Chased by a shadow.

Approximately 12:15 a.m. Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Norfolk, Virginia 2003

I had stayed at the recreation center on base until closing so I could help lock up the USO office. I was still wired so instead of taking the shuttle back to the barracks, I decided to walk. The long walk was mostly uneventful as the road was empty that time of night. I listened to my headphones the majority of the way back, but as I turned down the road that went from Gate 4 and just as I passed the Admin./Records building my batteries died. I stopped, unshouldered my backpack, and knelt down, carefully placing my headphones and cd player inside. As I stood up I noticed someone stand up behind the bushes along the wall of the Records building. As a member of the security force on base this caught my attention. As I shouldered my pack I noticed the individual make the same motion. With a chuckle to myself I proceeded to go through the classic cartoon routine of "fixing my bow-tie", "tilting my top hat", and giving a final wave. It was as if I was in an actual cartoon as mid-wave I sneezed but the shadow continued to wave. Catching this impossibility I stared at the shadow and called out that they had been caught and to stop creeping around like a thief before I called security. What happened next still terrifies me. A quiet flash revealed the shadow's eyes. Eyes that looked like dying lightbulb but with a bright electrical spark at their centers. Then, with a sound that reminds me of tearing a steak with your hands, the shadow pulled itself off the wall and sprinted towards me. I stood there for what felt like a full minute but it was less than two heart beats. Whatever the time frame, it was just long enough for me to register two things. This was not human but a living shadow, and it was pissed that it was "seen". I turned and ran as fast as I could down the road and across the street to the Pass and I.D. office where I had worked for a time and pounded on the door as the code had been changed. When they let me in I gave a quick glance back and could have sworn I saw the shadow slip around the side of the building. I told the person who answered the door I wasn't feeling well, like I was going to pass out. I convinced them I just needed to rest for a while. I spent the rest of the night sleeping on the old couch in the office and finally left about half an hour after the sunlight hit the windowless building (you could see it come in through the peep-hole).

Approximately 6 months later, during a storm, I was out on the balcony walkway of my barracks just looking around when a car in the parking lot swept it's headlights across the building across from me when I could have sworn I saw a Shadow move in the opposite direction than all the others. And just before it disappeared, I know I saw those eyes flash one last time.