There’s something in the preserve behind my apartment.

Not in a dramatic way. Not horror-movie obvious. It’s quieter than that.

It shows up in small disturbances. branches that shouldn’t move, the sound of something stepping where nothing should be, the way the air feels watched without ever proving it.

I walk out there sometimes just before it gets dark, when everything starts to blur at the edges. That’s when it feels closest. Not threatening. Just… aware.

I’ve tried to tell myself it’s just animals. Or the way sound travels. Or my brain filling in gaps it doesn’t like.

But there’s a difference between hearing something…

and feeling like something is hearing you back.

I don’t think it wants anything.

If anything, it feels like it’s just as curious as I am.

Like we’re both standing on opposite sides of something thin, pretending we don’t notice each other.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s been there longer than all of this. before the apartments, before the paths, before the fences that try to convince us this place belongs to us.

And sometimes, walking back inside, I get the strange feeling that I’m the one who doesn’t belong there Anymore I left that place and only return in the daylight now.

If you hear something out there tonight

just don’t look too hard. My camera caught that Florida Skunk Ape man 😂