The Incident at Blackgrove

Chapter 5: The Festival, Pt.3 (The Statue)

Then, without warning, his eyes opened. Like a pair of headlights, the two circular orbs that were his eyes glowed a bright white, standing out in the dark. "Driver!" I exclaimed, almost reflexively. "Look, you wanna do this? I'm trying my best here!" he yelled. I could feel everyone looking at me, but I didn't care. I noticed Willa turning to the driver and saying, "you know, we're really close to the grounds now, maybe we can just walk back?"

"It's dark, missie. Dangerous. Just hang tight." Willa turned back to me with a helpless look on her face. "There's nothing there, Dakota," she said. I said nothing and looked back towards the glowing eyes. "You really see something, don't you?" she continued. I nodded.

She questioned me further; "what is he doing?"

"He's not moving. His eyes are glowing white. I can barely see him." Suddenly, the silhouette moved forward, making me jump, stepping into what little light there was, then stopped. I could see him a little better and so proceeded to describe him further to Willa. Even though I wished to stop looking at him, I could not.

"He stepped into the light. I can see him now," I said, "he's not smiling like he usually does. He's...frowning? He's holding something in his right hand. It's some kind of sack. His head is lowered but he's still looking right at me. Wait, what is...God, the sack! It's bleeding!"

"Dakota, are you sure you're really seeing this? This doesn't sound like him."

"I swear, Willa. I can see him as plain as I see you. He's raising his arm now and...smiling. The sack is dripping lots of blood. There's so much blood. I don't...I don't understand how it's bleeding that much. He's cocking his head to the side." Willa tugged my arm and I turned to look at her and everyone else in the cart. Willa looked concerned, but everyone else seemed scared. "I think you're scaring them," she said. I turned back around to look at Sikhs again, but all I could see was his arm, the sack, his face, and his fading eyes as he retreated back into the darkness, laughing just like a fox.

"Wait," I said, "he's leaving. Laughing! I feel like he's laughing at me."

"Dakota. There's nothing there. Really. You're safe." I turned to look at her again and she put her hand on my cheek. "Just look at me," she continued, "I'm real. Alright?  Just focus on that." I don't know how, but her touch seemed to bring me back. I felt less anxious, less frightened. I felt more connected to reality. It was as if she pulled me back from some mental ledge where, if I had fallen, I'd have been in danger of not coming back.

The tractor driver interrupted us. "Alright there, folks. She's a runnin' again. Here we go!" and just like that, the terror was over. The people in the cart stopped looking at me and started clapping and cheering for the driver. It was strange. It felt like a switch had been turned on and everyone moved on quickly from what had just happened. Even I had started to forget the severity of what I had just felt, as if I was remembering a traumatic memory from long ago.

"So, aren't you glad we did that?" said Willa with a big smile on her face, holding my arm. I smiled back at her and said, "yeah! That was fun." Strange. It didn't feel weird when I was in the middle of it, but like much of this story I'm telling, retrospectively, I can clearly see how strange that behavior was, to move from fear to complacency and then to normalcy in a matter of seconds. That was not normal. At all.

After we departed the hayride, we went around and played some games, grabbed some popcorn, and even put in some cash for some of the silent auction prizes. I won't lie to you. It was fun. More fun than I'd had in....well, ever. If you recall me saying, I didn't have a very fun nor eventful life until I left home and then it was survival from then on. I'd never really had the chance to do something like this. I enjoyed it. I never wanted it to stop.