Nightmare
I have to write this out before I lose the details, and what better place than a public forum?
Paul and I live in old country style house on a long country road, miles away from just about anything. Behind the house are long, sweeping, gently rolling fields. In the front of the house is a large yard, with a fenced area including a large pond. We decided to rent some horses for the weekend. After they arrive, it's close to dusk and I haven't had a chance to ride yet. I go through the back door, outside to check on the horses, debating on whether it's a wise idea to be riding in the dark, as by the time I get one saddled up it will be quite dark. As I'm thinking this to myself, I turn and look at the broad fields, purple and blue and green in the dusk, the tall grasses gently waving in the evening summer breeze. I made a conscience note to remember that moment in it's perfect serene beauty. As I round the corner, I notice the horses aren't there. I walk around to the front, where the pond is. The sun is already gone, just it's glow is left on the horizon. As I scan the road line, I notice two friends standing along the fence line, I wave, they wave back. They were looking across the yard at what I thought must have been a pretty scene, the horses grazing by a pond in the dusk. They turned and walked away. I still didn't see the horses anywhere. Now it seems to be getting dark by leaps and bounds. I notice a large number of alligators in the pond, and immediately I think of the horses. Panic starting to rise in my chest, I tap on the window and gesture for Paul to come outside. In the time it takes him to get up and get to the back door, it's become completely dark outside. A flood light on the corner of the house provides the only light, casting more shadows and making it harder to see than anything else. As he rounds the corner, I notice a hooded cobra coiled and standing, waving back and forth, hood flaring. I yell to him to watch, and he sees it shortly before walking directly across it's path. As he gets to me, I tell him I can't find the horses and point to the pond. As he takes a few steps in that direction, out of the corner of my eye, I see the flick of a long dark skinny tail, and something crouch behind a broken part of the rickety wooden fence, I got just a quick glimpse of a dark face, low to the ground, and that tail flick meant nothing good. It was a black panther. I hoarsely whisper to Paul to look out on to the left, and be still. Out stalks the panther as we back up to the wall of the house. At this point I'm still rational and know the the worst thing to do is to run, so we stay as still as possible, avoid making eye contact. Paul asks if I have my phone. I pull it out of my pocket, it has one bar of battery life. I start to dial 911. I get pre recorded message telling me to leave a message describing my emergency after the beep. BEEEEP. I give my name and address and explain that a panther has us cornered. The panther is growling and screaming. He wasn't on the hunt, but he knew he had us cornered and wasn't sure if we were a threat, or a tasty snack. I could see him working through and sizing us up. Then it started. He took a couple swipes at my leg, like a cat playing with a toy. He clamped down on my ankle, and watched my face. I felt his teeth puncture through my skin and heard that awful juicy crack that you hear when cracking a roast chicken apart. I kept trying to prepare myself for what could be an incredibly painful next few minutes. I keep telling Paul to be still in a low voice. I just kept hoping if I didn't respond, if I could control my urge to run and act like the toy he wanted, he'd lose interest. Didn't have to wait that long. All of a sudden, I see a head rise partially out of the pond. It was much much bigger than a alligator head, but shorter in proportion. Gators start tumbling out of the water, as if trying to get away. The head rises out of the water, then the stories high body. I hear that classic Jurassic park roar, and I loose my shit. The cat must have taken off too. I hear the water crashing back into the pond off it's body, then I hear the ground shaking thunder as it stomps toward us. I don't even look, I just take off, hobbling as fast as I can around to the back door, trying to get in the house, screaming for Paul to follow. I get in the house, paul too and I SLAM the door and turn the lights off, and try and get my shaking, shivering, wimpering body to be still, get my breathing under control. After a few seconds I hobble off to a closet and get inside, calling for paul to hide with me, I still have the phone in my hand. He gets to the closet and starts to shut the door with me in it and him still out. He tells me to stay there, be quiet and stay safe. I start screaming and banging on the door, telling him no, just stay here with me, hide with me, but he locks the door shut and jams a chair under the knob. I'm completey hysterical now, I can't imagine what he's going to do that isn't going to get him killed. I just keeping calling just stay here with me, in between body wracking sobs.
Didn't find out what happened. My own cute, little, harmeless, black panther woke me up. I must have been making weird noises.
