenant, the Yeti must have. It saved my life.”
“Oh, the thing you told me about when you came in last week, the Big Foot or Abominable Snowman.” The Lieutenant said as he looked at the Sergeant, and winked.
“Yes Lieutenant, it is real, thank God it is real or I would be dead now!”
“Well ma'am, I guess something hit him, but I think it was you. You had so much adrenaline in you from the fear, that your strength was tremendous. A person can be extremely strong under extreme circumstances like you just had.”
Helen sighed, looked at her hand, and saw some long dark soft hairs stuck in her fingernails and smiled. She looked at the Lieutenant, smiled, shrugged, and nodded her head. “Perhaps you're right Lieutenant, perhaps you're right!”
The moral is, never go near huge water pipes in a park late at night, unless you have a Yeti by your side. The result could be dire!
___________________ James
earned his BS and MA from California State Polytechnic University. One
of his Master's concentrations was Existential Literature. He earned
a doctorate from Brigham Young University. He is retired, and spends
his summers gardening and sitting along side a river, reading, writing
short stories and penning poetry.
Literary House Review, Everyday Weirdness Magazine, the Cynic Magazine,
Suspense Magazine, Medulla Review, Long Story Short, Black Petals, Tainted
Tea, Orchard Press Mysteries, and others, have
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