Eli

Eli goes for a jog, will it be his last one?

 

Eli’s never ran this late before, he usually runs at six but he had some errands to run today and couldn’t start his three mile jog until eight. The sky is black now with thick clouds tonight masking the stars and the moon making it extraordinarily dark. The wind has some bite in it, picking up at irregular intervals, unusual for this time of year.

 He counts his pulse as he nears the end of the sidewalk. The mailbox is just up ahead; one of those community mailboxes the entire block shares. Graffiti smears one end of the box it says, “F**k You”. Dried black paint oozed down from the ‘F’ as if the punk really emphasized the letter ‘f’, like that was the best letter of the word ‘f**k’ so it deserved twice as much spray paint. Below Eli’s greeting was a picture of a cute little tabby cat on its back with a string in its mouth with the bold word ‘Missing’ above it. In fact there had been a lot of missing cats lately. Instantly, the streetlights click on. Darkness is forced to retreat just a little when eerie dim orange fluorescent circles line Foxmoore Creek, a street not far from his. The houses on his left are in various stages of construction. You can see right through some of them. One is all finished with the lights on but nothing inside, others have dry wall up and yet some are still just wood frames. A painter’s tarp flaps helplessly in the warm Texas breeze.

Eli decides he’ll just walk the rest of the way home, he’s exhausted. Walking on the right side of the street are the older houses that have been around a while. The house on the corner of Foxmoore Creek has an unusually long, decrepit, sun warped fence that sways at the mercy of the wind.

As Eli makes his way to the mailbox he can hear footsteps mashing down dried out yellow grass, coming from the other side of the fence. It keeps pace the same as his, when he steps, it steps. When he stops, it stops.

“Hello?” he asks with the tiniest strain of fear in his otherwise masculine tone.

There is very little illumination but Eli tries to peek between the boards of this ancient fence. He squats and moves his head side to side as if it’ll help to see whatever is beyond this barrier. He’s is not sure but he thinks he sees a shadow standing exactly where he is but on the other side of the fence. Immediately the back of his neck tingles, his senses heighten, his heart pumps harder. He gets the feeling that someone is watching him. Eli slowly starts walking again but the footsteps continue right there with him. He walks faster, it walks faster. Eli stops again, and so do the footsteps.

Overcome with curiosity Eli crouches down by a knot hole in the old fence to take a peek at whatever is going on over there. He gets down on one knee. He can sense the presence of something just inches away from him, but what? His heartbeat is felt in his head as if someone is pounding a drum in his hears, bum, bum, bum. Leaning closer he slowly places his eye to the opening…

Woof Woof

Grrrrrr….

Eli jumps back and lands on his a*s.

The unmistakable bark of a very angry pit bull; terror consumes him. The wind kicks up another gust and it gives that old fence hell. The whole fence shakes vigorously, while the agitated dog starts freaking out, jumping up on its hind legs and diving into the fence pushing on it, barking, snapping its jaw as if trying to bite the fence.

“F**k this” he says and gets up running, losing footing as he does he somehow manages to stay on his feet. The wind is blowing tropical storm winds right at him slowing Eli down and quickening the fate of that poor dilapidated fence. He can still hear the dog slamming his thick head against the fence trying as hard as it can to break lose when finally a loud crash, the clicking of dog claws is heard on the pavement behind him. Eli doesn’t need to look back, he already knows its f*****g Cujo here to eat his throat. Eli’s legs are wobbly from running three miles already, the lactic acid burns, his chest stings. A pothole trips Eli, his face slams down on the asphalt, the splash of blood is felt flowing with each beat of his heart. The clicking of the dogs nails on the warm asphalt is getting closer, he can hear the beast panting. Eli turns around to see where that beast is, but he cannot, blood is obstructing his sight, panic overcomes him he starts screaming for help. He wipes the blood off just in time to see a pair of dog legs sailing over his head as that wild animal jumps over him and into the undeveloped houses. The shriek of a cat is briefly heard. Eli lays on the asphalt and laughs softly and mutters, “f**k you” with heavy pronunciation on the ‘f’.

Author's Note

Haven't written in a while, actually had the idea for this short story while running today. Basically wanted to try writing suspense, just want to know if it was well, suspensful? I know the story doesn't really go anywhere i wrote it rather quickly with not too much thought, just wanted to make an attempt on suspense.