Eyes in The Field

There are some moments in your life that make you question everything that has brought you to a specific moment, and I believe I just experienced one. I’m not sure what I would describe my experience as; like I know what I saw, but I don’t know what would have caused that. What I do know is that I experienced a deep, chilling, primal fear that gripped my spine harder than anything else. What I know is that for the last four hours, ever since it happened, I haven’t been able to stop shaking.

I’m more scared than I ever have been in my life; much more terrified than I ever was as a child. The darkness that I once welcomed as a calming reprise at the end of my day now initiated a fight-or-flight response that wouldn’t leave me. I wanted to crawl into a hole and bury myself to hide from the world, but instead I find myself in front of my laptop typing this out while I take pull off of a previously full bottle of tequila.

My head is getting a little heavy and numb, so I’ll have to type this all out quickly before I pass out. I was visiting my family for the weekend in my home town of Welland, Ontario, Canada; if you’ve never had the “pleasure” of visiting Welland, you’re really not missing much. It’s a city with nothing to do, filled with ever-aging senior citizens and climbing unemployment rates combined with more alcohol profits than Ontario’s capital. Still, my family was from there, so I made trips down at least once a month.

This was one of those weekends that I spent with them; nothing special, just a visit where we caught up. On Sunday we had an unexpectedly large dinner that lasted longer than I was expecting to stay, so I didn’t leave until the sun had set. Flicking my lights on, I began the drive by meandering through the suburbs of Welland; it was neat to drive through a couple of my old haunts I must admit.

After ten minutes of stopping at a stop sign every thirty-seconds, I found myself at the entrance to Webber Road, my preferred route to exiting the city. This 7.8km road was a one-way express out of the city and I had driven down it more times than I could count. It was a guarantee that I would clear the road in under eight minutes and it was so dependable that I could put my brain on autopilot for this part of the drive.

Except this time, I wasn’t able to put my brain on auto pilot. Because I left so late, I would have to rush through preparing for my day of work tomorrow that I was actively planning out what I needed to do at home and what order would yield the most efficient results. Due to this, I was more alert than I had been in years while driving down Webber, and that’s the reason why I saw a small, dim flash coming from the field on my left.

It looked to be a dim, yellow light in the dark field. It was no brighter than an incandescent bulb at ten percent brightness, but with how dark it was at this time, the field appeared to me as a sprawling sheet of flat, indigo umber expanse, lacking any depth of detail. Even though the flash was dim, it looked bright and luminous in contrast to the darkness surrounding it. That’s why it caught my attention as much as it did, and that’s why I turned my car around on the barren street after braking abruptly.

I got out of my car, surveying the abyssal field that stretched out in front of me. The inky surface expanded far beyond what my eyes could see, tricking my brain and its knowledge of this road. During the day, I would have been able to tell you exactly what part of Webber Road this was, but at this late hour, I might as well have been standing on the edge of the road in a different country. But my location wasn’t really the issue right now, but rather the source of the light.

I looked across the field, scanning every spot in front of me, near and far, left to right. But there wasn’t a single reoccurrence of the flash I had seen. I began to get back into my car but that’s when that dull yellow made a reappearance; why didn’t I just drive off without looking again? If I would have ignored the instinct to look back, none of this would have happened.

The light flickered again in the field, but it shone longer this time. It strengthened my suspicions as I noted that it indeed was two small orbs in the night, but I also noted the size and distance of them. What really confirmed everything for me was the noise that accompanied the orbs before they cut away again; the low wail that echoed through the field before the orbs extinguished told me the one thing I needed to know before I progressed.

The orbs appeared to be the reflective eyes of an injured animal in the field, and I was going to try and help it.

Grabbing my phone, I jogged through the field until I was where I suspected this creature was. I looked around as I fumbled around to open my flashlight. After almost dropping my phone, I opened my light to see my surroundings for the first time. When I illuminated the field, the thick, unknowing darkness was transformed into long, green grass that swayed gently in the night’s breeze. Tufts of brown, dead grass and weeds sprouted out of the ground sporadically in lines. This wasn’t farm land, at least not in use farm land. But now that I had a flashlight lit, I should have been able to find this wounded animal quick and easy.

I slowly stepped through the field, scanning the terrain with every step. My labours were fruitless as I wandered the seemingly barren field. I sighed in frustration and turned around to go back to my car. But as I turned, I heard a rustling behind me. Whipping around, I targeted the source of the sound, which was my yellow, glowing-eyed friend. I saw a small, dark shape peeking out from behind one of these dead tufts with those glowing eyes shining out from the near center of its head. I only glimpsed it for the briefest of moments before it ducked back.

I should have turned back right then and there; something didn’t feel right in that moment, but I ignored it to try and help this creature.

 I walked further into the field, holding my flashlight out, sweeping the field back and forth, trying to illuminate every nook, cranny and crevice to find this lost, hurt animal. I slowly walked towards where I last saw it; the last thing that I wanted was to spook the poor thing and have it flee further.

After a minute of stepping through long grass while praying no ticks latched onto me, I was at the spot where I last saw those eyes, but there was nothing there. I scanned through the field again and I did find it, but there was something different. This animal had retreated towards the tree line, which made sense (especially if it was injured), but there was something that stood out to me. This beast’s eyes were a brilliant yellow, the purest yellow I might have ever seen. But as I stared at those reflective eyes, they looked less of a yellow and more orange. I’m no biologist by any means, but I didn’t think animal eyes could change like that. Regardless, I needed to continue forward.