Paul and I live in old country style house on a long country road, miles away from just about anything. Behind the house are long, sweeping, gently rolling fields. In the front of the house is a large yard, with a fenced area including a large pond. We decided to rent some horses for the weekend. After they arrive, it's close to dusk and I haven't had a chance to ride yet. I go through the back door, outside to check on the horses, debating on whether it's a wise idea to be riding in the dark, as by the time I get one saddled up it will be quite dark. As I'm thinking this to myself, I turn and look at the broad fields, purple and blue and green in the dusk, the tall grasses gently waving in the evening summer breeze. I made a conscience note to remember that moment in it's perfect serene beauty. As I round the corner, I notice the horses aren't there. I walk around to the front, where the pond is. The sun is already gone, just it's glow is left on the horizon. As I scan the road line, I notice two friends standing along the fence line, I wave, they wave back. They were looking across the yard at what I thought must have been a pretty scene, the horses grazing by a pond in the dusk. They turned and walked away. I still didn't see the horses anywhere. Now it seems to be getting dark by leaps and bounds. I notice a large number of alligators in the pond, and immediately I think of the horses. Panic starting to rise in my chest, I tap on the window and gesture for Paul to come outside. In the time it takes him to get up and get to the back door, it's become completely dark outside. A flood light on the corner of the house provides the only light, casting more shadows and making it harder to see than anything else. As he rounds the corner, I notice a hooded cobra coiled and standing, waving back and forth, hood flaring. I yell to him to watch, and he sees it shortly before walking directly across it's path. As he gets to me, I tell him I can't find the horses and point to the pond. As he takes a few steps in that direction, out of the corner of my eye, I see the flick of a long dark skinny tail, and something crouch behind a broken part of the rickety wooden fence, I got just a quick glimpse of a dark face, low to the ground, and that tail flick meant nothing good. It was a black panther. I hoarsely whisper to Paul to look out on to the left, and be still. Out stalks the panther as we back up to the wall of the house. At this point I'm still rational and know the the worst thing to do is to run, so we stay as still as possible, avoid making eye contact. Paul asks if I have my phone. I pull it out of my pocket, it has one bar of battery life. I start to dial 911. I get pre recorded message telling me to leave a message describing my emergency after the beep. BEEEEP. I give my name and address and explain that a panther has us cornered. The panther is growling and screaming. He wasn't on the hunt, but he knew he had us cornered and wasn't sure if we were a threat, or a tasty snack. I could see him working through and sizing us up. Then it started. He took a couple swipes at my leg, like a cat playing with a toy. He clamped down on my ankle, and watched my face. I felt his teeth puncture through my skin and heard that awful juicy crack that you hear when cracking a roast chicken apart. I kept trying to prepare myself for what could be an incredibly painful next few minutes. I keep telling Paul to be still in a low voice. I just kept hoping if I didn't respond, if I could control my urge to run and act like the toy he wanted, he'd lose interest. Didn't have to wait that long. All of a sudden, I see a head rise partially out of the pond. It was much much bigger than a alligator head, but shorter in proportion. Gators start tumbling out of the water, as if trying to get away. The head rises out of the water, then the stories high body. I hear that classic Jurassic park roar, and I loose my shit. The cat must have taken off too. I hear the water crashing back into the pond off it's body, then I hear the ground shaking thunder as it stomps toward us. I don't even look, I just take off, hobbling as fast as I can around to the back door, trying to get in the house, screaming for Paul to follow. I get in the house, paul too and I SLAM the door and turn the lights off, and try and get my shaking, shivering, wimpering body to be still, get my breathing under control. After a few seconds I hobble off to a closet and get inside, calling for paul to hide with me, I still have the phone in my hand. He gets to the closet and starts to shut the door with me in it and him still out. He tells me to stay there, be quiet and stay safe. I start screaming and banging on the door, telling him no, just stay here with me, hide with me, but he locks the door shut and jams a chair under the knob. I'm completey hysterical now, I can't imagine what he's going to do that isn't going to get him killed. I just keeping calling just stay here with me, in between body wracking sobs.
Didn't find out what happened. My own cute, little, harmeless, black panther woke me up. I must have been making weird noises.