Sounds Weird Series

I never met anyone so much like him. He was someone that you only see in storybooks, and yet he changed our lives in ways you can't even imagine. Hell, I can barely believe it.

I only just moved to this town I'd never heard of before, only to find out that no one seems to be able to see it on the map, even though I'm pointing right at the name.

When I get here, and there is a worn down, hundred-year-old sign that ways "Welcome to--" the name was blocked out.

Mama and I turned left and drove down this road lined thickly with trees. I look behind us after we passed the sign, and even though we've been driving straight, I can't see the opening where we came in. The lights on either side of the road were actually hanging string lights, the kind you would see at outdoor dinner parties, and didn't begin until we were well inside the woods. If we had come at midnight instead of dusk, we would not have been able to see anything past our headlights for miles. At one point, while we were driving, I noticed something perched on one of the branches. Something large. Was it an owl? No, owls aren't black. Nor are they that size.

Finally, after driving for a while, we end up at the other end of the tunnel-like road, only to find a dock. There was nothing out past the peer's eerily ugly greenish pale lamplight but a foggy lake that only seemed to get foggier by the second, and more thick black forest surrounding it.

Then soon, we saw dim lights begin to peer through the fog.

Mama and I opened our car doors and stepped out of the car. As the the lights drifted closer, it looked like just two lights by themselves on the water, then a dark shadow appeared behind them that had no shape of any real kind, then the dark blob suddenly became rectangular, went from vapor to solid, and a barge appears.

"It, uh... must be a ferry for cars," Mama muttered shakily. She must've seen what I saw, because she sounded as uneasy as I felt. We both always had a sixth sense about things.

We both get back in the car and Mama puts the car in reverse, but doesn't move. As the barge slides eerily towards the peer, I get this jittery, anxious almost icy feeling in the pit of my stomach, and memories of a night I'd rather not remember flash in my mind as the peer at my old town started coming back to me. The barge hit the dock with a loud wooden thud, and immediately its gate opened and this man appeared out of the darkness.

He was dressed like he was from another time; almost in a circus/steampunk fashion, and when he saw into the car, gave Mama this look of shock. Why is he looking at Mama like that? I glance at her, and it looked like she was shaking her head in the most infinitesimal of small moves. Was she signaling him?

It was so dark behind him. With all the black trees thickly lining everything, it felt like an abyss. Where would he be taking us?

Suddenly, a giant heavy thud of the biggest owl I'd ever seen lands on the hood of the car. We both jumped and screamed. It was jet black from head to claw, it's fire-y amber eyes peering almost knowingly at us, first at me for a moment, then at Mama, and when it saw Mama it got closer, like it was trying to get a better look at her. I glanced over at Mama, and it may have just been the lighting, but she looked... kind of... guilty.

I said almost in a whisper, "Mama, I think we should go." I rested my hand on hers, which was still on the gear shift.

At that moment, with a low creak of the hood, the owl launched itself into flight, only to finally land perched on the man's shoulder, its head towering over his. This owl must've been at least four feet tall. From this distance they were mostly in shadow; Mom had turned off the lights for some reason. The owl lowered its head towards the man. They turned and looked at each other, and... it looked like they were talking. The man's silhouette turning at a glance in our direction only to return to talking to the owl. Then, the owl's silhouette turned and stared at us. It was really freaking me out.

"Mama," I hissed, "We need to go!"

Mama seemed a little distracted. "Huh? oh, uh, er- n-no. Um... I thin-- I think it'll be okay."

"What makes you so sure?"

The ferryman was slowly gesturing for us to come. This is just getting creepier and creepier.

"You didn't answer my question, Ma."

"Just... Just listen to me," was all she could manage to say.

"WELCOME!!!" screeched the ferryman. It startled us so badly that, to my surprise, I almost started laughing.

"COME ON!!! COME ON HOME!!"

And as he shouted that, beautiful bright lights to an huge entire town lit up across the lake.