Essay

It Was a Dark & Stormy Night.....

Standing at the bus stop in heavy snow, cold and wet, fed up. Wanting to get home where it would be warm and dry. Thinking about it, looking over to the Belisha beacon a few yards away.

Suddenly a movement there caught my eye. Something peculiar was happening to the bright orange ball, the one on the same side of the pavement as me.

It seemed to be cracking open all by itself. The light went out, but the street lamp nearby illuminated it well enough to see what was happening and there was a silvery luminous light shining from the broken beacon, something I’d never seen before.

From the top appeared a claw-like hand, pushing the ball wider, like a chicken hatching from its egg, but this was no chicken.

Foam surrounded its slithering body. It had a small head, but it was growing bigger, with glaring red eyes and a fang filled mouth...

Like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, it thrust itself further out, but this was no butterfly either….

The snake like body had legs every few inches -like an octopus but with claws at the ends. As I watched, the head increased to about a football size and turned towards me. The jaws fell open to reveal its discolored teeth and two of the arms reached out towards me, getting longer by the second.

I was petrified, paralyzed.

Next, in the pouring rain, I saw a bedraggled cat run along the pavement towards me. Not looking up, it did not see what was happening at the top of the beacon.

The monster reached down and seized it, pulling it up towards its teeth. It began to eat it, the cat screamed and clawed at its attacker, but it was no use.

I heard its bones crunch as the monster consumed it. The body came out from the beacon altogether and advanced towards me. By now it was truly a monster, about three meters long, the body covered with glistening slime, the snake like tongue sticking out between bloodstained fangs.

There was no-one about to see this frightening scene, but suddenly, a...