Jim alone noticed something else too. There was a sound, almost like the ringing of a phone but not quite, every time one of the sparks of light went off. He dared not look around to see if the others noticed anything. He didn’t even know if they were still there for that matter. Between the ringing and what was approaching, his attention was about full. He knew if he took his eyes off the thing for a second it would surely be on him. After that he didn’t even want to imagine what would happen. He knew he’d at least be dead if not something worse.
The beast continued moving towards them, taking its time, stalking them like the wild animal it was and they were its prey. Each step brought it closer and closer. Each time a hoof crashed to the ground the ringing sound echoed in Jim’s head. Every time he heard it, he thought it sounded more and more like a phone and not the sound a hoof would make. If not for being so afraid he might have thought this was strange but as it was he could think of nothing but the otherworldly animal slowly approaching him.
Slowly, step by step it came closer. With every step the fog rolled, wrapping it like some foul cloak, but still seeming to despise the touch of the dreaded creature. Jim fervently wished the fog would consume the thing and make it disappear. Then he wouldn’t have to worry about anything, he’d be safe. He almost thought his wish had come true when more fog suddenly swirled across the path in front of the creature and it seemed to disappear. Straining to see it, he could barely make out the hideous legs that carried it forward. All traces of hair and hoof were gone. The only thing that marked its passage was the ringing. That was still sounding in Jim’s skull. Even though the legs were gone it still came. If his wish was coming true it sure was taking it’s time. Unfortunately, the fog was just making it seem to disappear. It was still there and he was still going to be dead when it reached him.
The ringing continued getting louder and louder the closer the creature got. It was now only few more steps away. The ringing was so loud that Jim was sure his ears were about to burst. If nothing else they were probably bleeding. He’d seen that once in a movie and it hadn’t looked pleasant. Curiously he didn’t feel any pain so maybe they hadn’t burst yet but they were surely about to. Just as curiously the ringing didn’t seem to be coming from the creature anymore so much as it did from his own skull. He almost wished the creature would hurry up and kill him just so he could be rid of the noise ricocheting around between his ears.
Having been so preoccupied with watching the creature lumber towards him Jim hadn’t noticed that it seemed to be carrying something. The fog obscured it a little making it difficult to see. It was probably the head of its last victim or something equally disgusting. As if sensing that Jim had noticed, the Goatman swung his arm up to give him a better view. At the height of the swing, just before it started its downward descent, Jim he finally recognized what it was. The huge, disfigured hand was holding an axe. But it wasn’t just any axe. Jim had only seen one of this magnitude when looking through books about Vikings and the weapons they used in battle. The blade by itself was bigger than his head. Moonlight gleamed off the blade showing a finely honed edge. If nothing else the Goatman took care of his tools. Jim had a moment to think how sad his situation was. They’d finally found the creature of legend called the Goatman, they’d confronted him and were now about to die. One of the weapons he’d thought looked so cool in the books was slowly starting, but quickly picking up speed, towards its only logical destination, his head.
The axe cleaved the air as it made its inevitable way towards him when suddenly the ringing noise cut through his terror. It echoed so loudly and with such force that his hands shot up wrapping around his head trying to block it out. The beast was standing still but his arm still seemed to be moving. He didn’t spend a lot of time trying to figure it out. Not that it mattered much anymore. Jim’s eyes were only seeing one thing. The axe was only inches from his head and coming closer. He could almost hear a whistling sound as it parted the air but another ringing noise struck just milliseconds before the axe hit his head
This is reality
…and he sat up in bed arms still wrapped tightly around his it. Sitting up he rubbed his eyes and quickly surveyed the room. Light from outside made vein attempts at penetrating the curtains only to be halted just shy of entering. Only a few vagrant shafts made it in. From this he saw nothing out of the ordinary. No Goatman, no trees, no childhood friends, nothing out the ordinary. His dirty clothes still lay were he’d left them the previous night. It was a dream he thought to himself, only a dream.
After ensuring there were no lurking Goatmen, he quickly felt his head to make sure there wasn’t an axe or anything else embedded in it. Much to his relief he found no foreign objects of any kind sticking out from where they shouldn’t be and nothing else obviously wrong. His heart was slowly reaching a speed that didn’t feel like it was about to crack a rib as he closed his eyes, propped his head up and thanked God it was only a dream and he was still alive.
When he had awoken from the nightmare his poor heart had been trying to pound its way out of his chest. It still felt a little sore. (Luckily he was still pretty young). If he was any older he might not have woken up at all.
He swung his legs out from the tangled sheets but not before feeling a slimy wetness beneath them. Placing one hesitant hand on the sheets he quickly found out they were soaked through with sweat. Looking down at himself he found the sheets weren’t the only thing covered in sweat, at least that’s what he hopped it was.
The ringing sound from his dream intruded on his self examination. Looking around he searched for its source, he was awake now but he still heard the ringing. After a few more rings he realized it was the phone. That was the noise that had driven him out of his dream. He’d never been so happy to hear that sound in his life. He fumbled the rest of his way out of the sheets and quickly located the phone underneath one of his pillows that had fallen off the bed during the night. Untangling the cord, he happily answered it.
“Thank God you finally picked up!” his mothers’ worried voice just about shouted from the receiver.
“Hi Mom!” he said as brightly as he could manage. “Boy am I glad you called. I was having the weirdest dream…”
“Jim, I don’t know an easy way to tell you this,” she said cutting him off, “so I’ll just come right out and say it. There’s been a terrible accident out here son,” pause, “your friend Tommy was found dead in the woods. Nobody knows how it happened.”
Jim didn’t hear most of whatever else his mother had to say. He didn’t hear her asking him if he was ok or if he was still there. He didn’t hear her asking if he could come home quickly or if he needed any money to do so. He didn’t hear any of these things because a few seconds after he’d heard his mother say Tommy was dead the phone fell from his hand and hit the floor. Not much longer after that he followed it.
1
If anybody’d asked Jim what had happened after he finally picked himself up off the floor he didn’t think he’d be able to tell them. All could remember through the haze that his days became was that he’d somehow managed to call his job at the electric company and asked for a leave of absence. Since this time of the year was just like any other his boss didn’t have a problem with it. He even gave Jim his condolences, but Jim wasn’t paying attention much after he’d heard what he wanted to. He mechanically said thanks and hung up already working on the next problem. As long as he kept moving he was ok. It was when he stopped to think about something that the memories of Tommy flooded in. One minute he’d be thinking about getting somebody to check his mail while he was gone, and the next thing he knew he was lost in thoughts of when he and Tommy had played mailbox baseball or how they used to go looking for frogs in the creek. Then he was just a bawling puddle until he pulled it together and started trying to get everything arranged for his trip.