Black Hat, Trench Coat, Changing Face And Loss Of Time

It was 8:07 pm and there was an amazing pink sunset that summer night. I remember the view coming down the hill that night. My sister and I needed to run to the 711 that was about 3 miles away to grab a pack of smokes and some vino. Classy I know, but I was 21 at the time and was glad to be able to.

So, mission accomplished, we headed home. Couldn't have been gone longer than 10 minutes. However, when we got to the main intersection after driving through the suburbs for 5 mins, the night seemed to have fallen rather quickly. I mean it was DARK. On top of that, the fog rolled in like no one's business and fog in San Diego in the middle of summer is almost unheard of, at least at 8 pm, inland.

So, we sat at the main intersection to get home which crossed a main thoroughfare, and we sat, and we sat. We realized that quite some time had passed and absolutely NO cars. On a MAIN thoroughfare that is quite busy. We had been talking together like us gals do, that we didn't even notice that the radio wasn't playing any music. I assumed I had turned the volume down... NOPE. We only realized that when we looked down at the clock and it was 8:52 pm. 8:52 pm? That made no sense, and we commented on it. And fog? And complete darkness like it would be at say 3 AM? WAIT! We were so confused and commented as such. I would have ran the light but this is a major intersection and with the fog from nowhere... BAD idea. I mean God forbid a car rolled through right then. I, being the older sister, opted to wait it out and lighted another smoke, still trying to get the tunes on the radio to work, a no go.

My sister and I got real quiet while we waited, conversation died from confusion. So we puffed on our smokes, looking around, commenting on how creepy everything felt and then at the same time said, "What the HELL is that?". Not "WHO" but "WHAT". Because it was so bizarre. Out of a deep ravine that ran along the thoroughfare that was full of Eucalyptus trees came a thing. I won't even call it a man. It was wearing a black wide brimmed hat and a trench coat, that was for sure. The rest is unexplainable. It had no feet, it had no hands, and it did not move like a human. It looked like it was walking with a limp or like it was in a body that it didn't know how to operate. It "walked" straight out of this ravine (which is not possible) forest area, onto this highway and made a "B-line" for my car. And I use the term "walk" very loosely. It was awkward and weird. I thought for a second that I should help him because he seemed to be having trouble. Then I noticed how swiftly he was navigating this road and realized... It was headed straight for my car. And with PURPOSE.

As it advanced I stared straight under that hat so I could remember this very odd situation and I'll say this, to this day, I cannot describe what I saw. His face seemed to morph. It looked like an owl, a turtle, an eagle, a horse, and at one point a human (but looked like a stereotypical mask type face with no distinguishing marks) it just kept changing.

My sister started to get hysterical, and at the same time we both were saying, "WTF? WTF? WTF?" over and over because it was completely unexplainable. She yelled at me to roll up the window, which I did, but we still sat and stared. He crossed about 60 yds in 5 seconds. He was headed straight for my car... There was nothing else in sight, it had to be us. My sister was screaming at me to run the light, but I couldn't. Call it curiosity, numbness, not wanting to cross a highway in thick fog... I don't know. I was not moving. In retrospect, it was complete curiosity. I was scared, no doubt. But, I wanted to see what he was doing.

He got within feet of my car, inches, on the drivers side, my side, then I realized he wanted us! He lunged for my door handle and had what seemed like freakishly LONG arms. At that EXACT moment the light turned green and I FLOORED it outta there. ODD at best. We crossed the intersection before I looked in the rear view mirror. My sister, however, stared at him the whole way through and as we sped off, his arms raised in the air as to say "UGH". She told me to see how he was throwing, what she called, "a tantrum in the intersection." My eyes on the road, going back up said first hill in the beginning of the story, I didn't catch it. She said she watched him vanish into thin air. I just saw that he was gone, no longer in the middle of the road.

So we get home and my mom is freaking out at us and standing in the middle of the driveway with the neighbors, crying. We get inside the house and the clock is reading 10:43. 10:43!? Where had that time gone? We told her the story, I'm assuming, and because she told us we did several years later, but don't remember doing that and never talked about that experience for at least 5 years. Ever. Not the next morning. Not with my mom, she didn't bring it up. Nada. It was like it was gone from our memory.

Then one evening my sister and I were on my balcony, 5-6 years later, and I have no idea how or why, but the whole story popped up into my head and I asked her if she remembered it. She went completely pale and we were both covered in goose bumps. It felt like a dream because I hadn't thought about it since, but was completely real because I KNOW I lived it. She told the exact same recollection I had without any guidance. It was like it was erased from our memory but once it popped back in and we talked about it, it was as vivid as like it had happened yesterday. I remember every detail, obviously. It's still as vivid... 9 years later. She hates when I bring it up actually and gets sick to her stomach. I find it fascinating and am totally curious what do you all think...