I need to tell someone about this before I lose my nerve. What I'm about to describe, I know exactly how it's going to sound. But it happened. And I need someone else to know it happened. This was October of 1998. October 12th, actually, I remember because it was my sister's birthday and I was driving back from Great Falls where I'd gone to pick up her gift. I was taking the back roads because the highway was under construction that month. Route 87 through the valley. And I remember, my window had been stuck shut for weeks. Wouldn't budge no matter what I tried. It was around 11 PM. No moon that night, just dark. I still think about that, how dark it was. The kind of dark where your headlights feel like the only light in the world. I'd been driving for maybe forty minutes when I saw someone standing on the side of the road.
At first I thought it was just someone who'd broken down. You see that sometimes out there, someone waiting by their car, hoping for help. So I slowed down. Not all the way, but enough to get a better look. That's when I realized this person wasn't standing by a car. They were just... standing there. In the grass by the roadside. Perfectly still. And as my headlights swept over them, I saw their face. It was a man. Tall, maybe six-three, six-four. Wearing dark clothes, looked like a suit, actually, which was strange for that area. But it was his face that made me hit the brakes. His face was completely expressionless. Not neutral, not calm, empty. Like a mannequin. His eyes were open and staring straight ahead. Not at me, not at my car. Just... ahead. And his mouth was slightly open, just a thin gap between his lips.
I sat there for maybe ten seconds, just looking at him in my headlights. He didn't move. Didn't blink. Didn't acknowledge my car at all. I remember thinking maybe he was in shock or having some kind of medical episode. I rolled down my window, just a crack, and called out. car windows are such a hassle - Kyle' Asked if he needed help.Nothing. No response. No movement. I called out again, louder this time. And then I blinked. When I opened my eyes, and I'm talking about a fraction of a second, he was ten feet closer. Still in that exact same pose. Same expression. Same stance. But he'd moved. Impossible, but he'd moved. My brain couldn't process it. One blink, one instant, and he'd crossed ten feet of ground without walking, without changing position, without making any sound I could hear over my idling engine.
[ Story continues in the full game... ]