Multiple Sightings

ATTENTION READER - The following is a prequel to CTstories' creepypasta, The Ombra. If you haven't read it, do that before you read this or else you won't understand any of the shit that goes on here. I have CT's permission to write this, and there is a high chance that this will be integrated into the original story's canon. So, in conclusion, I hope you enjoy this creepypasta. THE PRAWN ORDERS YOU TO ENJOY THIS.

Multiple Sightings - An Ombra Prequel
PART ONE

1971 - 1977

16-year-old Dan Stoltz blessed the moment that the school bell rang, freeing the students from their day-long mindless drovel within the walls of Hillsboro High School in Hillsboro, Kansas. Dan was a sophomore student in this dead-end town, wishing for greater things and a way out. With his books in hand, he stumbled out the door and into the day. It was overcast, with patches of sun and rain here and there. Dan had heard the saying about April showers, but it was more of a faint drizzle than something significant.

As he began the walk home through the streets. The coniferous trees which had been planted almost strategically at intervals next to the sidewalk were re-growing their periodically colorful leaves after a bitter, dry and blistering winter that had left crops dead and animals bewildered from what seemed in their minds to be a catastrophic climate change. And as Dan negotiated the sidewalks to his home blocks away, no one noticed him. Why? Because Dan Stoltz, in 1971, was a stereotypical loner, an outcast, a nerd, an egghead, a regular Poindexter who was mentally ruled by his overall blatancy.

Dan stared down at his feet as he walked. A pair of Adidas running shoes, how cute. Not only did Dan observe his feet but he noted the cracks in the sidewalk and the waste being funneled into the sewer grates next to the curb by some natural force that Dan couldn't put his finger on.

He then looked up, to the other side of the road.

On the opposite sidewalk, he could've sworn, was a tall figure (about six or seven feet) with grey, pallid skin, stand there next to a tree, with its fingers curled up into claws and its back hunched over, diminishing its overall height by a couple inches.

He blinked, astonished.

Nothing. Not even the negative of footsteps or any physical indication that anything had been there.

It was probably nothing, he thought, shaking his head and continuing on his walk.

This was Dan Stoltz's first encounter with the Ombra, but definitely not the last.

The second time was in 1973, when Dan was 18 years old. At this point in his life, Dan was attending McPherson College in the nearby city of McPherson in order to abtain a Ph.D. It was his father that told him that to obtain a medical degree would open the door to a variety of different occupations. And hell, Dan's father was right.

After a day of tests and note-taking, Dan had retreated to his dorm for some much needed shut-eye with his roommate, Tyler.

It was the summer time, so Dan cracked open a window in order to circulate some fresh air throughout the room. In retrospect, Dan would've determined that would've been a bad idea.

That night, Dan and Tyler were fast asleep, their bedsheets pushed aside as they lay in their underwear and t-shirts, bodies clammy and hot to the touch.

All of the sudden, Dan was stirred out of his shallow slumber by a light knock on the window.

Dan, knowing the probable causes of something like that, rolled over into a more comfortable position.

There was another knock. And another.

Dan, complaining to himself under his breath, clambered up to the sill to see what was causing these knocks. It was probably a branch or wind knocking something against the window.

It wasn't either of those. In fact, it was in fact a ghoulish face, with black pits for eyes and sizable blades for teeth, stared back with a faint grin.

Dan screamed and fell back of the bed and onto the floor.

The scream woke Tyler up, Tyler nearly falling out of bed himself.

As Tyler collected himself with wide, terrified eyes, Dan peered out the window again.

Nothing.

Dan didn't know it at the time, but he had seen this same creature before many years ago. For now, he sat in his bed and pondered about the nature of what he saw and Tyler asked the what the fuck had happened and demanded an explanation.

The third encounter took place in late August of 1975. Dan was now 20, and, barely evolved from the gullible egghead that was born and raised to be, he had taken a knack to all the teenage risks a member of the Baby Boomer generation could ever attempt. He and a kid from his college nicknamed 'Twenty' were driving south on Interstate 135, in Twenty's baby blue pickup, in a drunken search for Mexico. Cans of Budweiser were tossed out of every open window as the car swerved across the lanes of the highway, fueled more by the embers of a vanishing summer than gasoline.

As the truck sped towards Wichita in a haze, Dan and Twenty took turns making jokes about homosexuals and while extolling the virtues of women and porn, all this while Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" blared over the radio.

"Y' know, ti's and ass are th' best thing women c'n have, y' know," Twenty blurted out as he burped.

Dan laughed. "Yea, t'tlly. Nice rack, give m' a back massage...."

"Asian bitches 'r' th' best at giv'n massa-ma-maseg-massages, heh!"

"Yea, wit' that 'ching-chong' thing and the sexy Asian asses an'...."

Before they could continue their philosophical debate, something rolled under the wheels of the truck, causing the truck to violently keel to one side and dart off the road, landing in an explosion of dust.

Dan and Twenty both coughed as they exited the truck in a cloud of kicked-up dirt and gravel. Twenty went to check out the road to see what they hit while Dan guarded the truck from 'fags'.

It was then that Dan's quivering gaze became fixed on the outline of a figure in the dark; kind of like a cut-out of black construction paper glued on a background. The figure was tall, waifish and limping, a hand clutching its torso as it stumbled onward.

"Twen'y!! TWEN'Y!!!!"

By the time that Twenty arrived, it was gone, blended into the night like everything else. On this note, Dan and Twenty got back in the truck and drove on, reaching Topeka at 2 am, sleeping in the truck over night, before realizing their mistake and hastily driving back to McPherson the next day.

The fourth time occurred on Halloween night of 1977. 22-year-old Dan was walking back to his dorm from a customary college Halloween party with a flashlight in his hand. After the realization that the substance known as beer would cause Dan to inadvertently worm his way into some crazy shit, and thus should be avoided. Thus, Dan had taken up a grudging code of abstinence, which had bent ever so little. He only had one or two beers tonight to avoid sarcastic comments from his peers, and he was feeling alright. He told himself as he walked. ''You're alright, Dan. You're alright. Just follow the trail back up to campus and you'll be fine.''

However, as the flashlight's field of illumination veered at the direction of Dan's partially shaky hand, the beam caught a certain creature in its headlights.

This time, the creature seemed almost surprised as it gawked at the light and quickly crawled away, and Dan followed after some delay.

In pursuit of this prehensile creature, he dotted on its human characteristics before considering its non-human ones. In fact, its black lifeless eyes scared him deep inside. He both fascinated and horrified by both the physiology and the implications of this creature, and even as he chased it, neither aspect of his preoccupation swayed. Whatever it was, he would track it down and find it.

... but it appeared that Dan spoke too soon. Unfortunately, after a good ten minutes of following the sounds of this creature, only quiet inhabited the forest and Dan, almost disappointed, gathered himself and ambled his way back to his dorm.

Before he could grab the key to open the door out of his pocket, he shone the flashlight's ray into the view of a tree.

Almost as a taunt, the creature was behind the tree, smiling its convoluted smile with its sharp teeth. Its neck was slender and its head was narrow and ovular, so it kind of resembled a tadpole or a sperm.

The creature then disappeared, and as Dan finally fit the key in the lock, turning it and opening it, he thought h''ave I seen that thing before? as he stepped into his dorm and closed the door behind him.'

PART TWO

1979 - 1985

''Readers, it is 12:30 in the morning right now, and I'm afraid I'll have to finish this creepypasta tomorrow. Thus, expect the rest to be published on August 19, 2013. Sorry for this inconvenience, but a Prawn needs his sleep.''

Sincerely,

IdealisticPrawn