Shockingly Sinister Shorts #27

It was late at night as I headed out for a walk in our local park. Insomnia had been plaguing me for the last few days and I was hoping that the cool night air would help me settle down and sleep later
on.

As I traveled around the wooded path near the river gorge, I came upon a woman walking slowly ahead of me. At my current pace, I soon found myself within 15 feet of her. It was then that she turned, briefly, and glanced in my direction. 

She immediately increased her walking speed. Not knowing why she was hurrying, I also began to walk faster.

She turned again, looking in my general direction, and then began to jog. Fearing she had seen something I didn't, I followed her lead and jogged along behind her.

It was at this point she craned her head around and let out a long, terrified scream. She bolted off at a dead run. I was sure she had seen something horrible behind me, so I took off right behind her I was too afraid to look back and see what had frightened her so.

We crashed up the path leading to an overlook of the gorge. She was stumbling by the time she reached the top and threw herself on the railing overlooking the river. She whirled around, eyes wide and insane with fear. She let out a shriek of terror like nothing I had ever heard and then threw herself over the railing onto the jagged rocks some 50 feet below. 

As I reached the railing where she had stood just seconds ago, I couldn't imagine what was behind us that had scared her to the point of killing herself. I turned around to face whatever evil thing had chased us. Whoever or whatever it was, I was going to face it head on….. 

There was nothing there. 

Not a-single sign of anything nearby. Only two sets of foot prints were visible in the fresh mud leading up to the overlook. It was apparent to me that we had been alone on the path the whole time. 

I had to wonder what had driven the poor woman to such extreme actions. Was she insane? Could she have been on medication? I would never know for sure. The world just wasn't a safe place to be anymore. It was full of crazy people and I had the misfortune of running into one tonight. 

It was getting late. I took off the hockey mask I had been wearing and put my machete away in my backpack as I headed home.