Weird Things

I have always been a sucker for myths and Pa grew up on the knees of his grandparents who did not spare him the ancient stories and mythologies. Pa used to tell us a lot of those stories when I was a little girl. We had this habit of sitting outside in the evenings and gulping down different stories with different fruits. Any fruit that was in season served as a story time snack. On my father's knees, I learnt about God the Ancient of Days, I learnt about the heavens and the earth. I even learnt about the world where spirits and ghosts reside. Those were scary stories but funny enough, I believed them.
Genny and I became friends at the beginning of our first semester in college. She was a very beautiful girl with long legs which I playfully referred to as tree trunks. We made a striking picture on the paved streets of the college as we went everywhere together, she was as tall and fair as I was tiny and dark. We shared everything except underwear and boyfriends. We had a pattern of walking which most people found annoying, Genny usually walked like two strides ahead of me. She had longer strides and after a semester of always running to catch up with her, I stopped which made her slow down a little but yet, she still walked ahead of me while we carried on a conversation. Many people thought we were weird, she was more outspoken while I was reserved but I used to jump in front of her to fight her battles.
I listened to a friend's mum one day during the school vacation. She was talking about the history of my college or the history of the vast land before the school was built. It was a sacred forest where all kinds of things you can imagine lived, where betrayed warriors would go in annoyance never to be seen again. I heard stories all the time about students seeing weird things like ghosts and spirits but I never believed one single tale until I heard my friend's mom who hailed from the town talking about it, then I began to wonder. After dwelling on it for two minutes, I dismissed the confusing thoughts. I knew students could make up stories after stories, well I was not gonna be part of the "seeing" group. When I got back to school, I gisted Genny and we both laughed it off. Sacred forest indeed.
Exams rolled in and we started studying late into the nights. We were in our second year and we were greatly fed up with school life. One of these late night studies left us stranded on a lonely strecht of the road leading to the staff quarters. Genny had her car but it ran out of gas. We had managed to steal a gallon from her mum's car two days before so I guess our luck just ran out. We were like two miles away from Genny's house so we got down, locked the car and left everything in there. We were so exhausted we just didnt wanna hold anything. We took off our shoes and started down the road. Like usual, Genny walked in front of me. She started singing and I joined in.
We were just yards away from the house when Genny suddenly stopped singing and came to a standstill. I nearly ran into her back but stopped myself on time.
''what the..............?'' then I saw it too.
I stared at the form in front of us. At first I thought my mind was playing tricks on me but right there was the tallest creature I had ever seen. It was almost as tall as an electric pole and almost as slim. It came towards us with long and sure steps. When I look back now, I just know that thing had been out on a nightly stroll. Goose pimples raised down my arms and the hair at my nape stood at attention. My head swelled up and my throat closed in fear. There was
a street lamp just a few feet in front of us and when the creature got under the light, it disappeared but we could still hear the footsteps.
I cant remember whose brain and legs connected first but suddenly we were flying into the bushes, running for dear life. Luckily, we came out into Genny's yard and banged loudly on the front door with screams that could wake the dead. Prof threw open the door and we got an earful. We couldnt explain what we saw. He warned us about walking in the dead of the night. Genny and I were trembling so hard we did not even feel Prof's wrath, we kept staring at each other like zombies. Prof went back to his bedroom, muttering about sturborn goat-headed children.
We walked slowly to the living room and looked at the grandfather clock as it chimed like a runaway train. It was 2 O' Clock in the morning.