FOOTSTEPS

   The driver was being sought but there were few clues, as the girl had been home alone
when the accident occurred.    There was the usual procession of mourners and 'friends'.
Statements from neighbors and images of relatives sobbing in the background.
The whole block on the street holding candlelight vigil for the 'Beloved' girl...
So sweet and innocent to have her life taken at such a young age.   How much everyone missed her...
The story ended with a somber, but somehow cheerful and smiling anchorwoman pleading with the public-

   "Please, if you have any knowledge of this accident or owner of the vehicle...contact your local authorities..."

   'What a fuckin' laugh.' He thought.  Any knowledge?  Know who did it? 
He rubbed a meaty, sweaty, palm across his brow.   Then grabbing the remote
and pushing the 'OFF' button. Yeah...   He knew all right.   He leaned back in his recliner. 
Staring blank-eyed at the crumbling paint on the ceiling.

   He looked perfectly relaxed...but a slight trembling of his hand as he put the remote down betrayed him.

   The dream started again...flickering in his mind like the blue light from the old television he watched. 
Picking up clarity and realism as it played through...

   He was in his car.   Driving home after a visit to the local 'Working Man's' pub...
a dark, greasy, place with topless dancers who would make better money picking up aluminum cans.
   It was a late, hot afternoon...   Too hot for November.   The afternoon Sun spread a red glare
across his windshield.   Driving through a neighborhood only two miles from his own, he began
watching for a house on the right.   THE HOUSE.  where THE GIRL lived!
   It was from this house where the girl was, that, almost everyday- He or his car were assaulted.
   She hid behind bushes and cars.  Screaming obscenities at him or throwing objects
at the car as he drove by.
   A week ago a plastic bag of dog feces had splattered across his windshield and as
he got out to push it off, the girl had stood in the door of her home laughing and taunting.  
Running away...   He could always hear those stupid hard soled, little girls shoes clacking
on the pavement as she ran, either towards his car to attack or away to escape...  
He hated the sound of them!  HATED it! 'clack-clack-clack-CLACK!'
   He had started to walk up to the house when she raised her skirt...   She was wearing no panties
and held her skirt up for what seemed an eternity.   He had stopped, mouth falling open,
stunned, as she wiggled her early teen hips at him...pumping them back and forth...
   Then she yelled 'PERVERTED MOTHERHUMPER!!!' and slammed the door...  
He heard the lock catch from the inside.    But he was so shocked and embarrassed that
all he could do was stumble back to his car and drive away...fast!
    'How dare she?' He nearly screamed. 'How DARE she?'  He had beat the steering wheel of the car ineffectually...

    But today was different.   He had a long week of work to get it under control, plus
the three straight-shooters he had at the bar didn't hurt either.    He was going to get the matter
settled once and for all.   He was driving through her neighborhood...maybe a little too fast, maybe not.
   He was watching to the right...looking for her house to come into view...watching for HER. 
When he heard those damn shoes... 'clack-clack-CLACK!'
An egg exploded against the left-side window of his car.   Instinctively he swerved to the left,
stepping onto the gas peddle.. 'clack-clack-THUMP!'
   He felt the car shudder and bounce as he went over something in the road.  
Looking in his rearview mirror...he had a moments hesitation before he realized what he was seeing...  
A shapeless mass lying in the street.   A white blouse...turning crimson...   A blue plaid skirt...her soft,
white legs sticking out, splayed over the pavement...  A single, black shoe...spinning like a top.  
The beige sole flashing in the sun as it turned in circles, trading places with the black, leather top,
slowly spinning away into the gutter...   He realized that she had hidden on the opposite side today...
had run out between the cars...

    He tossed in his sleep...moaning...thrashing...   The dreams mixed and re-formed in his mind...

    He was walking.   It was pitch-black.   A storm was brewing overhead and gusts
of wind blew his thinning hair in wild patterns...   Dead leaves skated over the street, making a
harsh rasping sound...  Ahead of him there was a streetlight.  Casting a warm yellowish
circle onto the pavement below...    A cold chill ran up his spine.   He suddenly felt as if he
were going to freeze to death... his blood curdled in his veins...    He could hear the footsteps....  
She was coming, her shoes clattering on the sidewalk as she came towards him out of the darkness!
   'clack....clack....clack.'
    He had to make the light.   He would be safe there...in the circle of the light...  
He tried to walk faster...everything moved in slow motion...     He was less then ten feet from the circle of light. 
From safety.  When she caught him.   A cold, claw like hand grabbing his shoulder with unearthly strength.
   Spinning him around...and she stood there- no, she FLOATED there!   Over the ground,
like an apparition of dread.   Up and down, slowly...the heels of he shoes on the pavement as she
went down- 'clack!'  then back up...eye level with him, then down again...'CLACK!'  
Up and down, down and up....     Her face was an hideous caricature of the beautiful, dark-haired,
blue-eyed girl she had been.   A ghost trace of the stunning woman she was to become...
   One side of her face as shredded.   He could see the empty tooth sockets and torn gums
through her flayed cheek...   Both of her eyes were swollen and bulging from their sockets,
dark rimmed and purplish as if some force were pressing them out from behind...
    A putrid scent- roadkill laying in the sun for days- permeated the air around her.  Making him gag
as it burned his sense of smell.
    She reached out towards him.  Arm dangling, bone broken at the elbow...  
From the dark chasm of her mouth came a chilling, sickly sweet, soft, girl's voice...
    "Was I so bad Mister?   Did I deserve to die?  Why didn't you stop?"   The words turned cold
and lifeless...no longer a sweet child's voice but somehow, dark and evil.  
She moved closer to him... "You'll pay Mister..."  She said...coming closer.
"you'll rot in hell for killing me!  And I'll be right there with Ya', forever and ever!" 
She grinned showing more of her torn mouth...tongue swollen and black, twisting like a snake...  
Then she started floating up and down faster...picking up speed.  Broken arms flapping at her sides... 
"Forever Mister...forever and ever and ever..!"

