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It is dark outside. As it should be, because it is well past midnight. I walk through the house, preparing to retire, but a shadow in the window catches my eye. I turn to look, but nothing is there. It must be the emptiness of house getting to me. The house was huge, but I was all alone. My footsteps echoed across the tile, reverberating on the walls. There! I could have sworn I’d seen something creeping in the shadows. This is preposterous, nothing’s there. Yet, I have an uneasy feeling I can not shake. A floorboard creaks overhead serves to spur on this irrationality. I turn on an overhead light, and am greeted by my living room furniture. I breathe a small sigh of relief. I turn out the light and continue using my lamp. I am still for a moment, then a sudden chill comes over me. I decide to go directly to bed, It is late and I am starting to hallucinate. I climb the stairs and they quietly protest my weight. I am about to enter my room when I catch a glimpse of the hall mirror. With the light of the lamp, I certain I see a figure looming over me. I quickly turn around, but all I see is my empty hallway. Everything is in place like it should be, except for a floral vase that is floating 2 inches above it’s table. I run quickly into my room and turn the lock. I can hear it’s hollow moan from the other side of the door. I franticly search for a hiding place, and settle for the wardrobe. I blow out my lamp, maybe It can’t see me if there’s no light. I stood perfectly still and held my breath, praying that it wouldn’t find me. Silence, it’s as if the world has stopped. No moans to be heard, not even a peep from the world outside. I wait for what seems like hours anticipating something to break the silence. I then feel something winding up my legs, it chills my skin through my clothes. I do not dare utter a sound. It's to my torso now, I can not move, even if want to, It has it’s icy grip has a secure hold on me. When it is to my neck, all is still silent. In my head though I am screaming with pure terror. It is covering my head now. Then it tightens its’ total grip around me, and I feel it devouring my very essence. It is only now I scream, piercing the silence with my pain as my life slips away.

Batty was tired after another long day of working out. She had done everything she normally had done except her swimming, but that was because tonight was going to be special. She had read about a special lake that, if one were to swim in it on a full moon, at the right time, a wondrous thing would happen. So she was on her way to the lake, by car, and imagining all the wonderful things that could happen.

Batty arrived at the lake just before midnight. She parked the car and jumped out, throwing off her clothes and running straight for the lake, not worried at all if anyone else was watching. At the edge she did a graceful dive into the lake, and swam out toward the center. Once she reached there, she started floating on her back, staring at the full moon. All the things she had been thinking about as she drove danced in her mind, and she couldn't help but hope that maybe all of them might happen. However, a sharp stab of pain in her side darkened her current thoughts. She felt down and noticed that she had started bleeding, and wondered how that could have happened. She started carefully swimming back to shore when another sharp pain got her, this time in the leg. The bleeding was getting bad and she started getting dizzy. It was getting hard for her to keep her eyes open, and she was still far from the shore. Another pain hit her, on her arm, and the dizziness was finally enough to claim her senses.

Batty woke with a start. She was clothed, and sitting in her car at the lake. She wondered if it was just a dream as she got out of the car, but it was hard to stand because she was dizzy. She had bandages around the spots she had been bleeding from and she realized it was not just a dream. All around her car she was large paw prints, but she could not tell what animal they were from. As she got back in the car to drive home, she noticed it was just before dawn. She silently thanked whomever had saved her, and drove home thinking again on the wonderful things that might have happened at the lake.