This is Day 29 of #MarchusAnnus challange. More On the Edge of Sight. Links to the other parts are available at the bottom of this post.
The hooded figure of Bobby Pelson had been completely still since Miles said “here it comes.” A rush of darkness swept across the screen, like a black wind coming from the left side of the image. At the same time the footage began to distort heavily then quickly returned to the clear as mud, grainy image from before. Ray’s eyes started to widen, until he remembered that he was trying not to tip off Miles to how much he really knew about this situation. Ray knew exactly what the flash of midnight was, after all he had a run in with it a day earlier.
“See, that’s, I mean,” the murky streak obviously rattled Miles, “what the hell could cause that?”
Ray didn’t even have a chance to feign his ignorance before Miles interrupted. “Wait, wait. Watch what happens next.” Miles tapped on the screen.
The shadow jumped around the store from shelf to shelf, lines of the image would shift with every jump. It approached Bobby then came to a complete stop, in position only. It appeared to shift and jitter the entire time it sat in front of Bobby. One thing that could be made out is that it appeared to sit in front of Bobby, with a shape that was reminiscent of a dog.
Ray was now getting a clear look at the creature. He had a dossier on animals like this one, made of shadow. The organization that Ray had been secretly working for called these things edge-creatures. There were few of these edge-creatures that had been identified, they didn’t usually move through the visible parts of the world. They lived on the edges, the spaces ‘inbetween’ visible things. However, this shape was seen relatively frequently, due to its likeness to dogs it was given the classification edge-hound. He made a mental note to do more research back at the office.
Back on the security footage they could see Bobby reach his hand out, palm up, to the edge-hound. It dropped something into Bobby’s hand, but the distortion, caused by the beast being there, made it impossible to make out on the recording. Its task complete, the dog of shadow took off as fast as entered
“What was that?” Ray urgently requested.
“We’ve been trying to figure that out,” Miles conceded, “but finding a single missing item in a mom and pop retail operation like this is going to depend on how well they keep inventory.”
Miles walked Ray back to the front of the store. Ray took a quick look around the shelves, hoping to find something out of place. He recalled all shelves where the creature jumped. Careful reasoning notwithstanding, there was no evidence to support any concrete conclusion.
Miles tried to get some answers again, “so, do you know what that was on the camera?”
“I have an idea.” Ray answered flatly.
“Well what is it?” Miles sought some clarity on something he had a hard time wrapping his head around.
“Haven’t I helped you with this kind of thing before?” Ray provided some peace of mind, but no such clarity.
Ray reached into his pockets and fished around for his rabbit’s foot. Once found, he pulled his keys out and took a step towards the door. Miles stopped him with a hand on the shoulder.
“Ray, don’t you have anything I can use?” Miles pleaded.
“I’ve got to get on this quick.” Ray became more serious, “do what you can here, I’ll be in touch if I have anything for you.” Miles lifted his hand from Ray’s shoulder. Ray continued to walk out the front door of the store. He gave another nod to the officer at the perimeter as he stepped over the tape. Opening the car door he ducked down into the yellow roadster, fired up the engine, and sped off on a slightly different path from the way he came.
There have been 29 day(s) since the last non-creation day. This marks 29 consecutive day(s) of posting for #MarchusAnnus. #UnusAnnus #MomentoMori. Check out UnusAnnus and subscribe to their channel before it’s too late.
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The Original A.J. Young 