    He awoke with a scream trapped in his head.  At first he thought it was himself howling in terror. 
then realizing it was his alarm...reached over with trembling hand and turned it off...
    He felt as if he hadn't slept at all.  And didn't remember going into his room and getting
into bed during the night.   He got ready for work.  Ate small breakfast of cold cereal and
an orange while watching the news....watching for the dreaded 'break' in the case, where the
next knock on his front door would be the men in the dark suits and badges... 
Nothing.  not even a mention....

    He had stopped driving his car.  Leaving it hidden in his garage and riding the bus.  
He didn't want someone seeing and recognizing it.   It was a couple of days after the accident that,
while walking up his street at night coming in from work, he started hearing her footsteps...  
Her shoes clattering up the sidewalk behind him.  At first he thought it had been the jitters.  
But that changed to sheer terror a few nights ago when the footsteps rushed up to him out of the
darkness and a cold, bony, hand had raked him across the shoulders!   Sending him fleeing in terror to his front porch.   now he was a true-beleiver.

He worked in a factory making tin cans...standing in one spot all day watching so the machinery
didn't jam up or start putting out cans with no bottoms or tops or whatever.   He worked until 5:30 P.M.,
and it was a two-hour bus ride back to his neighborhood...well after dark when he got in...  
The same time at night when the footsteps started.

     It was well after 8 P.M., when he got off the bus for the six block walk home.  
He had missed his normal ride and there was a delay of the next bus.   There had been a series
of heavy thunderstorms in the area that day and the air was damp and chilly, occasional
streaks of lightning raced across the sky...
    Two blocks from his house, goose bumps popped out all over his body and
they weren't from the chill winds that blew through the streets.
    The trees, having moments before, been whipped into a frenzy by the winds- stopped.  
Nothing moved.   Dead calm...  then the wind whipped up again and through the noise
of the blowing leaves he could hear her footsteps!  coming on fast this time.  With purpose...
and she was SKIPPING!
    He turned and bolted for his life...running...fear driving him....   She was coming fast...
so much faster than before and he could hear a banshee shrieking out of the night at him and
her voice whispering..."Forever and forever andforeverandeverand...."   He felt as if his mind
were unraveling like a weather-beaten softball coming apart at the seams...his insides turning to jelly..  
And still she came...'clack, clack, CLACK!'
    He hit the front door with a dull 'thud'.  fumbling and dropping his keys...had to get inside to safety! 
Driven by panic, he lunged against the door once...twice.  On the third hit the doorknob
broke loose and clattered onto the porch...the frame gave way and the top hinge broke free,
swinging the door inwards with a ripping crunch.  He stumbled inside...safe at last!  
That's when she grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed!

    Deborah and Jack Nichols were driving past the following morning.   They were a retired
couple who lived up the street.  The neighborhood was mostly empty now.  the houses of the 50's
clapboard type, were mostly in dis-repair and abandoned.
    Jack wanted to see if things were all right after the major storm of the night before.  
They had lost electricity and there were downed trees in the area.
    As the car pulled into the drive.  Jack could see Herb kneeling inside of his door.  Jack noticed
that the door was hanging on only one hinge as well.   It was a moment before he realized
that Herb wasn't moving.
    "Stay here Deb." He said. "I want to see what is going on..."  
His wife frowned at him momentarily as he got out of the car.
    Jack walked up to the porch and stopped.  Herb didn't move.
    "Herb?  Everything alright?"  Nothing....
    Jack stepped up and tentatively walked in...   Herb was hunched over just inside the door,
kneeling in front of a statue, a horse...no wait, a unicorn.  One Herb had given his wife
the Summer before she passed away.  He kept the thing sitting in front of the door like a sentinel,
horn pointing out as if warning people away.   There was leaves and debris all over and around him. 
It looked like the door must have been open all night.
    "Herb, you O.k.?"   Jack reached out and touched Herbs shoulder.   The body was cold.  
Jack pulled on him a little harder, trying to shake him and Herb fell backwards and down like a sack of flour.  
Jack looked down and knew the man was never going to answer....It was the damnedest thing he'd ever seen.
    Herb, while stumbling around in the dark, had somehow, managed to impale himself on the unicorns horn.  
But it was the look on Herbs face that gave Jack a start...not of pain or surprise.   but of sheer,
unmitigated terror...as if hell itself had opened up and he had looked in...

    After the police had come and asked their questions, they allowed Jack to go...for which he was more than glad to do...

    While searching the house the police did find something interesting.   A swatch of cloth in the
front of Herbs car...tangled in the underside of the bumper.  It matched the clothing from a hit-and-run
victim a few weeks earlier.   there would, of course, be an investigation.
    Jack left the house and walked towards his car.   The wind picked up and rustled the tree limbs,
skating them over the rooftops up and down the street.
The noise they made reminded Jack of his grand kids as they played on the drive of his house...
    He got into his car.  He had seen a pair of little girls shoes sitting just inside the front door of Herbs house.  
They had grass on them and were still damp from having been outside in the night.  
He thought for a moment, not remembering if Herb had any grand kids or not.  
Then the wind picked up a little and the branches brushed over the roofs up and down the street.

    "You know,' he thought, smiling to himself." I bet those shoes sound just like that when the little girl runs
on the sidewalk in them...kind of a 'clack-clack noise."    He smiled to himself as he backed out of the driveway.