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Description
It wasn't a dark and stormy night.

True, it was getting late and the first stars could just be seen. But the sky was as calm as could be.

I was on my way home from a fencing club that had been held after school. It had been a lot of fun, but now all I wanted was to get back before I froze. It's getting dark really early these days, I thought to myself idly. Winter's just around the corner.

My route home took me through the park, a beautiful place for most of the day. At night, though, the only light was the orange glow cast by the street lights. They didn't pierce the dark so much as illuminate the shadows, and besides they looked eerie. I didn't like it; I quickened my pace.

I am such a wuss, I reprimanded myself. How can someone my age be afraid of the dark? I told myself this repeatedly, but it wasn't only the dark I was afraid of. The whole setting reminded me of something or other. Something...scary. What it was, I had no idea, but it kept nagging me at the back of my brain. Suddenly, I stopped. I looked at the ground.

I had two shadows.

'Oh god! It's the Vashta Nerad -' I hesitated.
I was standing between two street lights, and they were each casting a separate shadow. Nothing unnatural after all. Recovering from my brief fright, I set off again. How could I seriously have thought that I was being chased by monsters from Doctor Who? I need to pull myself together...

The path I was walking on was straight and narrow. It cut a route through an enormous group of tall trees - practically a small forest. They were all I could see on either side, so close they almost encroached on the path. Ahead of me and behind me, the path looked pitifully small and insignificant compared to the massiveness of the woodland. Once again, fear crept up on me. I felt as if I was being followed. Yet no matter how many times I looked around, not another person could be seen. This didn't mean anything though: the trees were so densely packed, an entire army might be silently waiting and I'd have no idea. I'm just being paranoid, for gods sake. Let's see if I can manage to get home without having a bloody nervous breakdown. I winced at the unfortunate use of the adjective. We Brits used to be masters of the macabre - Victorian horror stories are famous even today. So how come I can't walk though the local park without scaring myself to pieces?

After a while of trudging along the path, I found myself humming. It started almost without me noticing it but as soon as I realised, I encouraged it, trying to hum as loud of possible. It was wonderful compared to nothing but silence. Yes, humming certainly made sense - after all, hadn't it been recommended in that video I'd seen a few weeks ago? I stretched my mind back. On YouTube someone had uploaded a video on how to prevent yourself from freaking out while you're playing Slende -

Crap.

I looked at the tall trees on either side.

I realised with a jolt what the scary thing was that the entire scene so vividly reminded me of.

Description
It wasn't a dark and stormy night.

True, it was getting late and the first stars could just be seen. But the sky was as calm as could be.

I was on my way home from a fencing club that had been held after school. It had been a lot of fun, but now all I wanted was to get back before I froze. It's getting dark really early these days, I thought to myself idly. Winter's just around the corner.

My route home took me through the park, a beautiful place for most of the day. At night, though, the only light was the orange glow cast by the street lights. They didn't pierce the dark so much as illuminate the shadows, and besides they looked eerie. I didn't like it; I quickened my pace.

I am such a wuss, I reprimanded myself. How can someone my age be afraid of the dark? I told myself this repeatedly, but it wasn't only the dark I was afraid of. The whole setting reminded me of something or other. Something...scary. What it was, I had no idea, but it kept nagging me at the back of my brain. Suddenly, I stopped. I looked at the ground.

I had two shadows.

'Oh god! It's the Vashta Nerad -' I hesitated.
I was standing between two street lights, and they were each casting a separate shadow. Nothing unnatural after all. Recovering from my brief fright, I set off again. How could I seriously have thought that I was being chased by monsters from Doctor Who? I need to pull myself together...

The path I was walking on was straight and narrow. It cut a route through an enormous group of tall trees - practically a small forest. They were all I could see on either side, so close they almost encroached on the path. Ahead of me and behind me, the path looked pitifully small and insignificant compared to the massiveness of the woodland. Once again, fear crept up on me. I felt as if I was being followed. Yet no matter how many times I looked around, not another person could be seen. This didn't mean anything though: the trees were so densely packed, an entire army might be silently waiting and I'd have no idea. I'm just being paranoid, for gods sake. Let's see if I can manage to get home without having a bloody nervous breakdown. I winced at the unfortunate use of the adjective. We Brits used to be masters of the macabre - Victorian horror stories are famous even today. So how come I can't walk though the local park without scaring myself to pieces?

After a while of trudging along the path, I found myself humming. It started almost without me noticing it but as soon as I realised, I encouraged it, trying to hum as loud of possible. It was wonderful compared to nothing but silence. Yes, humming certainly made sense - after all, hadn't it been recommended in that video I'd seen a few weeks ago? I stretched my mind back. On YouTube someone had uploaded a video on how to prevent yourself from freaking out while you're playing Slende -

Crap.

I looked at the tall trees on either side.

I realised with a jolt what the scary thing was that the entire scene so vividly reminded me of.