I marched on towards the eyes, taking only a couple steps before they retreated back into the bush. I walked a little faster this time; while I did want to help whatever this was, I also knew that the longer I took here, the longer it would take me to get home. I walked towards the trees while making a soft clicking noise with my tongue, something I saw animal “experts” do on TV often. I just wanted to help this animal and make sure it was ok.

In hindsight I should have seen the multiple cues and signs for me to abandon the situation, but I ignored any intuition and continued to find this mystery creature.

As I approached the edge of the forest, the void behind the trees seemed darker than any other night. Now keep in mind that it had been many years since I found myself in a forest at night, but it seemed different than before; I chocked it up to me not being a dumb kid anymore and tossed away my concerns. I took a couple steps into the dark reaches of the forest; even with my flashlight illuminating the dark, I still couldn’t see that far into it. I took each step carefully in an attempt to not spook my new animal friend, or provoke any predators in the forest, but I was unsuccessful.

The last step I took was my undoing though, as I bumped into a tree stump that was under my line of sight. I swung to the left, sweeping my flashlight across the darkened ground, illuminating a stray patch of grass, or various parts of trees in an almost epileptic fashion. My legs twisted around themselves as I stumbled around the forest’s foliage; I tumbled backwards as I attempted to keep my balance. I succeeded, but I ended up back at the entrance to the forest, leaning up against a log.

I leaned there for a few moments, catching my breath and letting my muscles cool down. It became instantly apparent how badly that could have gone and how hurt I should have gotten. I was done with this foolish endeavour and began to turn around to go back to my car, but that’s when I saw it out of the corner of my eye.

Beside my head, a mere foot away, were those eyes. But this time I realized how different the eyes were. I thought the eyes were reflecting the light from my phone or my car’s headlights before, but I was dead wrong; these eyes were in fact glowing, but now they were glowing a deep crimson. I stared into them, I couldn’t pull myself away from their disturbingly entrancing light. Only when I smelt a sickly sweet smell was the enchantment broken, and the fear set in. I spun to run back to my car, but I tripped over a fallen branch. I was sent sprawling out on the scratchy grass, gasping for air as my phone flew into the unknown.

I managed to calm my breathing and regain some composure before I scrambled to grab my phone, but it was impossible to see the digital rectangle that holds so much of my life. I swatted at the ground for a small eternity before I heard a soft thud come from my feet. I flipped myself back onto my back and was greeted by those glowing, piercing, crimson eyes. I couldn’t see what they belonged to, but the longer I stared at them, the more unsettled I felt. The eyes were unnatural, and the more I focused on them, the more light-headed I became, and yet, I couldn’t look away. I laid there, transfixed on the hypnotic eyes while my brain split on whether I welcomed them coming closer to me, or dreaded it.

The choice was not mine though as the eyes began to expand as the creature moved towards me. It was silent, except for the soft sounds of feet… no not feet, I’m not sure what this thing had. From my best guess, this… thing had more than four legs. Up until that moment I thought I was dealing with a feral wolf, coyote or even a fox; originally I thought I would find an injured cat or dog, but now, I had no freaking idea what was in front of me. The frequent, rapid sounds of steps told my terrified brain that whatever this was, had more than eight legs. I was paralyzed as it approached me. But then, something unthinkable happened that filled me with such fear that I thought my heart would stop in that very moment.

The moment I felt hot breath on my ankles, the eyes began to rise; the beast at my feet was showing a display of dominance and it was working. I felt more fear in that moment than all the experiences I had ever had combined, but that was exceeded when the eye’s escalation continued. They rose into the sky in a smooth motion, and in under fifteen seconds, the eyes were over ten feet in the air, leering over me. Those bright red eyes towered above my vulnerable position when an obtuse thought entered my head; since when could I see my breath?

When I stopped my car it was 14oC; sure it was slightly on the brisk side at that time of night, it wasn’t grounds to cause my breath to condensate. On top of that, the hairs were standing up on my arms along with the back of my neck, and I could feel goose-bumps all over my body. I assumed that the hairs and bumps were due to the immense terror I was experiencing, but the temperature must have gone down ten degrees at least. I was frozen on my back, both literally and figuratively; I was completely helpless as I awaited my doom.

Time froze as this… I’m not even sure what I can call this thing at this point. Creature? Monster? Abomination? I’ll have to think on it. But I was helpless on the ground, waiting for this thing to strike me down; I was filled with so much fear that I could feel it oozing out of me as my breath was stuck in my throat.

Through a combination of sheer will and the strongest urge to preserve my life, I began to crawl backwards, slowly and carefully, but with incredible urgency. I couldn’t look away from those two glowing, red orbs; they had a hypnotic effect on me, but my urge to live was stronger. After moving backwards a couple steps, I felt a cold, flat device in my hand. I had finally found my phone, and that one relieving gesture snapped me out of the trance I was in.

I scrambled to my feet and began sprinting faster than I ever had to my car. I jumped in and began to speed off before I had even fully closed my door. I didn’t look back, I couldn’t. If I did, maybe those eyes would have drawn me in again. I drove back into Welland, checking in at The Best Western on Prince Charles Drive. I didn’t have it in me to go back home, and I couldn’t go back to my parent’s house; what the hell would I tell them.

So here I am, sitting in a hotel room typing this out on my phone. I have no idea what that was, but it scares the shit out of me. I don’t know what to do next, but I do know one thing; I’m never going back on Webber Road.

- Cody S