Cats and Dogs

It’s raining cats and dogs again. Something’s not right in the air once again. There is this strange dry feeling hanging in the air. Almost as if static electricity is about to be unleashed all over the sky. My hair stands every time I stare out of the window and expect the next lightning bolt to come down from the heavens. The hairs stand not because of some sort of anomalous weather or particular fear of thunder or lightning. They stand up today because my mind keeps drifting towards a specific night. A strange stormy night just like today, where the air felt dry and weird.

I used to love hiking in the rain. When storm clouds darkened the sky, the light wasn’t bothering my eyes. Stormy weather differs from typical nights because no one wants to be outside when it rains, let alone when it pours. I enjoyed having the entire city to myself and my thoughts. I no longer do that because some things lurk in that special darkness. Some very… I don’t know if I should say dangerous but peculiar things. Think of a child walking around with a nuclear bomb in their hands and threatening to blow it up in front of you before shouting “psyche!” as you feel your heart sink into your ankles. That kind of thing lurks out on these weird stormy nights.

Allow me to explain. A few years ago, I was hiking on one of those days when it poured nonstop. The sky was dark; the streets were empty, and all traces of human activity ceased outdoors. Seemingly a perfect day for a recluse like me, except it wasn’t. It was painfully stifling, a dry feeling of hot tropic humidity in the middle of a winter storm. I could feel ionized air almost pricking at my face as I wandered the city. That entire day, my head was aching like crazy, probably because I’m sensitive to barometric pressure changes. Once my headache finally subsided, I went out.

I walked maybe fifteen minutes before something in my head pulsated. A swift sensation of something liquid pierced through my head. The headache returned with a vengeance. Groaning and rubbing my eyes in discomfort. I swear I could hear someone whistling behind me. When I turned around to find out what was behind me, there was no one there. I dismissed it as my imagination and continued walking. Hoping the headache would go away as the storm raged on. It didn’t.

Instead, I kept on hearing these whistles piercing the silence behind my back. Occasionally I turned around hoping to see who was it that was making these noises, but there was no one there. I ended up dismissing the noise as wind coursed through the narrow streets. The wind couldn’t explain what I saw when I crossed one alley in the rundown part of the city. A really deep canine growl emanating from the depths of the darkness. It sounded deeper than any dog I’ve ever heard before, almost like a thunderclap rolling nearly me.

The hairs on my body stood and chills ran down my skin as I peered down into the alley shrouded in darkness. A voice whispered into my ear. A single word that resonated through my entire body and the next few moments felt like an awful dream.

“Run”

The rain seemed to sip through my clothes and skin and into my organs as a chill gripped me from within. The growling sounds intensified and seemed to grow closer. Something seemed to walk out of the alley, something huge, based on the massive size of its shadow. The growling sounded just like thunder echoing repeatedly through the skies. I heard steps in the water, heavy steps.

“Run,” the voice whispered again from behind me.

A bear-like roar exploded out of the darkness. Without thinking, I bolted out of there, running as fast as I could. Whatever was in that alley was hot on my trail. I could hear its feet sloshing in the streams of rainwater. I didn’t dare to look back at first. The only thing I had in mind was getting away from this thing. No matter how fast I ran, or what kind of turn I took, the thing was right there. I could hear it always right behind me.

It trapped me in a mad game of Chase with some kind of monster, one whose roars sounded like thumber claps. It didn’t seem to tire out, unlike me. My legs were about to crack under the pressure, and my lungs were catching on fire. I felt myself slowing down. My ears were ringing with the sound of rainfall, repeated thunderclaps, and buzzing.

My vision had tunneled as I ran, my body was becoming weaker with each passing moment and the noise had only gotten louder. Whatever this thing was, it was closing in on me. Worse than that, I ran like a chicken without its head, not noticing I’d let myself run towards the seashore. Lightning shot into the sea, illuminating the sky in a bright purple shade, clearing my vision. I froze. There was nowhere left to go. The noise behind me was getting closer. The beast was right there. It was the end. I turned my back to the sea and looked at what was behind me.

The hairs on my body stood upright, and everything beneath the skin became petrified. My heartbeat pounded like drums in my ears as I stared in absolute terror at the swarm coming at me. A horde of titanic dogs made up of rainfall and gigantic cats made up entirely of electricity running at me. All rabid and single-mindedly locked on grabbing a bite of me.

Just as I thought it was the end of me, when the elemental animals were about to get me, a pillar of light shot down from the sky and struck the ground just between us. The impact had created a beautiful wall of light and water right in front of me. I covered my eyes for a moment because of how bright it was. High-pitched noise rang in my ears for a few seconds before the explosion started subsiding. It took me a while to see again. When my vision finally returned, I could see the bright figure of a person with wings made up of lighting standing in front of me. It slowly faded into nothingness as the wall of water behind it collapsed like a miniature tsunami all over me, drenching me.

I swear I could hear a faint laughter roll in the air, through the wall of noise that was my frantic heartbeat pounding in my head.

Ever since that day, I don’t go out when it rains cats and dogs and the air feels strangely dry. I doubt I’ll handle another odd encounter like that.